Love overcomes?

May December (2023)
Director: Todd Haynes

A May-December marriage is between two people with a wide age gap. May refers to the proverbial spring (of life), while December refers to late autumn or winter.

The story is based on the 1997 infamous case of Mary Kay Letourneau, an elementary school teacher in Washington, aged 34, who had sexual relations with her 12-year-old student, Villi Fualaau. She was charged with rape. She delivered a love child during the trials. She was later imprisoned for breaking a plea agreement. After her release, the teacher and student married in 2005 and went on to have a set of twins. Mary already had four children when she was teaching Villi. She was having troubles in her marriage and was diagnosed as having bipolar disease. Both Villi and Mary justified their actions as acts of love.

This film revisits the Mary Kay-Fualaau family in 2015. The timeline is out here. The couple has three kids, including a pair of twins. An actress, Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), who is to play Mary's part (Gracie in the film, Julianne Moore), drops in the household to get a feel of things to play the role. At the end of the day, the viewers get more than what they bargained for. It tries to dive into the family dynamics as their second born (the twins) graduates from high school. Elizabeth tries to do more than is needed. She tries to interview Gracie's immediate family and ex-husband to get a composite picture of what made Gracie and Joe (Villi's part) get together. She also tries to evaluate the family dynamics.

What we gather is a domineering, control-freak kind of a wife who wants to have the final say in everything. She creates an aura of calmness and a business-as-usual atmosphere at home. In reality, at best, she is passive-aggressive in getting things done. She is disliked by many and is a registered sex offender. She continues receiving hate mail. People boycott her. Joe, on the other hand, appears unsure about everything. He is a passive member of the family. It seems like he has had arrested development, missing all the late teenager's years of exposure. If we remember, he was burdened with father's duty at 13. As the movie progresses, we can see that Joe has second thoughts about the arrangement but lingers on for the children's sake, not wanting to be the cause of their psychological well-being. In real life, Villi and Mary Kay divorced in 2019.

The actress Elizabeth, on the other hand, is no saint either. She uses her unique position and feminine charm to extract all she needs from people around here, including bedding Joe, for her career advancement.

An interview with a Tamil actor still at the height of his career and has a late teenage son comes to mind. When asked about the pros of marrying early, he replied that one's life is more malleable when young. Marrying young gets one to mould himself to fit the demands of the new family. Delaying one's marriage to a later makes one develop routines and idiosyncrasies that are challenging to shake off, quickly creating friction. I disagree with that statement. Getting committed at a tender age to the whims and fancies of the raging hormones, ill-prepared for the challenges of family life can be disastrous, too. The appreciation of the wedding institution and the willingness to uphold it at all expense would ensure success. 

Bending the minds towards one particular narrative would ensure the continuity of the status quo. Some call this 'Peace on Earth'; others call it the domination of the elitists. When the mind becomes inquisitive and screams to break free, they call it a revolution, which can be 'Hell on Earth'!

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Without mercy, man is like a beast

Sansho the Bailiff (山椒大夫, Japanese; 1954)
Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

At the outset, we are told the story occurred in "an era when mankind had not yet awakened as human beings." I pictured that time can any time in Man's history. We just have yet to awaken. We can scream all we want that all Men are created equal in the image of God and whatnot, but the fact is that people always try to dominate each other. Humans always try to be one up against their neighbour and, if possible, push him down an imaginary hierarchy.

Even before the mass transatlantic migration of slaves from Africa to the New World, slavery was already very much alive in every civilisation. There was a penchant for white slaves as brown people (read Arabic) prospered. The Vikings and Barbers were famous for the trade of white slaves. Some were captured crew members of small ship-jacked vessels. Others were bundled up when pirates landed on shores to snap up unassuming bystanders. There are stories of pirates picking men off English coasts at late as the 16th century.

Malik Ambar

Even within communities, having slaves became a norm as society started having more disposable income. The darker-skinned or the economically disadvanced always get trapped in slavery. As spoils of war, the conquered are enslaved. One can safely say all civilisations had some kind of slave community. The Greeks, the Egyptians, the Muslim Empire, the Indians and the European colonial masters all had them. Perhaps, only the Harrapan society escape such stereotyping. Excavation of Harrapan remains revealed no structures denying hierarchical arrangements in their architecture. Cyrus the Great is said to be the first leader to have given his slaves and workers wages.

