The Rape of Malaya

08/31/1959

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2hrs 0min

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History

,War

STORY

'Mata Hari' was Malay Film Productions’ second war movie based on the Japanese invasion of Malaya/Singapore in 1941-42, released a few months after the resounding success of Lamberto Avellana and P. Ramlee’s 'Sergeant Hassan'. Written by Abdul Razak (who did the scripts for the 'Pontianak' film series) and directed by the prolific Ramon Estella, the movie stars beauty queen Maria Menado (of Pontianak fame) as ‘Matahari’, the daughter of a kampong headman who is captured by the Japanese. She witnesses the atrocities committed by the invaders, who tortured her father to death and rounded up innocent women to become prostitutes and mistresses for their commanders. Not wanting to cower to the enemy, Matahari (which means the sun in Malay and was also the name of a real-life WWI German spy) decides to form and lead a guerrilla force to fight the Japanese.

CAST & CREW

    Cast

  • Maria Menado
  • Ahmad Mahmud
  • Salleh Kamil
  • Omar Rojik
  • Aziz Jaafar

    Director

  • Ramon A. Estella

INFORMATION

    Production Companies

    Production Countries

  • Malaysia

LANGUAGES

  • English
  • Malay