Dealing with the hard knocks

The Men (1950)

Before being hit by the events of the School of Hard Knocks, we all have dreams. We all have expectations in life. At times of weakness influenced by impulse or the foolhardy of the spring of youth, we commit ourselves into things. Matters of the heart are not easy to back off. The entangling strings of emotion come in the way.

So what do we when reality suddenly hits our faces? What to do when it dawns upon us that we had been given the raw of the bargain? Do we decide to clean the slate, clear our plates of the dish that we chose and try a completely new cuisine?

Do we just cry in silence over the wrong decision, embrace our misjudgement and make the best of what we have or cut our losses and absolve ourselves of the union?

This is the undertone of the movie ‘The Men’ made in 1950 as I saw it. This film is, however, is a tribute to all the military men who, after fighting wars with sword, guns, and bombs, have to combat their inner demons with the after-effects of their duels. Things like post-traumatic stress disorder, loss of limb and limb functions and the general change in the outlook of life are inevitable for combatants. In ‘The Men’, the main character, Ben (Marlon Brando in his debutant role), is paralysed from the waist down after being shot in the back. The story centres around his coming to terms with his disability, moving on with his life despite his accident. A good portion of the film highlights his acceptance of his sweetheart’s proposal of marriage fearing an inability to fulfill his manly duties.

An interesting thing that is visible here is how doctors and patients alive smoke in the hospital premises, be it wards or clinic, without a care.

Just like the girl who keeps on complaining that she has no shoes to wear is humbled by seeing another person with no legs, the protagonist comes to terms when his treating doctor narrates his sob story. The doctor’s wife, a paraplegic after a motor vehicle accident, died after complications of her condition. The good doctor long every day to have a single vision of his ill wife waiting for him at home, but he no, he cannot. It is better to appreciate what is around then to yearn for the unattainable.

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Need more than music, love and sunshine to live!

Sairat (Wild, Marathi; 2016)

The Marathi cinema has the reputation of producing the first-ever full-length Indian film in 1913. Honouring the doyens of the yesteryears, the Government of India gives out an annual award to an icon of Indian cinema for lifetime achievement, named after the director of this movie, Dadasaheb Phalke.

Unfortunately, over the years, it lost out to its glamorous, world acclaimed and well-funded cousin, Hindi films of Bollywood. Of late, Marathi films are making a come back of sorts after the Government of Maharashtra made it tax exempted.

Many Bollywood actors and directors are jumping the bandwagon to dwell on the craze. 'Sairat' is the highest grossing Marathi film and is the first to cross the ₹50 crore mark.

The story is nothing spectacular. It is a tale teenage love of members of contrasting classes (a fisherman's son and a landowner's daughter). The lovebirds are hellbent on being with fulfilling their youthful desires despite the massive opposition from the girl's thuggish father. There is a lot of running, bashing and display of injustice and inequality. The positive feature of this flick, unlike its counterparts of filmy unrequited love, one does not see a lone macho boyfriend fighting tirelessly against the whole tirade of hard-core gangsters. He gets bashed up hardly giving a fight. The heroine is the dominant one who actually kickass to get things done.

The cinematography is pleasing to the eye and the narration shows the reality of love. Desire may feel the heart but the truth is, in the real world, we need a roof, food, place to call home and above all, money to get things in order. We cannot live on sunshine, air, music and undying love!

Unpredictability of life!

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

This is one of those movies which brings you into the household of a middle-class family and leads you through the trials and tribulations as experienced by them. It is told in flashbacks, which are inserted as the movie goes along, but not in a confusing way.

It is an emotionally charged film, but not in an 'in-your-face' fashion but many of the emotions are left to imaginations. Many of the intended feelings are left unspoken and quite rightly so. As the story progresses, you realise that things that happen in life are beyond our control and even people's response to a crisis is unpredictable.

