Time to update what teenagers are capable of?

The Secret We Keep (Danish, 2025)
Miniseries

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33496221/

Imagine travelling back in time by just over a hundred years. Children were expected to express gratitude for their very existence. The mere fact that they survived the challenging early years of life and did not fall victim to infectious diseases was, in itself, a miracle. They had to be eternally thankful to their parents for safeguarding them from these harmful factors. During that era, children had no rights; they were to be seen and not heard. 

Fast forward to the 21st century. Children are no longer perceived as an annoyance; rather, family life revolves around them. They are shielded and have a detailed schedule planned. Family activities centre on them. Children have rights, and the state goes to great lengths to ensure their protection, education, healthcare, shelter, and proper nutrition, as outlined by the 1959 UN Charter which guarantees these rights. 

These achievements have been beneficial. Children are no longer merely fillers for deceased or retired workers. They require a significant period of personal development known as childhood. At this stage, nothing is expected of them except to absorb knowledge, whether actively or passively, that they can utilise in adulthood. 

The trouble is this: all the good nourishment and access to knowledge have made children mature much earlier than their forefathers. In the eyes of society (and law), nothing is expected of them. They are deemed incapable of committing any crime. In their minds, they believe they are unable to consent to anything or to engage in complex matters such as robbing a bank or wooing someone into sex. 

Guess what? The world has taken a leap of change while they were napping. The ease of acquiring information from the World Wide Web at a moment's notice has replaced traditional discussions about ‘birds and bees’ or familiarising oneself with subversives. Nothing is taboo or classified anymore.

We end up with all-knowing teenagers who possess excellent nourishment and health due to science, hovering about like firecrackers with unlit fuses, ready to explode when the moment is right. 

This unsettling miniseries portrays a scenario in which two affluent neighbours, whose husbands are business partners, are also close friends. They share numerous similarities, both having teenage sons and each employing au pairs of Filipina heritage. 

One of the au pairs approached her neighbour's Madame to express her dissatisfaction with her employer. The Madame merely attempted to cut the conversation short, likely not wanting to jeopardise her friendship with the neighbour. The next day, the au pair goes missing. Everyone assumes she has merely run away from home. The police are called in. Things take a turn when the Madame begins to suspect that the husband may have had some involvement in her disappearance. A week later, her body is discovered floating in the lake.

Spoiler alert: As it turns out, one of the teenage sons had raped the Filipina. Feeling guilty and with no one to turn to, she took her own life. The trouble is that the youngster cannot be charged with rape. Legally, he is incapable of such an act. Forget that he is of Nordic stock, athletic, and a school wrestler. If anything, the deceased would be accused of sexual assault of the teenager! Probably because Filipinas are economically disadvantaged, occupy the lower strata of society, and are foreigners, the matter dies a natural death. Everyone moves on with their lives, nonetheless, dragging along huge burdens.

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The hard work of marriage!

Winter Sleep (Kis uykusu, Turkish; 2014)
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan

https://www.amazon.com.au/Winter-Sleep-Movie/
dp/B00PULVVWU

This is a lengthy film, prompting one to ponder what message it aims to convey. Is it the strained relationship between the protagonist and his much younger wife? The main character is Aydin, a retired (failed) actor who has retreated to a bitterly cold part of the country to manage a small hotel that is predominantly out of business during winter. He also owns a few rental properties in the area. He regularly writes in an online column, sharing his observations of the world around him and offering veiled sarcasm to no one in particular. 

Since he examines everything critically, much like an outsider would, is he being a snob? Is he condescending towards the poor or to those who believe in God? At least, that is how the young wife, Nihal, perceives it. She is exasperated by the fact that she is toiling away in the cold rather than in Istanbul, where things are lively. Also staying with them is Aydin's estranged sister, who has separated from her abusive alcoholic husband but now yearns for the good old days with him. 

A few things unfold along the way concerning a hostile tenant and a suspicious donor in Nihal's donation campaign. These events shape Aydin's outlook on life, particularly after both his wife and sister make unpleasant remarks about him during different conversations. This is how the story goes…

It is said that the union of marriage involves sharing and giving. Initially, it is 'what's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine.’ It begins as a compromise. No one seeks to dominate the other; rather, they work hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder to ensure that this esteemed institution remains intact. 

