RIFLE RANGE BOY

Judgement at Nuremberg (1961) As our country comes to a crossroad, and many uncertainties have to be thrashed out so that history would not judge us in a bad light, it is always good to look back at history. Even though inevitable, we do not to want history to repeat itself. Many of the dialogues in this film cut through incisively like a knife. The topics argued here about race and masterly inactivity by the people in authority are relevant today as it were 80 years ago. It is worth a watch, albeit its 3 hour speech filled presentation. This film narrates the military trial in Nuremberg of 4 civilians who served in Nazi Germany. The accused are Emil Hahn (prosecutor), Frederich Hoffstetter, Warren Lemmpe and Ernst Janning (a reputable authority in law and Minister of Law, acted brilliantly by Burt Lancaster.) The trial is presided by a tribunal panel of 3 where the head is Judge Harewood (Spencer Tracy). He is actually given the job as nobody else wanted it and was just a small t...

Mohammed Bin Tughlaq (1971) Story, Director, Actor: Cho Ramaswamy   For the records, there indeed was a king in flesh and blood in the line of Delhi Sultanate by this name. He is reputed to have moved his capital from the North to the Deccan. He is said to be a liberal king who introduced some new coins and spread Urdu to the Deccans. No, this is not a historical offering but rather a politico-social satire and a full length comedy that pokes fun at the ridiculousness of the behaviour of the politicians and the gullibility of the citizens who vote them to power. As it is Cho's comedy, the jokes are clean. He pokes fun through cleverly word play and on the animalistic social behaviour of people. My first exposure to this film was through the song 'Allah Allah' which used to be heard in the 70s radio waves during the RRF days (listen below). This film is acted by mostly unknowns. The familiar faces here beside Cho are Manorama and a cameo presentation by Vennira Adai Mu...

http://www.cameronhighlandsinfo.com/jim_thompson/ History Of Jim Thompson "Absolute mysteries only improve with age" writes William Warren, author of Jim Thompson: The Unsolved Mystery, "and there can have been few as absolute as Thompson's has proved to be." His skills as a designer and textile colourist were soon noted by fashion editors and, when the cast of the musical, The King and I, wore Thompson's creations, his silk empire was off and spinning. Most visitors to the Cameron Highlands head off for a walk along one of the many forest trails to enjoy the scenery and the refreshingly cool mountain air. Most return to relax in front of a log fire in one of several resorts located in the former colonial hill station made popular by heat-fatigued colonialists who headed up to the cooler Malaysian highlands for some cool relief from the heat and humidity of the lowlands. Very few walkers don't return. The most celebrated trekker who didn't...

Hanyo (Housemaid, Korean; 1960) Back in RRF, my sister and I used to enjoy Hong Kong drama black and white films of the 1960s with modern story-line of suspense, crime and murder. Well, this one reminded me of one of those, with its characters donning 1960s Western attire and hairstyles, loud background music infused with electric guitar and percussion and a whiff of melodramatic overacting. This 1960s Korean classic was recently rediscovered, and a remake was made in 2010 , although the storyline is somehow altered. Here, the suspense component is kept very much alive throughout the movie without overtly being gory. The characters kept their attire intact but still allured their appeal! Kim is a happily married family man who is conducting a singing class for factory girls. He is quite a hit with the girls despite his serious external appearance. A young girl, Kwak, actually went into depression and subsequently died when she was humiliated for writing a love letter to him. ...

Anand Kumar and his students My brother from a different father and mother sent me a mail recently about a certain Mathematics tutor from Patna, Bihar, who would tutor students pro bono for them to pass the coveted Indian Institute of Technology entrance examinations. He hand picks a group of 30, motivates them, arranges hostel facilities, cooks healthy meals and literally drills them day and night to achieve 100% pass rate. The students swarms in from remote and impoverished regions of the land to slog it out for about 7 months with the sole intention of passing the test. A pass, to them, is the panacea of their woes. A rewarding career and perhaps a post in a multinational company or even an overseas posting is a sure way to uplift their living conditions and their immediate loved ones.  The spill over effect can be seen even to the relatives whose background and caste is irrelevant anymore. I can relate to the hopeful eyes of the illiterate parents who put all their ...

