The movie Disney and China do not want you to see.

**  POST # 3000  **

Kundun (1997)
Director: Martin Scorsese

Even though this movie is honoured with a string of accolades, it does not ring a bell. There is a legitimate reason for this. Disney regrets financing this movie and considers it their greatest faux pas. They kept the film in cold storage and only had limited screenings in the US. Disney did not promote this movie commercially. It was at the time when Disney was trying to venture into mainland China with the plan to build a Disney theme park there.

After making a string of Mafia movies, Scorsese wanted to make one about something close to his heart - tackling the true story of the 14th Dalai Lama. After making the movie, Disney discussed their plans with CCP regarding Disney Park, and they were informed that China was infuriated about the film. In the Chinese eyes, Disney was interfering with China's internal affairs. Tibet was Chinese territory, and the Dalai Lama was a dissident who wanted the region to break away. Making a film sympathetic to his course, the Chinese thought was in bad taste.

Disney attempted damage control for fear of hurting the CCP and destroying the prospect of expanding into the Chinese market share. They produced and promoted the 1998 Mulan to showcase their genuine intention of valuing Chinese culture.

26 years after being stuck in the vaults, Kundun recently emerged on YouTube for all to view to their heart's content. Kundun is the affectionate name of the first Lama was referred to.

The film is a cinematographic galore of the supposed landscape termed Shangrila, the paradise on Earth. Surprise, surprise. The filming was done entirely in Morocco and a Buddhist monastery in New York. 

The film starts in 1937 with the lamas going in search of the special child destined to be the next Dalai Lama. After elaborate tests, they determine their child. The child grows up in the monastery, learning text, chanting, and praying. He has no special powers; he is just a normal person put in an important position to make essential decisions. 

As the boy matures into teenagehood and adulthood, he realises that significant responsibilities are placed on his shoulders. No divine revelations fall from the sky for him to decide. All he can do is think, discuss with others, get their opinions, pray, and make up his mind, hoping for the best outcome. 

He realises that he is not infallible and has made some wrong calls. 

It is the worst of times. It is 1949, and Mao Tse Dong and the Communist Party of China are walking into Tibet. The Dalai Lama is seen as a divine leader of the Tibetian people, but his brand of consultative diplomacy is not working to protect his people. Things become too heated up. The Dalai Lama's shoestring army advised him to abdicate to India and continue his work in Tibet another day. This film is more of a historical account of how the 14th Dalai Lama ended up in his current sojourn, Dharamsala, in Himachal Pradesh.

As the Dalai Lama reaches the Indian border after a treacherous journey, he is greeted by an Indian soldier, which essentially summarises who the Dalai Lama is all about. 

"I think that I am a reflection, like the moon on water. When you see me, and I try to be a good man, you see yourself."

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No ideal system

The Hungarian Parliament House by the Danube at sunset

They did not know where they came from. They intelligently guessed they must have come from the Ural mountains around 800CE. No, say the archaeological finds. Excavations showed carvings and even scripts that go back 5,000 years!

Modern history tells them of Prince Stephen, the first devout Catholic King canonised posthumously.

People were happy going about their daily lives, leaving the administration to the monarch, whom they were programmed to believe God Himself ordained. They were glad to part with a portion of their hard-earned produce in return. After all, He decides whether the people should live, suffer, or die.

Soon, times turned for the worse. Other nations tried to dominate. People’s trust in the Divine soon dissipated. Then, Godless men steamrolled their ideology upon them. The communists preached equality and Utopia on Earth. It was, of course, another tale to outwink the unassuming.

They knew they had to rise. An uprising in 1956 was easily squashed by the mighty Soviet tanks. It was the status quo till the mighty dream of equality, as in other parts of the world, came tumbling down in by its own pompous weight.

Fed up with the single brand of soap and the Hobson choice of ugly-looking cars, they were enticed by the variety offered by capitalism's charm. They opened their borders for others to come in and learn about their heritage and how they made it as a race throughout their history.

Hungarian Sunset

Remembering the gruesome end of captured Jewish

prisoners at the end of WW2. All were paraded by

the Danube, including children,  to receive a bullet to

end their misery. Stone shoes to remember the incident.