Lee, a janitor, who carries a great sorrow over his shoulders, after losing all his three children in a fire caused by his negligence, leads a quiet life in Boston. He has to return to Manchester when he receives news that his brother had died of a heart attack. He has to sort out his brother's final arrangements, his high-schooling nephew's living plans and to face the demons that he left after his children's accident as well as his ex-wife.

The previously jolly Lee is now a changed man after his clash with depression. He struggles to rekindle the good relationship with his nephew and to even build new ones.

It is a touching movie which shows the simple niceties in life as well as its awkward moments. Life is truly unpredictable but interesting at the same time. We would not appreciate the good times if not for the bad and vice verse. How would we understand eudaemonia without experiencing pain?

We all deserve the leaders we get?

Jagat (Trilingual Malaysian; 2015)


History has taught us again and again that the fate of a tribe/community/race is so dependent on the foresightedness of its leaders. Many civilisations soared to great heights or conversely disappeared into obscurity due to lack of direction, all because of the presence of a capable or weak leader respectively.

A leader is the one who foresees any untoward incidents that may come the way of his flock so as that he can pave a safe path. His mission is to serve his kind to ensure their continuity as a formidable group. For this task, the leader is accorded certain privileges which the society can withdraw at any juncture they feel apt. When the followers continue to follow blindly to the tricks of the sycophantic leaders and play doormat to their demands without batting an eyelid but wallowing their misfortune in fate, they truly deserve the leaders they get. Instead of the politicians working towards the well-being of the plebeians, looks like the people are hoodwinked to ensure the reign of the leaders stays uninterrupted! Whose fault is it, anyway?

The first thing I noticed when I caught this film aboard an Air Asia flight was the extremely picturesque shots of the landscapes around Malaysia. It was sometimes difficult to believe that those scenes were literally taken off our own backyards. The scene at the jetty, at a factory and even the open spaces, gave a luring view of the Malaysian outdoors.

The theme of the film is the story of any failed Malaysian Indian citizen who lost out in the rat race of development. The Indian diaspora which scaled the shores of most countries has done well. Indians in Fiji, South Africa, Mauritius, Surinam, Uganda, you name it, they control the economy. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the descendants of Indian migrant workers who were brought to the Malayan shores to toil the land. Sure, many have succeeded and have left their mark. The unsuccessful ones remain rudderless and bury their sorrows in the tombstones of their ancestors and the proof of their forefathers' sacrifice to the nation.

Aboy is a 12-year old boy who is at a crossroad. On the one hand, there is his hardworking father who works for a pittance to ensure his son gets a decent education. He does not want his son to repeat his same mistake, to immerse himself in drama and literary stuff that does nothing to pay the bills. He disciplines his son in the only way he knows to put him on the right track. Then there is Aboy's uncle, his father's brother who seems to be well to do without working too much, by indulging in gangsterism. Aboy's schooling system and teachers have no time to spur his hidden talent. Their emphasis is rote learning. With the adverse environment in school and the village he lives in, it is inevitable that Aboy is drawn to the dark side of society. Ironically, at the end of the movie, the uncle decides to leave the decadent life, but Aboy is initiated into it! History just repeats itself.

It is one of the few Malaysian Tamil movies that drew a sizeable multi-ethnic crowd to the cinemas and made quite an impact at the local film awards. It was even screened at the international level.

Order in chaos?

Hava Aney Dey (Let the Wind Blow; Hindi; 2004)

This Franco-German of a Hindi film co-production had too much on its plate. No doubt, it had won many global independent awards the world over but the fact remains that its storyline is too ambitious to cover in one and half hour of screening. It tries to deal with so many things without going deep into any of the issues it tries to invoke.

The protagonist, Arjun, is an 18year old youth, is at the crossroads of his life. On one hand, he sees his widowed mother working day and night trying to put food on the table after his gambling father died early. The mother is putting all her hopes on her only son to make it to university. In her eyes, that would be the panacea for all the poverty woes. Arjun is disillusioned by all these. He sees his blue collared friends struggling so hard with no hope ever hitting it big in life. He also sees the rich just loafing around enjoying life and spending (wasting) their money without a care. The lingering dilemma is whether education makes one happy and whether it a passport to success.

