Lost in KL?

Lost in Bukit Bintang?

It has been a long since I came to this side of town. More than 30 years ago, this place was 'happening' like the lingo in those days. A place brightly lit with neon lights, the epitome of capitalism, the enticement of the giant evil as it ushers in its sheep to the slaughter. Innovative advertising and enchanting window dressing were baits to detach the salaryman from his hard-earned in a jiffy. That is capitalism 101. There were a few choices back then, and Bukit Bintang was it. The place to be for the hip and trendy.

Now, I feel lost. Walking on the footpath, I feel like a foreigner in my own 'Tanah Tumpah Darah Ku'. Everyone passing me looks foreign, speaking in incomprehensible tongues. Even the servers at the stall that line the footpath do not look local.

Like a deer caught in the headlights, I felt like the proverbial deer that entered the village (Rusa masuk desa). I was too afraid of how things had morphed so fast since the last time I brought my kids here.

Oh, deer! An Englishman in New York?

Come to think of it, this is how my 84-year-old mother would be feeling right now. Born at a time when Malaya was under the tooth-and-nail of the Japanese Army, she must have a green, lush, malaria-laden tropical country transform into an oasis of modernity with skyscraping structures lining its skyline. With modernity came automation, artificial intelligence and self-working services that needed users' input. Computers and remotes are complicated for the non-IT-savvy individuals who missed the boat to educate themselves to be computer-literate. To top it all, the mind is willing, but the body and brain functions are weak, frustrating any attempts at wanting to partake in events of the changed world. 

With declining cognitive function, I fear the day when she would feel like a drowning person struggling to hold on to straws, trying to make sense of the murmurs that surround her telling her to do something...

What is it for the rest of us who want to be included in the wave of changes? It constantly reminds us that we should stay abreast of things. We do not want to be like India, thrown under the bus while Britain rode the bus of the Industrial Revolutions' first and second waves at the expense of India's raw materials and market. India is now doing a catch-up. Why bother with the bus now that we have hoverboards (hint: Back to the Future)!

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Poverty amongst the seniors!

The Bacchus Lady (2016)
Director: E J-Yong

Bacchus was a new word to me. It actually refers to the Greek god of wine, sometimes associated with Dionysus. Following the 1997 Asian financial crisis, many elderly people found themselves needing to fend themselves. The Miracle at Han River, following years of economic boom following the Korean War, left a country so entwined in the material chase that the traditional Confucian values had lost their appeal. Many young Koreans had emigrated, leaving their elders at home. South Korea is said to be having one of the worst social safety nets amongst OECD countries for its senior citizens. OECD (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development) countries comprise intergovernmental economic organisations with 38 nations founded in 1961 to stimulate world trade and stimulate economic progress. Its precursor, OEEC, was started in 1948 following the implementation of the Marshall Plan to develop post-WW2 Europe.

The poverty rate of elderly people in South Korea
is the highest among the OECD countries

In 2015, the local police arrested 33 ladies, including an 84-year-old woman, in a park in Jongno district in Seoul for soliciting customers for prostitution. Sociologists determined that the poor retirement benefits put the elderly, especially single ladies, below the poverty line and fend for themselves. Many turn to prostitution to survive. These ladies make a living by selling bottles of Bacchus-F, a popular energy drink, hence their nickname 'Bacchus Ladies'. The packaging suggests that it is sold as 'Livita' here in Malaysia. The Bacchus ladies' clientele is usually lonely old men. Transitioning to sexual services is optional.

The film starts with a postmenopausal lady, So-Young (sic), getting treatment for gonorrhoea. Just she exits the doctor's room, a ruckus begins. A Filipino lady barges in to demand from the doctor paternity support for their kid. In confusion, the kid left outside scoots off only to miss a major accident and be saved by So-Young. 

Slowly the movie shifts to the day-to-day of So-Young. She lives in a house with a transgender lady and a leg-amputee artiste. Like So-Young, these people are considered fringes of society, scorned for not conforming to the perfect mould to make money. We follow her through her clientele seeking exercise, the fights for customers, the bad-mouthing colleagues, the escape from police busts, and meeting old friends/clients.

So-Young discovers that an old acquaintance, called Saville Row Song for his immaculate haberdashery perfection, is now unwell with stroke. A visit to his nursing home revealed a dispirited Song, all ashamed for his condition, incontinence, immobility and all, begging to die. After a few visits, she actually helps him to die. 

All through, she introspects on the appropriateness of her action. She once sees a cardboard collecting lady by the roadside and ponders who had sunken lower in society - the lady dealing with dirty discards or herself for prostituting?

A good movie with a positive social message. A good watch.

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We are losing our leaves

The Father (2020)

The good die young, they say. So we look sentimentally at the 'Club 27' and bemoan their premature departure from the world of music; we lament the loss of many of their yet composed pieces. We remember them forever as the spirited and creative maestros they were. But, on the other hand, we abhor the many who had obviously overstayed their welcome; a particular nonagenarian two-time ex-Prime Minister comes to mind. It seems the longer we seem to stay alive, the further we get away from the public likeability scale. 

Perhaps we tolerate the old because of fear of what would become of us. In the hope of hope, we think all the good deeds will somehow be recorded and duly reciprocated by the Universe! Maybe, we are struggling to stay afloat in this Ocean of Life that we are looking for support in what we are doing. With the wisdom of having traversed similar paths, we secretly wish that they would give a nod of approval to our actions. 

Jim Morrison, Amy Winehouse and Kurt Cobain 

27 club (has at least 10 members)

We have fond recollections of young relatives, of children who succumbed to ailments way before their time. We remember the charming smile, their pranks and good times spent together. But, unfortunately, it is not the same of a sick relative who demanded de has to endure terminal care of a protracted. Despite all the good times they had offered in their happier, somehow, the memory that lingers in our minds is the latter days of pain and suffering. That, unfortunately, seems to be the first image of them that comes to mind. 

We are familiar with movies highlighting the trials and tribulations of the caregiver or the mess that the person with a mental disorder goes through. Unlike the rest, this movie tells the narrative from the point of the sufferer. As confusing as the orientation to time, space and person can be to a person afflicted with dementia, we, the audience, also get unsettled by the linearity of the story. It keeps flip-flopping, the scenes appear repeated, the background keeps changing, and we cannot really pin down who the bad person. Actually, there are none. Everybody is merely playing their part.

We soon realise that the main character just wants to cling to what he sees as reality, convincing himself that he is not off his rockers, that his judgement is right, and he has everything under control. Despite all the abuses hurled upon her, his daughter feels that caring for her father and sacrificing all her personal desires and ambition is the most filial thing to do. 

Some like to believe that these lost opportunities and the serving are just unsettled business transactions from another lifetime that needed to be completed. Ageing is just like the shedding of leaves of a passing season. Just like a tree that sheds its blades in autumn to go into hibernation before springing out new shoots, old age and passing are inevitable. We 'pass away' into the annals of time. In Tamil, a dead person 'becomes time' - 'காலம் ஆனார்'. 

[P.S. The octogenarian Anthony Hopkin won an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in this movie].

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