A pensive moment by the Danube

The site where Stalin's statue used to be. Was brought
down during the 1956 uprising. Stalin was replaced by God.

Terror Museum @ Budapest. To remember the terror the Hungarians endured over the
generations. Nothing black or white about terror. One man's terror is another man's law and order.

A repenting Dracula reading the Bible!
One of the many mini statuettes around Budapest.

Hero's Square commemorates the many fallen heroes,
for the Crown, God and a piece of cloth @ a flag or
a piece of paper, maybe as an ID or passport!

Stood still through it all! At King Saint Stephen's Basilica.

The Marvel of Man and Engineering.

Ordained by the Divine!

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Back to the USSR?

Communism, Hypnotism and the Beatles (1965)
Rev. David A. Noebel

An Analysis of the Communist use of music - the Communist Master Plan.

This book predates John Lennon's infamous press statement in 1966, in which he was quoted as saying that the Beatles were, at that time, 'more popular than Jesus'. To his defence, the baby boomers were, in fact, losing interest in what the church had to say. 

In 1956, during a visit to Poland, Nikita Khrushchev was thought to have told the West that he would 'bury them'. Some say it was something that came out after being lost in translation. Again, during his state visit to the US, he may have said (again disputed) that he predicted the adoption of communism and the gradual creation of a 'socialist stare' in the US. 

David Noebel is said to be a fiery Christian evangelist who argues his claims with dubious scientific evidence. In this booklet, he used many Pavlovian animal behavioural study models to convince his congregation that music has a hypnotizing effect that can alter teenagers' responses to situations. He even goes to the extent of suggesting that music can be used as a brainwashing device. He quotes Khrushchev as saying that the Soviets did not have to do anything to turn Americans into commies. They will change in time. Through music? "Have they planted this through rock and roll?" he asks.

Looking at how the millennials and the woke generation behave, it seems like Khrushchev's dream may have materialized. Extremist leftist ideas have permeated all forms of life. All the institutions have been infiltrated. Posts on social media reeks of the communist ideas. They claim to champion the marginalized, but what they really want is the annihilation of our civilization as we know it. They even have opinions on theistic matters even though they are godless in their belief system.

After seeing their mesmerizing effect on their young audience, the author has a bone to pick with the Beatles. He cannot fathom what makes them go hysterical to the extent of peeling off their undergarments. 

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Ho, ho, ho... all the way to the bank!

We all know how much Christmas is commercialised in the modern world. Not to forget how the tunic of beard man Yuletide coincidentally shares the same colour with the most favourite drink, Coca Cola.

There is this town in Finland, in Laplands over the Arctic Circle, named Rovaniemi. Besides being the spot to view the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis), it is also said the official hometown of Santa Claus. After being flattened out in World War 2, the town promoted itself as a Christmas destination after Eleanor Roosevelt, American First Lady, popularised it. Rovaniemi welcomes about half a million visitors annually.

If the rest of the world is contented with one stereotypical look of Santa, Slovenians can be incredibly proud of their three Santas. Each of their Santa reminds them of a different time in their country's history.

Santa, Miklavž and Mraz

First, there is the story of Saint Nicholas (or Sveti Miklavž in Slovene), a third-century bishop who is reputed to have saved a girl from prostitution by delivering a bag of coin in the dark of the night. Slovenians commemorate this day on the 6th of December by giving presents to children. Miklavž was a relic of the Hapsburg Empire when Roman Catholicism was the religion of the land. 

After the Austria-Hungario Empire crumbled after the First World War, the Slovene people became part of the authoritarian rule of Tito of Yugoslavia. Catholicism and religious holidays were banned under the communist regime. So was Saint Nicholas. But the thought of stopping giving presents to children was too much. Hence, Tito continued this tradition modelled after a Russian communist Santa named Ded Moroz. In Slovenia, he was called Dedek Mraz. 

White Christmas in Slovenia

When Slovenia became an independent nation in 1991, it was drawn to the western economic model. Naturally, Santa and consumerism ruled the roost. The more, the merrier the Slovenes thought. Now, all three Santas go on a rotation to have a month-long celebration in the month of December.

