FILM AS COMMUNICATION MEDIUM: LITERATURE REVIEW ON U-WEI HAJI SAARI’S WORK

U-Wei Haji Saari uses film as a medium of communication to portray his ideas on the issues and culture of the Malay society. Up to 2017, U-Wei has directed six films namely, Perempuan, Isteri … (1993), Black Widow-Wajah Ayu (1994), Jogho (1999), Kaki Bakar (2001), Buai Laju-laju (2004) dan Hanyut (2012). His films have gained recognition at the national and international film festivals. In the field of Malay film studies, U-Wei’s films are often selected as research subject matters. The earliest writing on U-Wei’s film was authored by Lawrence Quek entitled, “P. I. …? Bicaranya…” in 1993. Meanwhile the latest article entitled, “Korpus Ilmu Filem-filem Arahan U-Wei Haji Saari” was published in 2017 and was authored by Nur Azliza Mohd Nor dan Nur Afifah Vanitha. Besides these two articles, there are ten articles other articles that had been published between 1993 and 2017. Hence this article intends to answer, “what are the subject, theoretical framework and findings of the previous literatures on U-Wei’s films?”. The findings of this article is derived from a qualitative research design, with content analysis as its main research instrument. The findings in this article are that various perspectives were applied to discuss U-Wei’s films, and the image of his female characters gained most attention. Thus, feminist theories were mostly applied as theoretical framework in previous literature as compared to other theories. Hence, the findings in this article provides current existing corpus knowledge on U-Wei’s films, specifically for Malay film scholars and for future researchers.