In the background, there is a constant reminder on the cable TV that a nuclear showdown is brewing over the India-Pakistan border.

Arjun is not a bright student, though. With all his nocturnal intoxicating habits and trysts, studies hardly interest him. What interest him, however, is a fellow student, Salma. He joins the school drama just to be by her side. He discovers his natural talent in acting. The theme of the show is a scene from the Bhagavad Gita where Arjuna has the cold feet before the Kurukshetra War and his qualms about killing his cousins, somewhat mirroring the two brothers' (India and Pakistan) faceoff! As a side issue, we are introduced to Salma's grandmother who was a freedom fighter who fought for Indian independence and decided to stay back in India and not migrate to Pakistan. Then Salma's parents also work tirelessly for the uplifting of society.

Arjun's best friend, Chabia, a mechanic who gets Arjun to do his vices and also has the contacts to get him out trouble has his own his issues his cabaret dancer girlfriend. The girl loves him but not his poverty, Chabia loves her but not her job.

Along the way, the audience is given the impression that the country has no future but to venture out of it to prosper. In this case, Dubai seems to be the haven. Even that never materialised for our stars. Just as they make plans to leave for Dubai with the farewell party and all, nuclear warheads of India and Pakistan head towards the heart of each other's major city.

The cinematography is so surreal, with many street scenes and lingo that we are all too familiar. Interestingly, that was the very reason why the film had issues with the national censors. It eventually never got screened in India as the filmmakers would not comply with the censors' demand to bleep almost 20 minutes of its dialogue.

Through this film also you get to understand how the chaos theory comes into effect. With so much random things happening around so many people, there is still a semblance of order, and the sun still shines. People still grew to fulfil their dreams and lead a full life.

Zombies, made in Korea!

Train to Busan (2016)

Nobody in my circle actually finds pleasure in watching zombie movies. Neither do I. I sneaked this one just for the heck of it. And the verdict is - splendid. Just like any disaster movie, instead of having natural disasters, animal attacks or alien invasion to scare the wits out of the audience, here, the offending agents are the fast spreading zombies induced by other infected brain-dead zombies whose purpose in their zombie life is to bite healthy people!

Putting all that senseless screaming and gore aside, which was tastefully done, by the way, there is a semblance of storytelling, development of character and purpose in narration.

A busy executive modern dad, Seok-Woo, a fund manager is having a crisis to handle in office. Despite his tight schedule, he has no choice but to send his daughter, Su-Ann, to his estranged wife in Busan to spend her birthday. The emotional scene of a child yearning for her father's love is nicely expressed. Then there is the paternal grandfather hoping that the younger generation would give marriage the reverence the previous generation did!

Trouble starts when they board the KTX bullet train from Seoul to Busan. An infected girl gets into the train at the last minute to create mayhem. The focus ends up with Seok-Wu, his daughter, a tough guy doting husband with his pregnant wife, a pair of high school kids, a pair of elderly sisters, a self-centered businessman and the train driver.
The suspense is held until the very end with a twister to finish.

The interesting dialogue in the film is when the tough guy with the pregnant wife character tells Seok-Wu, "You as a father work all your life for your daughter to give her everything but you still be the villain!" or something to that effect! It kind of resonated with me.

Diversion to maintain sanity or wrong priorities?

Son of Saul (Hungarian; 2015)

Just how far would you go to maintain cultural and religious practices? Even went your life is in danger? In a World War 2 concentration camp when Jews are shovelled into incinerators by Nazis? Well, this is what Saul does. In this disturbing Hungarian movie, set over two days in one of those camps, Jews are lined up, 'processed' to be killed, burned alive, shot and buried in mass graves, emptied their coats of their belongings, and have their ashes spread unceremoniously by the river. It is just a banal activity that goes on there. Saul is a sonderkommando, a run-around helper of the Nazis, who is threatened with death if they do not help the German soldiers in their nefarious act.