Each Santa reminds Slovenians of their ancient past - under the Empire, a Russia-controlled ruler and as an independent nation. 

It is intriguing how a celebration becomes an ideological or an economic model statement. The powers in control will tell their subjects what should be celebrated and how it should be celebrated. The rest, like lambs, will just follow the herd under the lead of the shepherd, whose sole intention in life is to fatten his flock and prepare them for the slaughterhouse!

(P.S. Meanwhile, in confused Malaysia, in the midst of trying to find her right footing in the ever-changing 21st century, after 50 years of racial and religious indoctrination, has left some of its citizens in a quandary. To wish or not to wish is the question! On the one hand, they are told the Creator created different tribes with various languages so as for people to know each other. Their idol, Zakir Naik, the foreign ultra-conservative evangelist with a bounty on his head, whom they hold in esteem, says it is haram to wish each other 'Merry Christmas'. By wishing so, he insists, that one is accepting that Jesus (or Isa in the Quran) is the Son of God. That, the fact that God (a.k.a. Allah) can have a wife and father a child is sacrilegious.)

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Casteism is not dead?

Sennai (செந்நாய், Clay-coloured dog, Tamil; 2021)
Directed: Jayakumar Sedhuraman

There is a new genre developing in Tamil cinema. It is usually done by independent studios as it deals with subjects no major production houses and directors would want to dip their hands in. It is called the Dalit cinema. It deals with primarily taboo issues that affect the Dalit community, Officially caste discrimination is supposed to have been eradicated from the day-to-day life of an average Indian from the early days of Indian Independence, but in reality, it is far from over.

I remember a staff nurse who was high-in-demand to assist in neurosurgical surgeries. Every time that medical centre had an emergency neurosurgical case, her assistance was sought. She was there in all such cases, nursing each patient back to health. Unfortunately, when the same nurse had a medical emergency, she had to be transferred to a public hospital due to the exorbitant cost involved in treating her there. 

The same thing happens in this story. Sorry, no glamour roles here and no drop-dead gorgeous actors here either. The story mainly revolves around the lives and times of a couple of cemetery menial workers who manage and do the final rites for the deceased. They sometimes have to transport and dispose of unclaimed bodies from a government health centre. They also act as caretakers of the crematorium there.

For them, it is more than just a job. It defined them. When nobody wants to deal with the stench and the unpleasantness, they have to weigh in between bearing the odour and surviving the hunger pangs. That thought alone gives them strength to transport the cadavers all the way to the cemetery on a push-cart.

Even at death, there is discrimination. When one of their own dies, the push-cart cannot be used, but instead, the next-of-kin has to carry the deceased on their back for miles to the burial site. Even the dais meant for cremation is reserved for the higher caste!

These messages are told poetically in two parallel narratives. One tells the tale of a hypocritical government doctor who openly claims to be colour-blind but has no qualms running down his colleagues from the oppressed caste as less qualified as they got their degrees through quota reservations. He is also quite open in stating that he does not want to get his hands dirty treating the Dalits.     

The other concurrent narration is a veiled attack on the Brahmins. A forest turns barren as it is occupied by only herbivorous deer. In wanting to return the green, the wise king got in some omnivorous animals into the jungle to reduce the deer population. With less deer population, trees grew back, restoring the wilderness to its former glory. Life is such. We need to have all kinds to keep it going.

Just by providing education to all, one cannot hope to end prejudices in society. Discrimination still rears its ugly head. Obviously, affirmative action does not benefit anybody. The disadvantaged majority has to seek life fulfilment elsewhere, and the target group will forever be thought of as intellectually challenged. 

The messages that the filmmaker is trying to put forward is not so 'in your face' but rather put subtly in long-shot takes. Posters and calendars depicting Ambedkar and Periyar and their quotations appear unapologetically. We also do not have to second guess where their political leanings lie. Again, posters of Karl Marx and Lenin will answer that. What else can it be when some crucial characters in the movie address each other as 'comrades'. Funny, when people have nothing, they want to be a communist. Conversely, when they have everything, communism and socialism are looked upon as scorn of society.  

(P.S. All these messages were told in a mere 1-hour presentation.)

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No end to espionage!

