Under the radar

Abang Adik @ Pudu Youngsters (Malay/Cantonese/Sign Language; 2023)
Director: Jin Ong

When you wander around the wet markets or back lanes of many major cities, you find a buzzing economy independent of the one considered by economists and the national budget. There is a parallel economy going on there. 

You see many moving around, working intensely, and doing things others think are dirty, dangerous and demeaning. You see people washing dirty dishes at the back of the restaurant, slaughtering chickens and carting around loads of vegetables or sundry goods. They are invisible to most people's eyes. And they are paid a pittance in cash. These transactions are not recorded; hence, they escape the revenue departments. They are voiceless and live below the radar because, on paper, they are persona non grata. They may be undocumented foreign workers, economic migrants who overstayed or refugees. Intertwined in this group are Malaysian citizens themselves, who, at birth or due to other reasons, did not have their birth registered at the National Department.

In the eyes of the State, they are not identified in the country's statistics and do not enjoy the privileges proffered to its citizens, like opening a bank account, being part of the cashless society, obtaining a passport, or even getting into schools. What is worse is being disabled on top of all this.

Abang and Adik found themselves as unwanted kids wandering the backstreets of Pudu, Kuala Lumpur. Abang took it upon himself to be Adik's guardian, and together, they grew into adults, just moving along with time.

Abang, hearing impaired, leads a straight life, working odd jobs and saving every sen in a biscuit tin under his bed. Adik is the 'adventurous' one. He dabbles with the thugs around town, cheating illegal immigrants of their hard-earned and moonshining as a gigolo. They rent a room in a debilitated flat which had seen better times a long time ago, now occupied only by illegal immigrants. This place is periodically raided by the immigration officers to fulfil a quota of detaining undocumented immigrants. Abang and Adik would be rounded off, too, but would be released later. Their closest friend is a transgender person who took them as their son.

An NGO worker who goes beyond her call of duty to get them their legal papers helps them out. She somehow manages to locate Adik's father and invites him to meet his estranged father. Unfortunately, Adik's resentment of their father leads their conversation into a hearty argument that does not end well. 

In the meantime, Abang has developed a soft spot for a Myanmarese girl who will eventually be relocated to the US under the UNHCR relocation programme.

The last twenty minutes of the movie are the most gripping moments of the movie. The movie's most striking scene is when Abang has a 'conversation' with a Buddhist priest. When told by the priest to look at life positively, Abang, in sign language, has a long monologue, lamenting the life he has led, the hardship he went through, the parental love he never got, and, to top it off, the handicap he never asked for. Definitely worth a watch. 4.5/5. Worth the accolades it received.

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Malaysian hands in HK affairs?

The Goldfinger (Cantonese; 2023)
Director: Felix Chong

This film excited me for three reasons. First, the screenplay was written by the same guy who wrote the smash series Infernal Affairs, which later spurred Martin Scorsese's The Departed. Second, my favourite Cantonese stars, Andy Lau and Tony Leong, are in it. Finally, a Malaysian angle is somehow intertwined in the whole imbroglio. The movie is based on the rise and fall of the Singaporean (Sarawak-born) rag-to-riches speculator George Tan and his Carrian group of businesses.

One July morning in 1983, Malaysians were shocked to read about a banker's body that was found in a banana plantation in the New Territory of Hong Kong (HK). From the 10-sen Malaysian coin that was found in the pants pocket, the police managed to determine that he could be Malaysian. They finally discovered that he was Jalil Ibrahim, a Malaysian auditor sent from the Bank Bumiputra Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to look into some discrepancies in loans dispensed by its subsidiary, Bumiputra Malaysia Finance (BMF).

HK police investigations soon revealed a Malaysian businessman, Mak Fook Than, met Jalil at a hotel, killed him, packed him in a suitcase and disposed of his body at a banana plantation. During the trial, Mak insisted that he was merely a bystander. The actual killer was a Korean named Shin, who was never discovered. There were strong rumours that they were simply pawns. The real killers were someone big high up the food chain, either Malaysian politicians or Carrian group management.