Then, it becomes, 'what's mine is mine, and what's yours is yours.' The promise of a joint venture to ensure the continuity of species begins to develop tiny cracks. The fear of being dominated and sidelined for self-interest begins to creep in. Perhaps something has been brewing under the radar surreptitiously. The innate fear of being taken for a fool also seeps in.

That is when all shields begin to rise. What is yours is mine, and what is mine is mine, becomes the renewed mantra. As the inner realisation unfolds and the affairs of the world serve as a guiding light, paranoia sets in. Terms such as gaslighting and secrecy will be introduced into the arena. 

Marriages are not made in heaven, but the institution is chiselled out on Earth. It takes a lot of hard work, and hands do get dirty. 

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Only when you need!

Indian 2(Tamil, 2024)

Director: S. Shankar

Even though his movie did not live up to its predecessor, which came out in 1996, there are a few instances in the film that make the Indian diaspora pause and reevaluate their behaviours.

Forget what is happening in India. It would be irrelevant for a person residing in India to assess and enumerate the changes in India since the original Indian movie came out 28 years ago. Let a Malaysian of the Indian diaspora look at what has changed since.

The theme of Indian 1 was to highlight how the system was broken because of rampant corruption and the lack of willpower of civil servants and public figures to change the status quo. It took a pre-independence freedom fighter to re-don his combat gear to highlight the rot to the public consciousness. In his own psychotic ways, Indian Tata (grandpa) brought the people in charge to task, even killing his own son approving the permit of an unroadworthy school bus, which killed many school kids.

That is when the sequel fits in. Corruption never really went anywhere. The police, who were supposed to be the last bastion to uphold law and order, are blatantly on the take and kowtowing shamelessly to thugs and politicians. Court cases are progressing nowhere. Dishonesty and untruths rule the day. The general public is getting hot under their collars. A group of vloggers who fight for social justice reminisce about the time when Indian Tata was around to save the day. As he was never caught, the public suspects he is still alive but had gone underground. They pleaded for Indian Tata to return via social media, of course.

It seems that Indian Tata is all well and hearty in Taiwan, living incognito and minding his own business. He is cajoled to return to India.

After returning to what he does best with ancient Indian martial arts, Varma Kalai, he soon realises that the table has turned. When an apparently wrong person is arrested, Indian Tata becomes India's most hated person. People start chanting, "Go back, Indian! "

The film hits you at two levels. You soon realise that the world and all its affairs are too intertwined. No one saviour can come and save the day. A slash-hammer approach to right the wrong is too simplistic. It is naive to think people do not want to be good and do the correct thing. They simply cannot. Like a Jenga structure, the whole system is maintained in position by complicated ad-hoc, haphazardly placed Jenga sticks. It stays intact as long as the sticks are well placed. Forget about getting it in symmetry or making it aesthetically pleasing. It is what it is.

The phrase 'go back to India' or its Malay translation 'oi, balik India!' has a familiar ring to those who grew up in Malaysia. Quite often in our childhood, we have hurled abuses like these from mobs or groups of young Malay boys all riled up in the spirit of, say, football or hockey games. Even though no one who is non-Indian would tell it on the face of a fellow Malaysian Indian, offensives like these are tolerated.

It is also a lesson that I learned in life that people will hold you in high esteem only if it suits them and would not have a second thought to drop you like a hot potato when your services are not needed anymore. So do not gloat in the praises of others. The same mouth that uttered niceties, in no time, will be cussing you, maybe spitting at you too!

[P.S. An episode in the Mahabharata comes to mind. While travelling from Dwarka to Indrapura, Krishna and Arjuna overheard a fellow traveller singing praises of Karna, Arjuna's arch-enemy. The traveller was talking about Karna's philanthropy. An incensed Arjuna told Krishna that his statement was unfair. After all, Karna's wealth was not his as he had inherited them. He did not earn them. People should be praised for what they have earned or worked hard for. Arjuna had worked to be the great warrior he was. People should be praising Arjuna, not Karna. 

In his great wisdom, Krishna put Arjuna to the test. Arjuna was shown a mountain of gold to be distributed to the needy. He was given a whole day to complete the task. Getting meticulous in the task, Arjuna tried to divide the gold according to people's needs. He gave halfway as none of the recipients were happy. Those who got less, whom Arjuna thought deserved less, wanted more. Those who got more wanted even more. 