No Time to Die (2021)
Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga

In my youth, I used to think, "with the collapse of the Berlin Wall, soon these espionage movies will all be passé." How wrong I was. And here I am in the 21st century, and the Russians are still posing a threat to the Western capitalist world, so we are told.

The Slavs, dressed in Red Soviet uniform then, have changed into their sharp suits, digital devices, and oligarchic money to play the same espionage and political manipulation game to portray a rosy picture of communism to the world. World domination, it seems, is high on their agenda. 

But frankly, let it be vulture capitalism and Red ideology; they are merely just two sides of the same coin. Think US election, think Bashar al-Assad to usurp power, think despotic leaders trying to suppress dissidents, you will find American and Russian handiwork in action. It is all about world domination, absolute power and total control by the powers that be. So, come the 21st century, or 25th century, the story of one group trying to dominate the others stay relevant. It is the story of mankind. 

So, it is no surprise that the Man with a Licence to Kill is still relevant today. In keeping with the changing times, however, the writers had altered some characters to appease members of the woke generation. As Daniel Craig was said to be doing his last appearance as James Bond in this film, the filmmakers are dangling the prospect of the next 007 to be a black female. Earlier, they had also introduced Miss Moneypenny as black. Q is possibly gay too. 

As I see it, the movie will be remembered as one generic offering that flew us by. Frankly, I was looking for a grand opening as I did in Casino Royale, but sadly many, if not all, of the action scenes had a sense of deja vu in each of them. Let it be a car chase, bike ride or massive island hideout destruction, the familiar feeling of 'haven't I seen that' kept coming back. 

After seeing Rami Malik perform brilliantly as Freddie Mercury is 'Bohemian Rhadsody', his talent is really wasted here. He just appears as an expressionless baddie with a puckered face. He does not make us hate him (or pity him).

The screenwriters must have tried to infuse emotion into Bond as it is Daniel Craig's swansong. But the idea of carrying a child in a car chase with the crooks shooting at the car is disturbing, to say the least. And the idea of a Bond illegitimate child?! We have all seen Bond escaping from more death-defying feats; why not this? Verdict: 2.5/5.

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It is all about power and control

The Death of Stalin (2017)

The difference between Capitalism in the West and Communism in the East of Europe arose because Capitalist societies retained philosophical persuasions and political pluralism as expressed in a parliamentary democracy, a free press and free trade unions. Communist societies, on the other hand, froze Marxist philosophy into a closed system of orthodoxy. This led to heresy-hunting, which in due course reduced Marxism to the status of a Semitic creed like Christianity and Islam. Bertrand Russell was not far wrong when he identified Communism as a Christian heresy. It has acquired all the characteristic features of the Christian Church such as the only saviour, the only Revelation, the only Pope, the only priesthood, the only baptism, and the only sacraments. Communist regimes could not help becoming totalitarian enemies of human freedom.

The initial success of the Bolshevik Revolution is evidenced by the advancements in living conditions and headway in science, technology and space exploration. Buried in the rubble of development was the loss of human lives in the name of dissidence and the rebel yell for freedom.

For quite a while, Capitalism portrayed itself as the saviour of Mankind after the fall of the Iron Curtain. Greed drove economies, and everyone was happy. Nobody realised that unregulated Capitalism was the harbinger of many unrests that were to ensue. Vulture Capitalism left a trail of destruction and the widening of the gap between the haves and have nots. What started as compassionate capitalism which replaced despotic regimes and feudalistic autocrats ended up as cutthroat capitalism. The weak remained suppressed under any economic modality.

We finally realise that the world has all the resources to fulfil our needs but not our greed. No one economic system can sustain our wellbeing forever. It is innate within to take shortcuts and find ways to beat the system. We get lazy and cut corners.

Despite earning the unenviable reputation of having killed off over 20 million people during his reign, including more than a million the Gulags, Stalin still have a place in the heart of many Russians. His feat of decimating the Nazi Army singlehandedly, after being left to fend for themselves by the Allied Forces in the Second World War, hails him as the favourite leader. In a poll in conjunction with the Centennial Celebrations of the Bolshevik Revolution, 51% of respondents voted favourably towards Josef Stalin as a real Russian leader. Putin has been compared positively to Stalin in meting actions against 'outlaw' former Soviet states like Ukraine.