Jalil's investigations from his 6-month stint in HK found that large loans were given to George Tan and the Carrian Group without proper documentation and collaterals. George Tan, an engineer by training, hit terrible times in Singapore in the 1970s and landed in HK. He ventured into the real estate business and found a neck in speculative trading. From there, Tan diversified into other industries. Sometimes, his business dealings were shady, and his partner and he parted ways. With the collapse of property prices and the stock business, the Carrian Group hit hard times. When everyone else stayed away from George Tan, BMF gave them up $ 1 billion. The HK Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) also breathed down their neck. In the meantime, the Malaysian Government, under Mahathir's leadership, was also embarrassed. Technically, Bank Bumiputra was established under the umbrage of the Malaysian Government to aid struggling Malay entrepreneurs. So, it had no business giving out loans to Chinese businessmen. The CIA declassified some of its documents about the BMF scandal. This sanitised version did implicate people high up in UMNO to be cognisant of the hanky panky in BMF.

So, at the end of the day, Jalil's murder was determined to have been unilaterally by Mak. No one in the Carrian Group, George Tan, BMF or UMNO was implicated. BMF chiefs Lorraine Osman and Hashim Shamsuddin were later charged and imprisoned for CBT. The gossip around town put Mahathir and the Finance Minister then, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, deep in the cookie jar.

The movie, told in flashbacks and forwards, tells a not-so-interesting account of the tenacity of one man, Lau Kai-yuen, the principal investigator of ICAC, to pin down Henry Ching Yat-yin, a character based on George Tan. After 17 long years, with two missed convictions, Henry (George) was imprisoned for three years in 1996 for the conspiracy surrounding his BMF loan.

(PS. In the movie, Malaysia was referred to instead as 'Timurlaysia'; even the honorific title Datok was used for the Malaysia characters.)

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Just when we think it was safe to be amongst our kind!

The Handmaiden (Korean, 2016)
Director: Park Chan-wook

There was a time that it was a given that a lady would feel comfortable in the presence of another lady when she is facing a potentially embarrassing situation. A. male medical practitioner would be required by law when he is examining a female patient. Lady doctors are assumed not to assert their powers over their male patients. 

The ladies washroom was considered a safe space, and they thought they would be protected. When faced with untoward incidents, especially with a member of the opposite sex, ladies would find solace there. After watching numerous Hollywood high school movies, we know how mean girls can be. If they thought that powdering her nose in the company of those of their kind would ensure non-passage of judging looks on her anatomy, I have news for them. Females are their greatest critics.

The members of the fairer sex think they find security in the company of their kind by travelling in ladies-only coaches and parking their vehicles in pink car parks designated for ladies. It is a defeatist idea of women's empowerment. On one end, feminists scream for recognition and respect. On the other, they plead for protection and padding of their falls. In my books, respect is gained through actions, not legislation or helicoptering.

We forget that Korean movies had a healthy life long before the Academy Awards introduced 'Parasite' to the world. And Koreans make more than lovey-dovey soap operas about lost love. Many of their stories are pretty different, and they dare to venture into territories considered taboo by most Asians.

'Handmaiden' is based on the 2002 novel 'Fingersmith' by Welsh writer Sarah Waters. It was set during the Victorian era. This movie's setting is altered to a time when Japan occupied Korea following the Russo-Japanese War. A pair of fraudsters,  Koreans from the lowest rung of war-stricken Korea. They make an elaborate plan to swindle a Japanese heiress. A con man hires a lady pickpocket as a maid to the heiress. The idea is to marry the heiress, get her committed to a mental asylum and abscond with her money.

Things take a turn. The story of the three characters is told from three points of view and ends with a twist at the end. 

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Do we really know?

Drive My Car (Japanese; 2021)
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Based on Short Story by Haruki Murakami

I have not read any of Murakami's works; I guess I should. His body of work is said to reflect the deep, dark corners of human consciousness. After watching this highly engaging movie, I think I should engage time to appreciate his writings.