Soon, Krishna assigned the same job to Karna. Karna completed the task in a jiffy, and everyone was happy. What Karna did was to get someone who was already in the charity business to finance him to continue doing his good job with Karna's assistance. The moral of the story is that there are people assigned to do certain jobs. Let them handle it. Do not think you have to solve everybody's problem. Not everyone is cut for the job. You will end up unhappy, and so will others.]

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Are you man enough?

Straw Dog 1971

Director: Sam Peckinpah

Nature has made the male species biologically different from their counterpart. Nature's constant need to improve the quality of their offspring to survive the competition with other species has made the male species fight it out to qualify to sow their seeds. 

Their robust physical attributes made it handy when hunter-gatherers settled down in communities. The male gender is assigned to protect the weaker segment of the community. So, a male is expected to play his role as virile, aggressive and fierce. 

With time, power is no longer at the tip of a sword or a fist's knuckle. Culture made people less volatile and able to reason out things. To ease this, the rule of law was rolled in. The need for women's empowerment also arose. Power is a zero-sum game. The women's gain must be indeed a loss to men. Increasingly, men are said to be domiciled. That is at a macro level. 

At a micro, things may be different. A man is still expected to protect his wife and family. He is expected to defend them tooth and nail. A cultured man is supposed to be less combative and give everyone their space and due respect. But when caring for his family, he is supposed to man up, rise as the man of yesteryears, and use his physical attributes to defend the pride and dignity of the people under his care. He is expected to use his primitive defences to make them feel the females feel important.

At one time, the women felt fed up with the chivalrous gestures showered up. They thought they were treated condescendingly. They wanted to prove to the world that they were in no way inferior to their male counterparts. Hence, it started the spree of the female gender to outdo the male. Liberation went on so far that the women took a 360° turn. Now, they reminisce about the times when they were treated as princesses.

So, being a man in the modern world is challenging. On one end, he is expected to be mild-mannered, able to articulate and express his concerns and not resort to violence to air his opinion. Protecting one's safety has been outsourced for this exact reason. Everyone is expected to work within the ambit of the law. Being violent is, they say, low-brow.

To complicate things, women, with their newfound freedom, flaunt the very thing that used to be taboo all those years. They know very well that men have to restrain, failing which the mighty weight of the law may befall them. In the immediate future, they have their men at the beck and call for protection, like a guard dog. 

In its time, this movie created a lot of controversies for its gruesome depiction of rape and glorifying violence. There is even a scene where the rape victim is apparently seen to enjoy the act. It is debatable whether, as the perpetrator is her ex-boyfriend, she longs for the good old carefree sex-filled days. She has sexual tensions with her husband.

It is a story of a couple trying to spend a short stint in the English countryside of Cornwall. The husband, David Sumner (played by Dustin Hoffman), is an American maths professor doing sabbatical research. The wife, Amy (Susan George), who is less academically inclined than her husband, used to grow up in Cornwall. Her sojourn is like a chicken coming back to roost. All her contemporaries, with whom she shared a common past, are still there, albeit stuck with their low-brow ideas and behaviours, doing menial jobs. They are hired to do some home repairs. 

The peace in the couple's home is shattered as the workers lust on the flirtatious wife. The pacifist husband tries to deal with the situation in a cultured way, but it is futile. Things turn sour when the mentally challenged man accused of molesting a teenager is harboured in the Professor's house. The incensed townsfolk are out for his blood, but the Professor is adamant that it is his duty to protect the accused. Thus started a blood bath. The Professor is finally able to show his true grit and prowess. Through quick planning and execution, he manages to defeat the aggressors. 

On the one hand, the modern man is pussified and domesticated to fit into a non-combative world where the duty of law and order is outsourced to the nation. Culture teaches him non-aggression, but he is still expected to rise occasionally as society deems it necessary. The thing is, man has to choose his battles carefully. He needs the wisdom to wage unnecessary wars and how to avoid being suckered into it. 

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The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Lost Illusion (Illusions Perdues, French, 2022)
Director: Xavier Giannoli
(Based on 'Illusions perdues' by Honoré de Balzac)

The distinction between the left and the right side of politics is said to have had its origin at the time of King Louis XVI. Those seated to the right were royalties and the nobilities who were quite contented with the status quo, that is, authoritarianism and the church's excessive meddling. The feudalistic method of wealth distribution works just fine for them, thanks to their linkages to the monarch. Those on the left of the King earned their every penny through hard work and hard-sell. Naturally, they abhor cronyism and want level playing fields.

