‘Abang Adik’ creating buzz, tops list of 30 Best Asean Movies of 2023

Dilemma of the siblings: Malaysian film ‘Abang Adik’ dominated Taiwan’s box office in its debut weekend.

Compiled by BEH YUEN HUI, MAHADHIR MONIHULDIN and R. ARAVINTHAN

ACCLAIMED Malaysian film Abang Adik has taken in RM3mil at the box office, 12 days after it hit local cinemas, Sin Chew Daily reported.

“Malaysia, we did it! RM3mil box office in 12 days! Best gift ever,” the team behind the movie announced on Facebook on Tuesday.

The movie by Jin Ong also topped the list of 30 Best Asean Movies of 2023 by asianmoviepulse.com.

The other Malaysian films that made it to the list are Snow in Midsummer by Chong Keat Aun (second place), Tiger Stripes by Amanda Nell Eu (eighth), Coast Guard Malaysia: Ops Helang by Pitt Hanif (22nd), Maryam by Badrul Hisham Ismail (27th) and MOP by Joon Goh (28th).

Abang Adik (Elder Brother, Younger Brother in Malay) centres on two Malaysia-born men who do not have proper identification documents.

As a result, they have difficulties finding decent jobs and have to stay hidden from Immigration officers.

The movie clinched three awards at Italy’s Far East Film Festival.

One of its stars, Taiwanese actor Wu Kang-ren, won Best Actor at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.

> China Press reported that a Chinese woman has had three children in her 16 years of marriage, but none of the kids is her husband’s.

This was exposed after her husband Chen Shixian (not his real name) spotted her at a hotel with another man.

Suspicious over the children’s identities, he did a DNA test on them and was shocked to find that the kids were born of different fathers. He filed a civil lawsuit against the wife at a court in Jiangxi province. He also posted about it on social media.

“In the past, no matter how tiring or how difficult life was, I strived to work hard for the sake of my family and children, but all the good memories were just a dream,” he said.

He said the children have been put up with his parents-in-law, adding he had yet to find out the identity of their fathers.

He said he hoped the fathers would come forward and take the responsibility for their own kids.

A local daily reported that Chen was a truck driver, who spent most of his time on the road. He used to only return home a few times in a month.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.