Stalin and his band of yeomen

The 'Death of Stalin' is a satirical piece on the set-up of 1953 Soviet Russia surrounding the time of the demise of their supreme leader. It tells about the grudgingly subservient people in the inner circle of the Politburo. Secretly each has power ambitions but does not dare to state the obvious for fear of joining the scores of people sent regularly to face the firing squad for alleged treason. Before the body is cold, they are scurrying around in an attempt to shore up their positions like in a court suddenly in need of a king. The inner circle of Stalin's 'comrades-in-arms' include Georgy Malenkov, Stalin's likely successor and deputy premier; Lavrenti Beria, Stalin's influential chief of the secret police; Nikita Khrushchev, whom Stalin had summoned to Moscow to balance the power dynamics of Malenkov and Beria; and Nikolai Bulganin, Stalin's defence minister. 

At the end of the day, even though the film opened to rave reviews in film festivals, it left with a bit of bad after taste. There were historical inaccuracies in the timeline of events that were shown in this supposedly historical movie. It ended up neither being a comedy act nor one which highlighted the horrors of Stalinism.

The movie is banned in Russia and many of the former colonies of Soviet Russia for denigrating Russia's WW2 war heroes and being disrespectful of their history.

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Weapons gone astray!

Sensitive topic - Readers' discretion advised

A Mosque in Munich (2010)

Author: Ian Johnson

When 9-11 attacks came about, investigations traced the perpetrators of sleeper cells spending a time of their lifetimes in Germany. These terrorist group did not spring up just before attacks on the American soil. They, in fact, have a very long past, going as far back as the Bolshevik revolution.

When Communist Soviet took over the predominantly Muslim lands in the Caucasus, collectively known as Western Turkestan, the area was filled with adrenaline-filled Muslim fighters who wanted to liberate their lands from their godless rulers. They were collectively known as the Prometheans, the mythical Greek hero who defied Zeus to save humanity.

This golden opportunity was grasped by Wehrmacht, the unified WW2 German Army to aid in their attack of Russia. As is common knowledge, many Muslim scholars, including the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, soar at the thought of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire after WW1, decided to pour their support on the side of the AxisPower. 

Betting on the wrong horse, they lost more than just their homeland. Many of the Muslim freedom fighters ended up as refugees in Germany. By 1950s, West Germany, especially places like Munich, had undergone an economic transformation. The miracle of German tenacity and engineering marvel saw industrial giants like Siemen and financial titans like Allianz proving their strength. Many Turkish immigrants soon start coming into West Germany.
After WW2, communism became the bogeyman, and there was an urgent need to keep activities behind the Iron Curtain under check. Many of these ex-Soviet Muslims became the eyes and the ears of the CIA and West Germany. They were rolled in the CIA-sponsored propaganda Radio Liberty and Radio Free Europe as well as many of its espionage work. Along the way, the CIA decided to use Islam as their weapon to go after the non-believer Communists. They are said to create ruckus in Mekkah during a Haj season to highlight injustices against Muslims in the Soviet Union. At the 1955 Bandung Conference,  their members also created an embarrassing moment for the Soviets.

Schematic representation of the Mosque

The idea of having a mosque was drummed in by the Muslim community of Germany to garner more support to this end. Somehow, there soon came to be a tussle for leadership as members of the Muslim Brotherhood gained a stronghold in the Munich Mosque donation collection and construction. 

The Muslim Brotherhood movement, known for its doublespeak, saying one thing to one party and denying it to another, managed to hoodwink the Americans into believing that they could speak for the general world Muslim population. In reality, they advocated a rather conservative and domineering form of Islam; a kind which tends to control all aspects of day-to-day living and has no reservations against terrorism or killing of its enemies. 

Munich Mosque

The Munich Mosque was finally opened in 1973.

The Muslim Brotherhood, with the cooperation of the US intelligence agencies, managed to outmanoeuvre the ex-Nazi soldiers to control the mosque. As time went, The Muslim Brotherhood gained more traction in the world politics. The conservative, arch-Catholic city in Bavaria soon became a centre of radical Islam.

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