The French revolution jolted this arrangement at its core. The peasants did not want to be reminded of their past anymore. People with surnames that had an association with the royalties and aristocrats were hunted down and guillotined. By the post-Napoleonic era, things had resorted back to how it was before the time the French broke down the gates of bastille. French society had been divided again by class. Money, wealth and ancestor became important again.

Against this background, Balzac wrote this classic. It is the story of a talented young 20-year-old man from the countryside who lands in 1821 Paris to be a somebody. Lucien, a man embarrassed by his heritage, comes armed with poetry and the zest to be a famous poet. He earlier is caught having an affair with a high society woman, somebody's wife. He soon discovers a world full of fake news and a press willing to prostitute itself to the highest bidder. His dream to be a poet crumbles as his writings hurt the sentiments of a certain section of society. Nobody writes the truth anymore. It all depends on who is their paymaster. The more things seem to change, the more they seem to recoil back to how it was previously. He falls in love with a budding actress, but her career is also cut short by these critics who shoot down talent with scathing jeers and paid negative reviews. Lucien comes home an empty man.

The kudos we read in the newsreels are because the reporters were told to do so. Publishers publish articles that meet their agendas. They realise that a lie often repeated becomes the unassailable truth.

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Away with human interaction?

Jexi (2019)
Director: Jon Lucas, Scott Moore

There is nothing groundbreaking about this movie. It reminds me of at least two films which dealt with the same theme. In 1984 'Electric Dreams', a desktop computer, Edgar, falls in love with the protagonist's crush. After successfully wooing his beau with the help of his computer, his life turns into a living hell. His computer controls most of his home devices and goes hyperdrive to sabotage the protagonist's work and love life. In 2013 'Her', the protagonist falls in love with an Operating System, AI.

All three films show us how hooked we are to our digital devices. We avoid human interaction and feel most comfortable left to our devices. Furthermore, interaction with the same kind becomes increasingly more difficult. Even though we were told that we are social animals who thrive on human dealings, somehow, it becomes more and more an uphill battle. People demand. They want to be treated special. They demand the right not to be offended. We need to be politically correct when addressing them. The power dynamics put them in such a place that they can get away with murder. 

They say the customer is always right, so they demand their rights to be served as if the servant has no rights. There is no such thing as implied consent. It seems like everything has to be written, signed and glazed with a seal of legal approval.

As human interaction becomes increasingly laborious, many find solace in the company of sologamy and interactive digital devices. It can be switched off at will and does not leave a substantial legal bill. Maybe not. Our digital footprints stay in the cloud forever, waiting to be picked up and used against us when the time is ripe. If you do not believe me, ask Rashmi Samant, who won the Oxford Union Presidentship in 2020. She was cyberbullied and forced to resign after her past internet entries of years previously alleging racism, xenophobia, Islamophobia, you name it!

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The need for a routine and human interaction!

Mathilukal (Malayalam, The Walls, 1990)
Written & Directed by: Adoor Gopalakrishna
(Autobiography of Vaikom Muhammad Basheer)

This is another classic from Kerala's son of the soil. It tickles our minds to consider two things. Firstly, human beings are creatures of routine. The other is we are social animals.

A routine schedule gives them a purpose to this entity called life. No matter how purposeless the rituals may be, we would do it diligently as if it were a higher calling. We would find a legitimate explanation to justify our actions, perhaps give a scientific twist to it. In absence of these 'unwritten' rules and left to our own devices, we would probably just rot away trying to fulfil the indulges that satisfy our primal needs. This would just make the human race a band of sloppy sluggards. Soon enough, the species would be decimated from the face of Earth.

Being social animals, we need to interact with each other. This interaction could be in person, via mail, in cyberspace or just by hearing a responsive voice, as we learn to appreciate from this film. And the voice does not need a face to go with it.

Being in prison cuts us off from our desire to be free. It put us into a routine, which hopefully will make us reassess our existence. The routine nature of life there hopes to put us back into the loop of living purposefully.

Having human interaction is construed as a luxury for inmates. Hence, solitary confinement is threatened as a stick to cow them to conform to the rules of gaols.

This legendary offering with a string of accolades behind its name tells of the author’s autobiography during his incarceration during the pre-independence era in the 1940s when he was charged with treason for writing ‘anti-National’ articles. The film can roughly be divided into two parts.