As in all good movies, the viewers are clueless for a good one hour into the film. I was wondering where the story was going. Why was the protagonist, Kafuku, a theatre actor, who was acting in 'Waiting for Godot', keeps driving around? Why did he not react when he caught his wife, Oto, sleeping with another man? What is this about Oto and telling stories? Then there is the history of a dead child. And then the wife dies too.

Two years on, Kafuku is on a directing stint in Hiroshima. The company insists that they hire a chauffeur for him to drive his 1987 Saab Turbo. The chauffeur, Misaki, a young 20 something woman, seems to carry a massive burden upon her shoulders. She had lost her mother in a landslide. There is more to that.

The man who was seen in bed with Oto earlier, Kōji, auditions for the play and is selected. The play is Chekov's 'Uncle Vanya'. The crux of the story is how all these characters resolve their respective deep-seated unresolved issues by their actions or inactions. Just like the pandemic that jolts us from the lull of comfort, at the end of the film, the reboot button is set.

We think we have an explanation for everything. Yet, many things do not make sense. We seek clarity but still, the answers elude us. Peace of mind is disrupted by carrying these unresolved matters in our psyche. Maybe, we should let it be. Move on.

(P.S. Another introduction to another of Russia's many talented writers, and considered to be one of the world's greatest writers of the world, Anton Pavlovich Chekov. A doctor by profession, he wrote stories to support his family. Famously is quoted to have said, 

"Medicine is my lawful wife, literature, my mistress."

.)

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How to tackle a taboo subject?

30 days in September

Screenplay: Mahesh Dattani

Thanks to MEV for the introduction.

The dilemma is this. For how long will the family look the other way, knowing jolly well that a sinful act that had been committed? People around the family knew about it all along but decided not to squeal, not even bat an eyelid.  Are they complicit in the infamy? Is maintaining harmony between members and the status quo in the equilibrium more important than defending the vulnerable?

People say it happened at a different time when the dynamics were different. They say sometimes people do the stupidest of things when they are weak. They should not be vilified for the rest of their lives. They say, “why don't you move on, already?”. His deeds overshadow the creases in his personal life. You have to safeguard yourself. You do not want blood in your hands if his family institution falls aground. Is that something you would like to wish upon them?

Nobody is bothered about the victim. Should she take some blame for the act? After all, she is old enough to be in control of her faculties. Why did she drag it on? She could have said no at any time.

A 2019 play in Washington DC.

People forget it is not about liking it. It is about control and exertion of power by the dominant other.  With age and power comes specific responsibilities. Doing the right or honourable thing is being one. One cannot forever claim temporary emotional frailty as an excuse. With great powers come great responsibility. The higher the perch, the heavier the fall and the more damaging the aftermath. There is no get-out-of-jail-free card for this.

This must be a narrative often uttered behind closed doors in many families. Many family scandals are often swept under the proverbial carpet for fear of bringing shame to the family. 

This bold play by Mahesh Dattani is an attempt to discuss the touchy subject of child sexual abuse. Mala has problems committing herself to a relationship, and she attributes it to her uncle, who had sexually abused her when she was young. Her mother, despite knowing this all along, decided to turn a blind eye. Mala grows up a bitter lady despising her mother for her inactivity. The conflict becomes more complicated as Mala's mother decides not to confront the issue head-on but instead plunge into religion, hoping that divinity will solve everything. This further infuriates Mala. Meanwhile, there is a young boy who is all head over heels in love with Mala.

A powerful play about a taboo subject and how it distorts one's psyche. 

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Convincing enough for a conviction?