Probably to avert his attention from the stresses of yells, screams, and cries of dying people around him, he goes around looking for a rabbi to do the last rights of a young Jewish whom he tried to help and died.

His search for a rabbi amongst the captured Jews in the midst of the morbidly tense atmosphere of the camp and the imminent uprising by his colleague set a high-wire drama of the Holocaust.
Being a Holocaust sympathising film, there are no surprises here. It had been feted with many accolades including the Oscars and Cannes.

I was there, then!

Ola Bola (Malaysian; 2016)

Two weeks into its release, the theatres are still packed. Audiences of various ethnicity and ages still throng to give a glimpse at this film that dwells on nostalgia that most of us who grew up in the 70s still vividly remember. Yes, the time when we were a football force to be reckoned with.  We were at par with present day doyens like Japan and South Korea.

It rekindles the time when we had to reproduce and visualise in our minds the football actions that took place on the field with the help of the radio commentator and the transistor radio. Despite not being in the thick of the action, we still had the dry sensation at the back of our throats as the time ticked and attempts at the opponent's goalmouth proved futile. We still missed that heartbeat when our strikers hit the ball on the goal post. And the unison cry of victory when Super Mokh scored that winning goal. When television became available and live telecast of matches became the norm, the whole neighbourhood tuned-in to them. There are all but memories of a bygone era.

It was the watershed moment in the history of Malaysian football. With ageing players and the absence of plans for future, pundits already saw it coming. The late 70s, the Malaysian football scene heard a swan song before their demise with its scandals of bribery, mismanagement and political interference. The movie tries to re-create that aura. It re-creates that time in our nation’s history when we united and football was the cement.

The last biggest event that football fans remember is their sad attempt at the 1980 Summer Olympics. It was a victorious journey but was cut short by our country’s boycott of the games as the host had invaded Afghanistan back then.

Marianne, a journalist, is disgruntled with life. Her work is going nowhere, and she decides to migrate to the UK. Before that, she makes her last cover story. It proved to be a turning point. After interviewing a former national footballer from Sabah, Eric, (an obvious reference to James Wong), she stays back.

Eric recalls his playing days as he narrates the high and low moments as he and his teammates prepared as a team. Starting as individuals with self-interests and each carrying their own baggage, they eventually came together to play as a team as one with the nation being the unifying factor.

Tauke ( an apparent reference to Soh Chin Aun) is struggling to juggle between his cash-strapped rubber tapping younger sister who gave up her studies to help the family and a doting girlfriend who takes two jobs to support him. Tauke is ridiculed for playing football, a leisurely activity, rather than support the family financially. Then there is Muthu ( a reference to R Arumugam) who pursues his passion despite his father’s disapproval who struggles with a shortage of helping hand in his small coconut plantation. With a new coach, Harry (re: Karl Weigang), the team has a new zest to succeed.

It is not all doom and gloom in this feel-good movie. Comic relief is infused through Muthu’s three brothers and a struggling radio commentator,  Rahman. I am sure his role must be based on Hasbullah Awang as he is known to use unusual and unorthodox terms in his commentaries! The legendary sports commentator par excellence, Rahim Razali, makes a special appearance here too.

Even though the main spoken language is Mandarin in most parts, Hokkein, Cantonese, Tamil, Malay and English is used without any awkwardness to enrich this truly Malaysian movie. We mostly take our outdoors for granted. Its scenic cinematography reminds us, yet once again, that we live a beautiful country. We, as its occupants, have a moral duty to keep it that way, away from the pilferage of self-interested bigots and greedy entrepreneurs who fan the amber of nationalism with ulterior motives to guide the country to total anarchy.

The Gulf Exodus...