The Housemaid (Korean; 1990) Just like in the many fields that they have leapt in bounds, the automobile, telecommunication, sport fields, the Koreans have managed to strike a recognition in show business. Their all boy and all girl bands rule the music scene. (Not to forget Psy and the tele novellas). This film is a remake of a 1960 one with the same name. If you want to watch a melodrama where everyone (except a child) is cast in a negative light with devious thoughts in their mind, this is it. In some way, it reminds you of any of the tele-serials that is very popular in TV now. Whatever it is, it managed to grip the viewers' attention ala Hitchcockian style, make viewers wonder what is up next. How it ends totally put you off guard! A 20 something girl, Eun-yi, who works as a restaurant helper takes an offer to work as housemaid in an obnoxiously rich household to take care of a young child in anticipation of the arrival of a pair of twins in the family. The lady of the h...

In a silly internet poll recently, it showed that my personality is that of an influential person! Influential? Even with the sinuses clogged with phlegm of influenza and my thinking faculty clouded, I still describe myself of anything but influential. Firstly, I am quite lethargic of influencing anybody of anything which makes me a poor salesman, a visionary dictator or industrialist who would transform the world we live in. I am also not influential enough to move mountains or 'arrange things' with my contacts like a chess master moving his pawns. On the contrary, I visualise myself as one easily influenced (fall prey to/suckered) to others' sob stories. I like to think that I can be such a good role model that I can influence others to path of glory! Maybe that is wishful thinking. And you think you know everything and about anything. Just the local leaders and foreign think tanks who basically hoodwinked the world into thinking they were in grasp to all the informa...

Deep inside us, all of us know that this piece of cloth is the one that binds us together to maintain peace and harmony so that all of us can do our own things without any fear. We also know that this cloth, in spite of being just a piece of cloth, is no ordinary piece of fabric. It is the testimony of our sovereign nation. It is the same piece of material when hoisted upon being raised after winning a medal brings a tear or two to the eye of every true blue Malaysian. Scenes like these, the national flag in various states of neglect and disrespect are common sights these days. What was hoisted in Merdeka month last year is left to weather the elements of nature all through the monsoon months, and this is what you get... A faded Jalur Gemilang flying majestically as its threads tatter away in shreds. So, what are you going to do about as a loyal citizen? Are you going to make a citizen's arrest or just look the other way? Watching the number of mad people working around amongs...

To Joy (Till glädje, Swedish; 1950) Director: Ingrid Bergman One of Bergman's early offerings, good nevertheless. Here it is not about the silence of Creator but rather of the complicated dynamics of family life, specifically man and wife and its complexities. The film starts with a violinist being interrupted from performing when an important phone call comes in. The call is for Stig. He receives a rather bad news about the death of his wife in a kitchen accident. The story goes back to 7 years previously... A rather timid man, Stig, is a violinist in a philharmonic orchestra. He soon develops feelings for the only female violinist, Martha, in the group. Even though there were other suitors, Martha decides to settle down with Stig for his simplicity and straightforwardness. Stig has big plans for his career, being a soloist and playing in Stockholm. Unfortunately, his skills do not match his ambitions. One by one, things happen and the young man is more disheartened. Mart...

I heard of a theory put forward by a psychologist recently that we are all born evil! Deep inside we are born, not as clean slate but as a chalice of evil overflowing through our every orifices. Of course these helplessly cute tots are not able to perform any of their evil deeds because of the sheer size and incoordination. The psychologist, however, propose that upbringing is the one that modifies these literally 'inner demons' to be doing things acceptable in the society. The caregivers guide us through our daily guidances to mould us to be useful members of the society, to conform to what is accepted as norm. The social etiquette and logical reciprocal course of reaction to any action is engrained into us through repetitive conditioning. This Pavlovian reaction helps to maintain sanity and ensures that even the weak and downtrodden get their place in the sun. Come a moment of desperation, a mob, famine or pain, these inner demons will come to fore. They will be exposed in ...

