Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Netflix has long been one of the best platforms to view films from around the world, and with All Because of You – also known as Pasal Kau! – they have broken new ground. The first Malaysian film on the streaming service, the goofy romantic comedy stars Malaysian entertainment mainstays like Hairul Azreen, Janna Nick, and Amerul Affendi. We’re here to let you know if it’s worth a place in your queue, or if you’re better off saving the space for something else.
ALL BECAUSE OF YOU: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: Reportedly inspired by some of actor Hairul Azreen’s experiences working in hotels, All Because of You chronicles the lives of a group of luxury hotel employees and their daily shenanigans. Kitchen worker Jane (Janna Nick) pines for goofy coworker Aiman (Azreen) from afar, but constantly finds herself interrupted by hapless colleagues like Parjo (Amerul Affendi), hotel lifeguards, concierge, and even their boss when she tries to confess her love to him. Aiman is an oblivious idiot, immediately falling for an influencer named Sofia who comes to stay at the hotel and once again missing every single signal sent to him by Jane. Even after she finally gets the chance to confess to him.
All this messy love stuff would be one thing, but the film takes a serious turn when three armed terrorists take a powerful guest hostage and Jane gets sucked into it when she barges into the wrong room at the wrong time. To stop things from escalating past the point of no return, Aiman and his colleagues must band together to take down the terrorists and save Jane. A wacky rom-com, action/adventure hybrid, All Because of You is a story all its own.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The action-romance combo may bring to mind some incredibly-average-to-bad flicks like Killers, This Means War, and The Bounty Hunter, but the truth is, All Because of You is so *out there* that it exists in a category all its own.
Performance Worth Watching: Janna Nick’s performance as Jane is pretty much one of the film’s only redeeming qualities. Out of all the characters in All Because of You, Jane feels the most lived in. She’s easy to root for and connect to on an emotional level, while the rest of the performers in the film seem to be doing some kind of caricature.
Memorable Dialogue: There wasn’t much that stuck out to me (a lot of the jokes are incredibly sophomoric), but I admittedly chuckled at the recurring joke from the staff’s English lessons. When trying to teach them how to take an order in English, Aiman says “Can I take your order, woman?” instead of “ma’am”. The lost in translation bit worked, if only for a moment.
Sex & Skin: There’s plenty of skin to be had here; shirtless lifeguards, hotel guests in swimsuits, you name it. For being a rom-com, though, there isn’t much sexiness.
Our Take: All Because of You is a strange movie, one that never quite understands itself or allows us to understand it, either. It might have been an entertaining workplace comedy/rom-com and even made the action work had it not attempted to juggle so many stories at once, but instead, it seems to lose its way in every scene, spending too much time with characters who don’t particularly matter, and engaging in tired jokes that don’t work the first or fifth time they’re used. It is such a jumbled mess, a puzzling collage of many things that don’t match in the least. Unfortunately, All Because of You believes it is so funny that it never gives the audience a chance to laugh, and frankly, there’s not much to laugh at. Most of the gags utilized are either dumb (the fart jokes), tired and rude (fat jokes), or straight-up racist (Aiman lusting after a girl with skin so fair she “turns red when slapped”). It’s hard to believe this was a movie made in the last five years, let alone 2020.
The offensive, ineffective comedy is just one bullet point on a long list of reasons why All Because of You does not work; the motivations for pretty much everything that goes down in the film are murky from the get-go, and most of the characters lack many (if any) redeeming qualities. Why on earth would a catch like Jane wait around for an idiot like Aiman? He treats her like garbage and is generally a fool, leaving us without a couple to root for – the crux of any good rom-com. How are we supposed to get invested if we don’t even want the two romantic leads to end up together?
I wanted to like the unabashed wackiness of it all, the strange editing choices and tonal inconsistencies, but All Because of You is so incoherent that it doesn’t leave you with much to like at all. I found myself cringing during many scenes, if only because the dialogue and exchanges were so poorly written and directed. The talent of the cast is there – they really could have made something fun had they embraced this goofy group and utilized them properly – but instead, they all end up running around with meaningless storylines, distracting from any semblance of an intelligible plot. What a mess.
Our Call: SKIP IT. The body-shaming, colorism, and homophobic jokes combined with an aimless, nonsensical plot do not make for a film worth watching. If you’re in the mood for a solid foreign-language film or action rom-com, Netflix has plenty of other offerings.
Jade Budowski is a freelance writer with a knack for ruining punchlines and harboring dad-aged celebrity crushes. Follow her on Twitter: @jadebudowski.