Airlift (Hindi; 2016)


This must be something new for Indian cinema; re-enacting something that happened in the not-so-distant past. Something that is fresh in everybody’s memory, the provider and the affected parties. It is the story of 170,000 Indians who were stranded in Kuwait in 1990 when Saddam Hussein invaded the country. It highlights the hard work of a single Indian businessman in organising a safe passage for his countrymen.

Ranjith Katiyal is a shrewd trader who walks amongst kings and politicians. He tries as much as possible to assimilate into his host country, listening to their music and trying to understand their culture. All that took a turn when Kuwait was invaded, and he had to fend himself, his family and many of his fellow countrymen.

He fights an uphill battle to ensure of his people and assuring transport out of the country. On one hand, there are the barbaric women-crazy Iraqi soldiers and their money-hungry leaders. Then there are the lethargic bureaucrats who take their own sweet time or find it impossible to rush for rescue.

In the midst of all that, other non-Indians like Pakistanis and Bangladeshis try to join the bandwagon to obtain a hitch back out of the war zone. Issues like passport issuance, travel embargo and mere logistics make Katiyal’s endeavour a Herculean one.

The government agencies cry foul over the filmmaker’s depiction of their officials in a rather unpleasing light. The people in power appear to be non-committal and not forthcoming with their cooperation. They all seem to pass the buck and wait for somebody else to make the decision. With the increasing demand for transparency and accountability in the civil service, this is exactly what the general public wants to see. With the benefit of the artistic licence, the storytellers managed to come out with a movie that not only tries to stir up the Indian-ness spirit but at the same time managed to break the typical love-musical masala mould of filmmaking that Bollywood is known.

Privateer, not pirate!

Pirates of the Caribbean Series
The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
At World’s End (2007)
On Stranger Tides (2011)

The lure for control, power and money drove many shady characters to the 4 corners of the world. Of course, by this time, the time frame upon which this film is set, Man has already realised and accepted the Earth to be a sphere.

The brave Portuguese seamen paved the way to find sea routes to reach the East when the Islamic Empires controlled land routes. The early Portuguese seafarers had no plans to conquer land. All they wanted was to control ports and prosper via tax collection.

The brutal Spanish sailors tried to outdo their Iberian Lusophone neighbours by finding an alternative sea route to the East. What they discovered instead were Indians who were ‘red-skinned’ and mountains of precious metals. The hospitality of their hosts was returned with barrage of artillery and small pox. Pretty soon, scores of ships were plying the Atlantic Ocean with pillage of Aztec gold other precious metals. 

Not to be outdone, the new kids of block, the British, got their royal seal to rob the Spanish of their spoils. Many pirates, who by now became known as privateers, became legitimate representatives of the King of England to officially rob of any ship not flying the Union Jack. This business drew men who had a brush with law, with disreputable morals and diseases to join the fracas.

This, combined with the mysterious myths of the seas, like the ‘Legend of the Flying Dutchman’, the Bermuda triangle, mermaids and the elusive Fountain of Youth are the basis of this high grossing franchise. Flushed with the marvel of modern cinematography, exotic locales, either a gay-like mannerism or drunken gait of Johnny Depp with witty double meaning scripts, it is an interesting watch.

It tells of a time of man's civilisation when babary ruled, marauding was legitimate and the sword was mightier than any pen. History was written in blood. 

Some memorable lines were...

“If the world is so cruel, what makes you think that after-life would be any different” Davy Jones.

“It is not much of the destination, it is the journey, you see”

Agreeing to a  suggestion by a preacher on an idea, Jack Sparrow says, “I rather go with the missionary position!”

Duality of forces to path the oneness...

Kahaani (Story, Hindi; 2012)

It is a kind of a stereotyping. Whenever a film is done with Calcutta as the backdrop, invariably Durga Pooja procession is in the background. In Satyajit’s film the statue of Durga and Navarathri celebrations were in the background of a few of his movies. Talking about Satyajit Ray’s movies, there is a striking similarity between this one and many of Ray’s masterpieces. The common theme here the presence strong female role and the empowerment of women. The theme of Durga’s prayer only re-emphasises the formidable strength of feminine powers to combat evil. The fairer sex is by no means the weaker sex. Their ability to strength to withdraw labour is testimony to this effect.