The Staircase (Documentary, 13 episodes; 2018)
Netflix

No, the truth does not somehow mysteriously appears out of thin air and settles the score. Often, the perpetrator goes scot-free. It is not unusual for fall guys to carry the burden. Innocent bystanders who happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time sometimes get suckered in. Tonnes of news of the incarcerated getting reprieve with newer modern scientific revelations, e.g. when DNA evidence comes to fore, is evidence of this. Truth does not manifest on its own. We have to make it appear. At the end of the day, the determinant is money. With ever-increasing legal fees and protracted trials that last forever, proving innocence is the domain of the well-heeled. The impoverished are just left to the spiralling uncertainty of time and divine intervention. 

It is a game of poker. It is a question of how long can one hold his card. Court cases can run till the money runs out or the accused is out of breath, metaphorically and biologically. Anyway, at the end of it all, the court does not give a bill of innocence. It merely states that the accused is 'not guilty' when it acquits someone. It does not say 'innocent'. It is saying, "damn, you managed to defend yourselves with good legal representation that money can buy. It is no match against our prosecutors and the evidence that the State had collected!" Justice does not fall in the equation.

'The Staircase' is a documentary presentation of the trial of a fiction writer, Michael Peterson. The Durham, North Carolina 911 helpline, in December 2001, received a call from a near-hysterical Michael asking for help after his wife's apparent fall of the stairs. A week later, Michael is charged for the murder of his wife, Kathleen. Kathleen had broken thyroid cartilage but died primarily of blood loss from seven laceration wounds on her scalp.

Citing disproportionate blood loss for a simple fall from stairs and the unaccountable scalp wounds moved the prosecutor to charge Michael for murder. Then the bag of worms came out. Michael's desktop hard drive showed him entertaining gay porn sites and liaison with a particular gay prostitute. The prosecutor surmised that the discovery's of Michael's sexuality probably inspired an argument, and in the heat of emotions, Michael could have struck Kathleen on the head and subsequent fall. 

Michael, an ex-Marine, was once stationed in Germany. He was married with two kids then. His neighbour, Elizabeth, an American and a close family friend, also died after falling off a flight of stairs. Even though her death was certified as an intracranial haemorrhage, her case was linked to somehow to Kathleen's. Elizabeth's body was excavated for re-autopsy, but nothing incriminating was found.

The trial went on and on. Michael's family was fragmented. On his side were his sons from his first marriage, his two adopted daughters (Elizabeth's daughters) and Patricia, his first wife. The deceased, Kathleen, was Michael's second wife.

Kathleen's sister and Kathleen's daughter, Caitlin, from her first wedding, were ferociously working with the prosecution to get a conviction for Michael after initially rooting for Michael!

The jury found Michael guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment. After repeated appeals, 8 years into incarceration, Michael finally had his appeal heard. In an unrelated case, a vital defence witness who appeared in Michael's trial had falsified evidence. Michael was put on house arrest awaiting retrial. By then, money had run out for the lawyers. David Rudolf, who was doing an excellent job representing Michael, excused himself but later appeared pro bono.

In 2017, 16 years after the nightmare started, Michael Peterson finally took an Alford plea to voluntary manslaughter to end it all. He vehemently maintains his innocence till today, but on paper, he is guilty.

People are divided on Michael's guilt. The police have a bone to pick with him. As an editor in a local newspaper, Michael has often highlighted the police shortcomings and inefficiencies. 

Another theory that had been floating around is the 'rogue owl theory'. Batted owls are known inhabitants of the woods around Michael and Kathleen's habitat. Owls have been reported to attack people unprovoked. This could have happened to Kathleen. Feeling tipsy with wine and startled by an owl clutching her scalp, she could have run and tripped down the flight of stairs. The peculiar scalp laceration, extensive blood loss and absence of skull fracture and brain injury could be due to the talons of a barred owl. In retrospect, micro-feather fibre and bird feathers were found on the body.

The justice system is flawed. It metes different justice to different people. A starving person is imprisoned for stealing, whilst a politician who embezzled billions is still gallivanting around because he has not exhausted all the legal avenues available to prove his innocence. It should be read as he still has enough money to hire cunning legal eagles to look for a loophole in the system or get the bench members convinced with some kind of junk science or sly sleight of hand. Period.