History tells of an Ethiopian slave, Malik Ambar, who was sold off as a slave after his territory was conquered by enemy factions and landed in Jeddah. He converted to Islam and reached the Deccan plains as a slave soldier/mercenary. He got embroiled in local politics,  was a threat to the Mughal Empire and eventually became the Ahmadnagar Sultanate's ruler. His descendants integrated into the complex Indian diaspora. 

Domestic helper abuse in Malaysia.

As the world progressed, people looked at slavery as barbaric and felt they needed change. Change they made, only in cosmesis. Slavery took different names; bonded labour, indentured servants, foreign maids, unskilled workers, etcetera.

In modern times, most religions agree that enslaving someone is not permitted. Perhaps, only the leaders of the Religion of Peace have not unequivocally condemned slavery. In their faith, the non-believers are of the same standing as the slaves. They are serfs meant to serve the believers. Through conversion, they attain equal status with the rest.

The Climatic 'Si Tanggang' scene!

Even in this age and time, we read reports of employers keeping their domestic helpers under the chain and lock for various offences, no different from the transatlantic slave trade and or slave markets in the Ottoman Empire. That begs the question of whether we are or will we ever be 'awakened'?

This is another classic from Japanese cinema. Set in 11th-century medieval Japan, an aristocrat is disposed of by pirates. His wife and children scurry to safety after the aristocrat is exiled. The wife is separated from her two kids. The wife is sold off into prostitution, and the children are enslaved. The melancholic film tells how the son eventually meets his mother.

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No milk today

Ma Ka Doodh (Mother's Milk)
Written, Produced and Directed: Dr Harsha Atmapuri

One of the important reasons for choosing breast milk over formula milk, which is formulated on cow's milk, is that cow's milk is for calves. Just like humans should be fed breast milk.

Calves drink milk when they are young. After a certain age, they start eating adult cow feed. And the mothers stop producing milk soon afterwards. Like calves, humans do not have to drink milk throughout their lives. But, no. We have been advised to include milk in our daily diet to ensure adequate calcium and other vitamins.

This documentary tries to convince us that the reality is far from this. The maker, a doctor turned animal activist, is trying to investigate the milk cattle industry around India on how it is run and how the cows are treated.

There is a concerted effort to criminally increase milk production manifold, much more than cows are actually able to produce in physiological situations. Profit is of paramount importance. It supersedes compassion and kindness. Everything is dollars and cents (or rupees and paise).

We tend to think that nothing can get purer than milk. Its pristine white hue gives it a special place in society that it is fit to be offered to the Gods. What the dairy industry does to cattle is more than cruel. During his lifetime, Gandhi made it a point never to consume cow milk due to the ill-treatment of cows. He only drank goat's milk throughout.

Firstly, only female calves are allowed to survive. Newborn male calves are just killed as they are useless in the cattle industry. Feeding them to adulthood for meat is just not economically viable. Nobody uses bulls for manual work. Tractors have taken over their place.

Cows grow up in restricted spaces, with no chance of roaming around to graze. They are fed in their sheds. Their sheds are poorly cleaned, and the animals live in deplorable conditions. By the way, they will never experience mating, as all procreations are via artificial insemination.

In the meantime, cattle owners sing praises of milk's nutritional and health values in cahoots with the media. As it stands now, milk plays such an essential role in our children's growth and adults' well-being that it is vital to survival. Interestingly, China has had similar benefits from soya milk. Plant milk is superior to cattle rearing from the perspective of leaving carbon footprints and greenhouse effects. Milk from soya, coconut, almond and oat are plant-based.

What happens to cows when they stop producing milk? The farmers would like to think that they are just sold off. In reality, the old cows are transported in the most inhumane manner across borders to states like Bengal and Kerala, where they are slaughtered, again in the most brutal ways, for their meat and leather. Intertwined in this imbroglio are buffaloes, their milk and meat.

