- A complex story of murder, passion and haunting memories for three estranged brothers and their ailing father.
- Adil, a young Muay Thai kick-boxer, has just fled an honor fight-to-the-death. Ilham, an assassin who is also Adil's stepbrother, is promptly hired by the organizer of the death match to kill the fugitive. Looking for somewhere to hide and recover, Adil and a childhood friend take shelter in the Bunohan boxing club where Adil started his career. Ilham, meanwhile, has never been back to Bunohan since the day he left many years ago. Upon returning, memories of loneliness and abandonment flood his mind, and he experiences waves of resentment and regret. Bakar, the third brother, has also come home from the city; ostensibly a respectful schoolteacher, he is in reality a greedy and ruthless person, and is trying to convince his father to sell a burial ground to a construction company.—TIFF
- The film primarily revolves around the family of Pok Eng (Wan Hanafi Su), a once renowned shadow play puppeteer who has gone out of business following the banning of the performance by the local Islamist state government. He was first married to a mysterious woman known as Mek Yah (Tengku Azura) who he was pressured to divorce because of her unorthodox ways. She bore him his eldest son, llham (Faizal Hussein) who left home at a very young age following his parents' divorce. Pok Eng then remarried, this time to a woman from the city named Mek Na, who he is now separated from and has since returned to the city. Through his second wife, Pok Eng had his middle son, college professor Bakar (Pekin Ibrahim) and the rebellious Adil (Zahiril Adzim), whom his own mother despises for unknown reasons. The family's hometown is in the rural Malaysian town of Bunohan in Kelantan, which is located close to the Thai border.
The story begins with the youngest brother Adil, who is now a young kick-boxer since leaving home five years ago. He has fallen deeply into debt, with little hope of paying his creditors honestly. In desperation, he agrees to an illegal high-stakes death match at a boxing club on the other side of the border. In the midst of the fight, with Adil losing badly, his best friend Muski (Amerul Affendi) bursts into the ring and breaks up the match, dragging Adil away. Adil and Muski return to Bunohan, where Adil was born and raised. They take refuge at the swamp of Pok Wah (Nam Ron), the owner of the local fight club and Aidil's former mentor. During their journey, Aidil almost gets lost while hallucinating about a familiar looking woman but is quickly rescued by Muski.
Meanwhile, the middle brother, Bakar returns to Bunohan from his comfortable upper-middle class life in Klang Valley on the pretense of looking after his ailing father. In reality, he has plans to manipulate his father into selling their family's land to a large business corporation from Kuala Lumpur for a huge amount of money. Although he is the most successful and educated of his brothers, he is also the greediest. His father refuses to give him their land since he had already received his share and lost it in his previous business ventures. Regardless, Bakar is determined to claim ownership of his family's remaining land, and has plans that will bring disrespect to his family and community.
At the same time, Peng (Bront Palarae), one of the organizers of the fight in Thailand, sends Ilham, who is now a ruthless hired killer, to find and execute Adil to set an example for their other fighters. Ilham reluctantly goes to Bunohan, which he left many years ago after his estranged father divorced his mother. Upon returning, memories of loneliness and abandonment flood his mind, and he experiences waves of resentment and regret. As Ilham narrows his focus on his target, he learns from an old friend, Jing (Jimmy Lor) that he and the fugitive boxer are actually half-brothers. He then finds his mother's grave in a piece of land near the beach and starts digging for her remains to give her a proper burial. However, he later finds out that his father's new family is planning to sell the land and he goes all out to prevent this from happening.
When Bakar learns that Aidil is also back in town, he becomes nervous since he fears his younger brother will come to claim his share of the land. Jolok (Hushairy Hussain), the local don agrees to help Bakar steal the land as long as they can become business partners. Bakar arranges for Jolok to visit his father with a business proposition, all while pretending to not know the man. However, the father knows Jolok's real intentions and sends him away, claiming the land is merely in his name but is not actually his. Regardless, Bakar hires local thugs to dig out the graves. Ilham follows the thugs into the swamp and kills them, but is injured in the process. He is then rescued by the same woman Aidil encountered earlier in his hallucinations.
Part of the land is now the site of Pok Wah's fight club, who received it from Aidil's mother while she taught him traditional medicines. Awang Sonar (Soffi Jikan), who is Pok Wah's partner owes Bakar money. Jolok pays of Awang's debts and now Awang has to repay him with the land. They then organize a match with Aidil against a fighter from Bachok District. Aidil wins the match easily but the money is still not enough to repay Awang's debt.
Ilham and Aidil finally come face to face on their father's land. Ilham almost kills his own brother, albeit reluctantly, but is stopped by Pok Wah. While helping them recover from their fight, Pok Wah and Jing reveal that Aidil is not born to Mek Na like what everyone believes. Instead, he was born to both Pok Eng and Mek Yah after their divorce, making him an illegitimate child. Finally realizing why Mek Na despised him, he promises to return home to his father for good after one last fight to help Pok Wah and Awang pay off their debts to Jolok and Bakar. Meanwhile, Pok Eng is visited by the spirit lady that appeared before both Aidil and Ilham before. She turns out to be their mother, Mek Na, who is now a guardian of the land. She asks Pok Eng to come with her, but he refuses, saying that he is not done raising their sons properly and only can come once his duty is completed.
Before the final fight, Bakar goes to meet Muski and pays him to fight Aidil by promising to pay off his sick mother's medical bills. At the same time, Jolok rigs the match by putting poison into Aidil's medication. During the fifth, Muski unwittingly kills his own best friend in the ring. Meanwhile, while the entire village is at the boxing match, Pok Wah is conducting a cleansing ritual in his land to ward off evil spirits. Bakar shows up uninvited and murders his own father in cold blood. At the same time, Ilham confronts Peng, who has come to the village, and asks him to let his brother go. Unwilling to let Aidil live, Peng stabs Ilham and lives him to die at the swamp.
With his father and half-brothers now dead, Bakar has full control of his family's land. The film ends with a shot of board proclaiming the development of a new holiday resort on the land that was once owned by the family.
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By what name was Bunohan: Return to Murder (2011) officially released in Canada in English?
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