Vidya Bagchi (Vidya Balan) is a visibly pregnant lady from London who arrives in Calcutta in search of her missing husband, Arnab Bagchi. Arnab, who accepted a post at the National Data Centre in a small town in Bengal failed to contact his wife. Hence, the worried wife arrived there in search of her other half.

Things get complicated when nobody has records of her husband. The police officer, Rana, who helps Vidya also gets puzzled when his station is visited by an abusive officer from the Intelligence Bureau and people helping him to locate the missing start dying like flies.

With the preparations for Durga Pooja in full gear, Vidya has to fight against time to locate Arnab Bakshi or at least Milan Damji who has a striking resemblance to him. It ends in an unexpected twist.

At the end of the movie, you have the feeling that everybody seem to have their own justification to take away something as precious as life. The police (the state) feels it is all right to gun down one individual not so much as revenge but as to curtail more unnecessary lives lost. The perpetrator allegedly masterminded a subway release of biological weapon. The accused feels justified to kill to make his statement. The dead are collateral damage in the wind of change which would benefit humanity on the whole. Their death is a drop of evil that would alter the path of civilisation just as people have died in the annals of our history and time. Then there is another who falls for blood for revenge. All these goes on under the watchful eyes on the Protector, quite aware, maybe perpetrating the whole cat-and-mouse game.

All we hear is...

Singapore GaGa (2015)
Director: Tan Pin Pin


I would not have given a second look at this hour-long experimental show that was due to be screened in Kuala Lumpur as part of bilateral cultural exchange.

Unfortunately, the Malaysian censor board felt that one of the words uttered was deemed confusing. The committee decided that that part of the speech must be blanked to avert apparent confusions at the level of infantile minded audiences. The director refused, and the presentation was withdrawn.

The director had performed to sell-out crowds in Singapore and at various international film festivals just for the records.

The presentation is a collection of sounds in the daily lives of an average Singaporean as he travels the MRT, walks on the streets and his HDB flats. The familiar sounds are the basking at the stations, the loud succinct sounds of news read in local dialects and the public's murmur against their daily activities.

A senior citizen spends more of his daytime in the premises of an MRT station performing a one-man show of simultaneously blowing the harmonica with one hand, juggling two balls with the other while tap-dancing wearing a pair of clogs. He seems to have the delusion of grandiose that he is a national treasure.

Another lady who uses a wheelchair gets on by selling tissue papers for a dollar while breaking into a song quite so often. She is pretty contented that she has found Christ and has no qualms expressing her faith in public.

An interview with a 60-year-old harmonica player-teacher and another guitar player highlights the merits of learning the harmonica in school instead of recorders. A Singapore performer who performed in New York to rave newspaper reviews shows her mantel by playing a miniature piano alternating with a percussion. The percussion, a pair of bamboo canes, reminds her of the Tok-Tok Mee man of her childhood.

The 'controversial' part of the show is by a ventriloquist performing at a school function. The puppet 'Charlee' shows his language skills by translating words of his master - to the word 'kawan', he says 'binatang' (animal). I fail to see the controversy. Perhaps, I am just too thick!

Another scene that does not fit into the equation, perhaps the very reason it was included, is a sports day event at an Arabic school in Singapore. Even though their allegiance is to Singapore, singing the national anthem and patriotic songs, the lingua franca is Arabic!

What is the point of the presentation, you may ask? The way I see it, it is to showcase that even though Singapore showcases itself as a sovereign and unified state, it is divided with various identities deep inside. The old and the little people have been forgotten and lagged in the nation's race to reach first world nation status.

Laugh at ourselves, once in a while?