There is enough legislation to curb all these issues. Unfortunately, the police and even cow vigilante groups are simply bought over by powerful cartels that control beef and leather production.

The maker of the documentary tells us that for a country that reveres cows and worships them, Indians are not doing enough. He suggests replacing cow milk with soya milk to allay cows' abuse and emotional torment. Unfortunately, the cow protection movement is intrinsically linked to Hindu-Muslim violence. People who oppose cow slaughter are erroneously assumed to be anti-Muslim. And Muslims purposely slay cows to trigger a negative response from the Hindus. 

Now we are in a predicament. We were told to refrain from consuming meat as the industry emits many noxious gases that damage the environment. Then they said, don't consume chicken and eggs as they were raised in battery coops. They had enough place to eat and shed, that's all. 

Then they told me to source organic food. Our vegetables were so tainted that if our coronary vessels do not clog up, the herbicides and pesticides sprayed liberally on the plants will kill us from cancer. 

Even if you opt for organic, we must worry about the seeds used. Generally, we are worried about GMOs, the genetically modified source. We are wary of whether these genetically modified seeds would alter our cell lines., turning us into monsters. 

They also tell us to consume less fish to keep overfishing under check. Increased demand leads to offshore fishing and the depletion of fish and sea life in our oceans. 

I have a funny feeling that all these are just Nature's way of fighting back. It wants to reclaim its territory and not surrender to the whims and fancies of mankind.  

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Tackling the complex issue tactfully!

Fundamentally Happy (Singapore; 2015)
Director: Yuan Bin Lei & Bee Thiam Tan
Writers: Haresh Sharma &Alvin Tan

I would have not given this film a second look if not for the fact that somebody mentioned that this Singapore film got the boot from the Film Censorship Board (LPF). It was initially done as a play and was staged in Kuala Lumpur without much fanfare, but as a film, a no-no. So, when someone mentioned that it was screened on Mubi, I grabbed the chance.

The censors gave for prohibiting screening because the film contains "elements that may be sensitive to the feelings of Malaysian Malays and may be interpreted by Malaysian Malays as an attempt to reflect the community's attitude towards those who abuse the weak to fulfil their desires".

This ridiculous statement given by the powers given the cloud what the general public can be exposed is as absurd as what a retired Malaysian judge had said in a public address, that a particular Muslim cannot be charged for criminal breach of trust as by virtue of being a Muslim, he could do no wrong. As ridiculous as it sounds, he was not misquoted and had since gone into oblivion.

A single swallow does not make a whole summer. Hence, the subject matter in the film is specific to one ethnicity or culture. Paedophilia transcends all societies. It is a very sensitive subject. It negatively affects everyone. The aggressor may regret the whole thing, or he may not. He may just regret that he got but to do it on the sly. The victim may be too scarred to explore and re-open the old wounds yet again. The parties linked to the aggressor may also stand to lose by exposing all dirty linen in public. After all the investigation and public humiliation, there is no guarantee that the long arm of the law will mete out justice. The long ordeal may lead to nothing, and the victims still have to live through the trauma for the rest of their remaining lives. Anyway, how will punishing the perpetrator erase the scar that is imprinted deep in one's psyche?

This film tells about a 30-year-old young man, Eric (Singaporean actor Joshua Lim), who pays a visit to his old neighbour, Habibah (Malaysian actress Adibah Amin). After an initial cordial reminiscence of their good old times, Eric was a young boy who used to frequent Habibah's home. Slowly, the conversation turns murky, as Eric vaguely remembers Habibah's husband's awkward advances towards Eric. The home environment seems to bring those old disturbing memory to Eric. Habibah defends her husband whilst Eric accuses her of being complicit. She further accuses him of initiating and enjoying all the unholy liaisons.

In the second half of the show, the husband seems to have been interrogated by the police. Eric returns to Habibah's home and has another conversation with her. This time they bear to open their inner feelings about Ismail, Habibah's husband. They explore the complex issue of abuse with the grace of love.

Done in a theatrical performance style, it is packed with razor-sharp dialogue and a feisty display of emotions. A powerful presentation performed well by the actors. 8/10.  

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