Written and directed by Amanda Nell Eu, an 11-year-old girl who is carefree until she starts to experience horrifying physical changes to her body. Starring: Zafreen Zairizal, Deena Ezral, Piqa, Shaheizy Sam, June Lojong, Khairunazwan Rodzy and Fatimah Abu Bakar.
You can easily follow the thought process that would lead to translating the experience of coming of age as a woman through what is basically body horror. It absolutely makes sense but whether it works is a different question and unfortunately, the two don’t always feel like a great fit. Part of that is because the balance makes the horror side of things feel fairly unjustified. The writing spends so much time on the familiar bullying, spiteful, gossiping side of things, that when it does bring through this unusual, fierce, violent side, the two are at odds.
The style of its evolution feels reminiscent of the recent The Animal Kingdom, the way that Zaffan (Zafreen Zairizal) changes and it could have been very interesting, had it taken a bigger lead. The same can be said of the way that it explores the oppression of these young women, and how they can themselves end up perpetuating the patriarchy through how they’re brought up. It’s a poignant topic that gets mixed up and lost among the horror.
Visually, it’s quite mixed as well, the use of effects is not well done, and it has a tendency to use a lot of phone camera style footage which doesn’t have anything to add. It’s a shame as the cinematography outside of that captures the youthfulness and colour of their environment. As well as Amanda Nell Eu’s otherwise being strong, you can feel that attempt to build an impactful, tense and on-edge atmosphere, and for the most part it does work.
Although, one element you can’t fault is the performances of the young actresses. Each and every one of them does a great job, and Zafreen Zairizal leads the way with a surprisingly forceful presence. There’s genuinely no weak link among them, and when you’re working with such a plot that goes off the traditional path, you’d expect a little struggle here and there to keep composure and a convincing nature and yet, there’s none to be found.
Amanda Nell Eu had a very interesting and exceptionally original idea with Tiger Stripes but the concept feels stronger than the execution. Everything isn’t quite balanced to go in the same direction, it’s pulling itself down two paths and not doing justice to either of them. It’s a shame as it is such a vital, important topic and there was the potential to explore it in an eye-opening, unusual way but it falls short.
FilmCarnage.com 