Rashitha Abdul Hamid http://www.theantdaily.com/Hot-Topics/35-year-old-murder-mystery-The-killing-of-a-beauty-queen-Part-1/ ; Part 2 KUALA LUMPUR: It had all the ingredients of a sensational murder case: a former beauty queen, a love triangle and a fatal stabbing in a parked car. All these came to a head on the night of April 6, 1979, in a secluded underpass off the Federal Highway. This is the Jean Perera Sinnappa murder, one that probably stands out among all others for its news value, and which would probably have been investigated quite differently by today’s forensics technology. But even today, those who followed the case still wonder whether the accused, S. Karthigesu, who was convicted but was later freed, actually did it. Interestingly, all Malaysians connected directly to the case have passed on, except for Karthigesu and the investigating officer Datuk Ramli Yusuff. “They are all dead; the judge, members of the jury, the prosecuting officer. Only Karthigesu and I a...

Dokumentari  : Jean Perera The Beauty Queen Murder  http://www.finas.gov.my/index.phpmod=vgallery&sub=video&category=5&album=25

Thanks SK for the contribution. The bygone era can only live in our memories. Oh, how we yearn for good old days to come back again. The reality is that it would not. The best we can do is to savour the joy of today so that when tomorrow comes and only memories of today are in our mind, we can tell ourselves that we lived yesterday to the fullest. Other alternative? Keep brooding for yesterday and for today which would be tomorrow's yesterday..... Wong Peng Soon was our favourite badminton player Ghani Minat was our favourite soccer hero Rose Chan was our favourite entertainer. You are not cool if you do not have a long side burn, greasy hair (held together by Brylcream) with a floppy "bun" infront. Then you are either an Elvis fan or a Cliff (Richard) fan. You cannot be neutral. Films by P Ramlee always enjoyed by all Malaysians. How can we forget classics like Do-Re-Mi and Bujang Lapok, and seeing P Ramlee dueting with Saloma on "Gelora...

Blue Is the Warmest Colour (a.k.a La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2; French) Screenplay & Direction: Abdellatif Kechiche  Pubescent girls in the third world are struggling with being able to attend classes, trying to release themselves from forced arranged child marriages, starvation and malnutrition, being victimised as persona non grata by medieval man made laws and suppressive traditions. Here, in the modern French society they have long ago encountered, survived and successfully left these worries to rot in their past. Even then, man being man, are still dogged with other problems. This multiple award winning French film, made by a Tunisian born French director had been lambasted the world by subordinates and film critiques; the subordinates over working conditions - but once the film started collecting accolades, they relented; the critiques for its overtly graphic depiction of acts of passion. Having surpassed all their third world counterparts' woes, Frenc...

Body and Soul (1947) Before there was Raging Bull, Champ and Rocky series, there was 'Body and Soul'. It was played fantastically by John Garfield, the darling of the noirs and the pioneer of anti-heroes. Besides Garfield's acting, the film is also commendable for its then advanced technique of filming of a live event, which set the mood well for the final clash. We get a glimpse of William Conrad, who used to be famous in Malaysian TV in the 70s for the fat PI 'Cannon' and 'Jake and the Fatman' in the 90s, here thinner. Even though the movie appears to be depicting the evils of the world of boxing, betting and how it is controlled by the mob, deep below the surface, it takes a swipe at the evils of capitalism. It shows how the lure of money clouds the mind of the young who feels that acquiring wealth is testimony of doing well in life. One fails to see the devastation done in the process of doing so, the heartaches, the broken hearts and morality los...