Bunohan: Return to Murder

In Bunohan, a rural town in Kelantan near the Thai border, the film centers on the Pok Eng family. Pok Eng (Wan Hanafi Su) is a once-renowned shadow-play puppeteer who has fallen on hard times after the local Islamist state government bans the performances. His first wife Mek Yah (Tengku Azura) bore him the eldest son Ilham (Faizal Hussein); following their divorce, Ilham leaves home. Pok Eng later remarries Mek Na, and through this second marriage he has the middle son Bakar (Pekin Ibrahim) and the rebellious Adil (Zahiril Adzim). The family’s roots lie in Bunohan, a rural town in Kelantan near the Thai border, where old loyalties and land still shape every decision.

Five years later, the youngest, Adil (Zahiril Adzim), has become a debt-ridden young kick-boxer who descends into desperation. In a bid to escape his financial troubles, he agrees to an illegal high-stakes death match at a boxing club across the border. In the middle of the brutal bout, his best friend Muski (Amerul Affendi) bursts into the ring and pulls him away, driving both of them back toward Bunohan. During their return, Adil’s nerves threaten to falter, and he begins to hallucinate about a vaguely familiar woman, only to be rescued by Muski from getting lost in the dunes of memory and fear.

Back in town, the middle brother Bakar returns from a comfortable life in Klang Valley under the pretense of looking after his ailing father, but his real motive is greed. He seeks to coerce their father into selling the family land to a large Kuala Lumpur corporation for a fortune, driven by a keen intellect and ambition that clashes with the family’s long-standing pride. Their father resists, reminding him that some pieces of land carry more than money. Bakar’s schemes threaten to fracture the family’s legacy and reputation within their community.

Into this simmering tension steps Deng (Bront Palarae), one of the organizers of the Thai fight circuit, who sends Ilham (Faizal Hussein) back to Bunohan as a ruthless hired killer seeking to pin a message on Adil and deter other fighters. Ilham’s return stirs old memories of abandonment and loneliness; when he reconnects with an old friend, Jing (Jimmy Lor), he learns that he and Adil are actually half-brothers. While tracing his mother’s grave on a piece of land near the beach, Ilham wrestles with his own loyalty and the stark truth that his father’s new family intends to sell the land out from under them.

The land around the village becomes a battleground of loyalties. Part of it houses Pok Wah’s fight club, a space hallowed by Adil’s mother, who taught him traditional medicines before handing the land over. Awang Sonar (Soffi Jikan) owes Bakar a debt, and Jolok (Hushairi Husain) offers to clear that debt in exchange for a share of the land. The two men organize a brutal confrontation, pressing Adil into a match against a local fighter from the Bachok District. Adil wins, but the night’s bloodshed is far from over, and the debt still gnaws at the village.

Ilham and Adil finally come face to face on their father’s land, where Ilham nearly kills his brother but is restrained by Pok Wah (Namron) and Jing. In the course of caring for the wounded, Pok Wah and Jing reveal a startling truth: Adil is not born to Mek Na as many believe. He is, in fact, a son of Pok Eng and Mek Yah, making him an illegitimate but undeniably local product of both sides of the family. This revelation reframes Adil’s place in the family and gives him a new sense of belonging, even as he contemplates a return to his father’s home for good after one last fight to secure the family’s land and debts.

As tensions escalate, the village witnesses spiritual signs. Mek Na’s presence resurfaces as a guiding force, appearing as a guardian of the land to Pok Eng and urging him to join her, a call he refuses, insisting he must finish guiding and raising his sons before he can consider anything beyond the earthly world they inhabit. The question of duty versus desire sits at the heart of his choice.

In the lead-up to the final showdown, Bakar meets Muski to secure a fight that will help pay off his mother’s medical bills, while Jolok rigs the match by poisoning Adil’s medication. In a cruel twist, Muski ends up killing his closest friend in the ring, an act that shakes the foundation of Bunohan’s fragile loyalties. All the while, the village’s people gather for the big fight as Pok Wah conducts a cleansing ritual to ward off malevolent spirits, a ritual that starkly contrasts with Jolok’s ruthless capitalism.

Meanwhile, Ilham confronts Peng, who has come to the village with the intention of pressing the situation further. Ilham pleads for his brother’s life, but Peng refuses to relinquish Adil. In a tense confrontation, Peng stabs Ilham and leaves him to die in the swamp, a hopeless end to a brother’s quest for belonging and forgiveness.

With the father and both half-brothers dead, Bakar consolidates control over the family land and, in a final, chilling shot, the film shows a board announcing the development of a new holiday resort on the land that was once in the family’s hands. The landscape bears witness to a community caught between tradition and modern development, where loyalties stretch across generations and where the human cost of greed and ambition is paid in blood, memory, and the ever-shifting meaning of home.

Last Updated: October 01, 2025 at 12:55