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Steel Orchid

The Lady 2011
<em>The Lady</em>.In every lifetime will live amongst us icons who will only be appreciated after their demise. A lady still in flesh and blood who fits this icon in present life who is fondly referred to as the female Mandela and Steel Orchid is the 'The Lady' depicted in this film.
The movie does not offer anything more than what we already know about Aung San Suu Kyi and her quest for democracy for Burma. It explores more of the relationship between her and her husband as well as her two boys.
A family portrait, with Aung San Suu Kyi
(in white) as a toddler, taken in 1947
shortly before her father's assassination.
In 1947, her father is General Aung San is assassinated in Rangoon. Fast forward Suu Kyi returns home to see her stroke inflicted mother and is drawn into the politics of the day. One thing leads to another and she is under house arrest and the family (the husband and sons) are separated for years. It shows the passion and support exhibited by the family to fulfil 'The Lady's insatiable effort to continue her father's dream to pave democracy for the people of Burma. For this effort, she had to give up being with the sons during their growing years and even miss being with the love of her life in his dying days with prostatic cancer. The most touching part of the movie was she was conferred the Nobel Prize for Peace in absentia and how his elder son gave a speech followed by a symphony recital of Pacelbel's Canon in D.
Overall, Michelle Yeoh (our Malaysian ambassador in Hollywood) did a good job in term portraying a modern icon with her mannerism and giving speeches in Burmese (she learnt it) but somehow the film failed to make quite an everlasting impression to attain that high status in my collection of classic films.
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