Lelaki Harapan Dunia (2014)
Written & Directed by: Low Seng Tat

It has a long time since satires were made in this country. There was a time, in retrospect, after watching all those P. Ramlee's movies, when most of us used to laugh at ourselves whilst admitting that we are not perfect. Somehow, our the years we have changed. Perhaps due to inferiority complexes or fear of losing out and be steamrolled into submission by the others, somewhere along the way, we tend to take offence at everything when others comment on our follies and shortcomings.

This movie is a brainchild of a product of our own Multimedia University and has a string of accolades to its belt. It, however, stirred the emotions of some writers who consider themselves the upholders of anything pertaining to Malayness! What more when the story was penned and directed by someone, not from the diaspora! Especially so, when this satirical offering not only re-created the aura and ambience of a Malay village but re-lived the dynamics of a typical kampong, the hierarchy, politics, the feudalistic mindset, the patriarchal environment and the herd mentality.

What it shows is only specific to a kampong but rather at human nature on the whole. It ridicules the corruption and their belief in black magic, the mystic and ghosts.

Pak Awang plans to present an old debilitated house as a wedding gift to his daughter. Apparently, this 'moving house' (angkat rumah) is an age-old Malay tradition of recycling old house. The whole villagers would collectively lift the house to a new location to be refurbished.

The villagers, albeit being wary on offending the spirits of the old house, reluctantly oblige.

At the same time, Hari Raya Korban is around the corner and a politician is there to donate a camel to the villagers for sacrificial reasons. We later learn that the price of the animal is hugely inflated, taking a swipe at the government! The children take a liking to the camel and even gives him a name. Learning that he would be sacrificed, the children let him loose. Someone's cows also go missing. A villager's daughter develops spontaneous bruising.

Somebody suggested that it could be due to disturbed spirits of the house that created all the misfortunes. A shaman was brought in who suggested that it could the work of the mythical 'orang minyak'!

To complicate matters, a Nigerian illegal immigrant finds refuge in the old house, oblivious to everyone except to an elderly villager who happens to be blind. Pak Awang gets angry with the villagers for abandoning his project. He seeks revenge by masquerading as the orang minyak himself! Knowing that the intruder would attack the female occupants, the men in the village decided collectively to cross dress! This gives the hint of homosexuality amongst the villagers.

Detractors of this movie express their dissatisfaction in the lack of female presence in the story, but the Malay world had always been a male dominated one, a patriarchal one, at least in public. They take offence at the depiction (or ridicule) of the practice of sacrifice during Korban, where the children question the need for sacrificial animal and the depiction of blood splatter to the curious villager onlookers who shield themselves with umbrellas who the actual slaughter happens.

On a personal note, I found the film quite refreshing quite different from the usual non-cerebral unfunny offerings with recycled stereotyped jokes that are churned out by most Malaysian filmmakers!

Resting on past laurels?

The Imitation Game (2014)
The Brits, ever nostalgic over the times when the sun never set on their empire, are still not done with their success stories. This time around yet another angle of their success indecoding the unbreakable German Enigma machine.
The movie did not really strike as a suspense thriller but rather as one sympathetic to the plight of the LGBTQ community. And we have been too many of that kind of late!

The story is not anything new. As it is of historical nature, the outcome is well known, nothing unexpected.

It tells of a Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch of Sherlock fame), a socially awkward mathematical genius who is recruited an encryptor during the WW2 era. He and his team managed to decipher the German codes and potentially shorten the war by a good two years. 

Kiera Knighley as Joan Clarke

The real Joan Clarke

The real issue that the film makers are trying to highlight is that a man of such stature, his deed to the country is reciprocated by his subsequent imprisonment and chemical castration for homosexuality. His incarceration ended with his apparent suicide. 

During his tour of duty, he was engaged to his co-worker, Joan Clarke. As we can see from the picture below, a plain Jane, mathematical whiz and crossword puzzle maestro is made larger than life with the razzmatazz and make-up as portrayed by the lovely Kiera Knightley. An average movie by my taste.