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Roads lead you nowhere when you don't know where you are going!

Master of None (Season 3, Ep 1 - 5; 2021)
Netflix

After riding high with the first two seasons of 'Master of None', Aziz Ansari got entangled with a nasty sexual assault claim that took much of the bejesus out of him. Maybe because of that, this season is not much about Aziz Ansari and his co-creator Alan Yang. If the earlier seasons were light comedies looking at the lives of first-generation immigrants and their interaction with their parents, this one is anything but funny. 

Aziz only appears as a co-star in two instances. Viewing the first episode itself, I had a certain deja vu feeling that  I had seen all that before. Then it clicked. It reminded me so much of Ingmar Bergman painfully slow 1973 miniseries, 'Scenes from a Marriage'.

This season centres around Denise (Lena Waithe), one of Dev's (Ansari) close friends. We know previously that she is a lesbian. She is now a thriving author living in the quiet countryside with her partner, Alicia. They seem to be a picture of bliss. The relationship slowly crumbles as Alicia becomes one-tracked mind to conceive through a donor. She becomes pregnant but unfortunately has a miscarriage. You can see the cracks as they appear in their seemingly rock-steady union. They divorce. A couple of years later, they meet up and reminisce about the life they had and of life on the whole.

This is a heavy drama that may be a disappointment to those who expected short, light-hearted jokes and life from the perspective of an immigrant to a first-world nation. Here, difficult questions are asked again, but more about relationships and the journey of life itself. It may strike as philosophical as it asks about our impulsive decisions and how much we are ever not satisfied with whichever path the path takes us. Perhaps, we really do not know what we want. When society predetermined how life should be lived, what mores were acceptable and stated our individuals, it was easier. As our targets were set, we just had to proceed without much thought while enjoying the scenery along the journey. But, ever since individualism crept in, we were let to our devices, trying to keep with the fickled trend, carrying more than we can chew on our plates whilst meeting all the challenges alone. Loneliness makes the trip seem longer and more arduous. 

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Who wants to bell the cat?

Line of Duty Seasons 5 and 6. (2019-2021)

Since writing about the TV series in 2017, two other series had been released. Continuing from the previous series, Anti Corruption No.12 (AC#12), continue in their endeavour to wipe out corruption in the police department. On the one hand, the police department wants to be seen as carrying out their duties above the board, without fear or favour and one-minded in seeking the truth to mete justice. At the same time, the department does not want to appear overtly corrupt but gives an image of having integrity. It is an interplay between maintaining the appearance and preserving integrity.

The funny thing about this whole exercise is that both arms of the regulators are from the same parent body. For any enforcement to function, it had to garner the trust of the general public. So how can it shoot itself in its foot and be able to run? But who would want an outsider to sieve through their household laundry and embarrass them of their soiled linen? No police officer worth his salt wants an independent body to go through his activities or shortcomings with a fine-tooth comb to point out their errors. 

With this balance in mind, the screenwriters of 'Line of Duty' managed to spin another two seasons with equal edge-of-the-street suspense at its predecessors. The AC#12 team races against the clock to pin down the mastermind behind the web of chicanery that goes on within the system.

All these hours of police procedural drama would naturally stir our curiosity to check our own backyard. With the constant bombardment of news of police corruption and death in police custody, it seems imperative that such an exercise is more important now than ever. The recent admission of the outgoing Inspector-General of Police of the unholy union between cops and underground elements is sufficient grounds to establish an Independent Police Complaints and Misconduct Committee (IPCMC).

There is no shame in admitting rots. The first step in correcting a broken system is the admission of failure. Many police precincts in the United States have turned themselves around after a series of misconduct. The New York Police Department has had undergone a series of scandals over the years but still functions with a check and balance system in place.

When everyone somewhat has his hand soiled with slime, how will he be the first to switch on the light? Nobody wants to leave their mark on the switchboard!

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