In the first, we learn that he is respected by jailers and fellow inmates. He gets on jolly well with other prisoners, considering the usual stereotype about prison politics we get from movies. Everyone has a backstory justifying their crime and the circumstances that pushed them to commit them. Basheer, the protagonist, is well respected, for everyone knows about his incisive writings.

One day, there was quite an excitement when many political prisoners were released when the colonial masters had a change of heart. Unfortunately, Basheer's name is not on the list. Basheer is left alone without his friends. The small rose garden he cultivated around the compound started growing, giving him some tranquillity.

One day, whilst tending his garden, whistling, Basheer hears a feminine voice from the other side of the tall prison wall. What started as time-pass slowly evolved from a non-essential banter to possibly something romantic. It came to a time when that was the most looked forward moment of the day!

Finally, when the day came for release, Basheer was actually in two minds about whether he should leave as he would miss his conversationalist across the wall. How ironic. He wanted to leave the prison all the while, but now he is sad about leaving. How routine and meaningful interaction brought purpose to life!

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The unseen non-medical effects of lockdown?

Unpaused (Anthology of 5 episodes, Hindi; 2020)
Unpaused: Naya Safar (5 episodes; 2021)

As the numbers of Omicron variant cases continue to rise, allegedly after a large congregation of unvaccinated pilgrims made it all the way to the Holy Land, now is an opportune time to reminisce the good old days when a virus from Wuhan labs jumped ship and affected humans. It is mind-boggling to fathom how much this pandemic had jolted the core of our existence.

It goes without saying that the pandemic has affected everyone in so many ways. Economically, it affected all, predominantly those on the lower rung of the food chain. Interestingly, the ten of the richest globally has doubled their wealth at the end of the second wave.

Inconspicuously, Covid infection started as a concern only for the affluent and frequent flyers as they picked the bug after globetrotting. The poor were not so concerned then. Soon, the tables turned. Living in a restricted living space and close proximity between family members made the poor more vulnerable and even outcasts when society started combating the disease.

What is often forgotten in the equation is the psychological component of this whole calamity. In years to come, the full extent of the post-traumatic stress of being cooped indoors, studying online for two years, non-attendance of familial functions and spending hours gazing at a blue screen will come to the fore.

These two anthology types of miniseries explore many of the stresses people endured in the past two waves of the pandemic. Many of the stories are so surreal and plucks the strings of the viewers' hearts. We stop complaining about our shoes when we see someone with no legs.

In the first season of Unpaused, the episode that piqued my interest was the one called 'Glitch'. In a futuristic universe, Covid has mutated so many times. The world is divided into two types of people - the 'hypos', short for hypochondriacs who simply live an isolated life with a morbid phobia of coming in contact with humans and the 'warriors', who are scientists and frontliners who fight hard to annihilate the virus. It is no more Covid-19; it is Covid-30 in the year 2030. Years of isolation have drained people of interactive social skills, and they have to depend on computer programmes to hook people up. A glitch in the systems meets two people' virtually' in a chat room. The problem is that one is a hypo and the other a warrior. The warrior in real life is a mute scientist. After an initial stormy hook-up, love transcended all differences. The hypo learns sign language and overcomes his germophobia tendencies.

In the second season, two of its episodes were, I thought they were very well made. In 'War Room', a quiet school teacher was assigned to help out at a hotline centre to arrange ICU beds for Covid patients. She carries the burden of the death of her teenage son on her sleeve. He had apparently committed suicide. Legal proceedings were ongoing as she tried to sue his college principal for negligence as the school did not arrange for medical assistance in time to save him. Despite the overhanging sorrow over her head, the teacher hoped to serve society to pay her dues. Fate plays its twisted humour when she gets into a position to deny a bed for the said principal when his son called in requesting an ICU bed. The rest of the story is about she deals with this moral dilemma.

'Vaikunth' (Heaven) is another exciting episode with a compelling storyline. A crematorium worker has his hands full as the number of Covid deaths increases during the second wave. He is a single parent, and his father is admitted for Covid. He also has a young son whom he is trying desperately to educate. He thinks he is doing excellent service to mankind by diligently handling the extra bodies to cremate. Unfortunately, his landlord and his neighbours believe otherwise. They are not comfortable with his close link to Covid, attending to Covid death and his father being Covid+. Nobody is willing to care for his son temporarily; hence, both stay on the crematorium premises. Meanwhile, there is no avenue available to find out whatever happened to his father. He is a 'frontliner', braving himself against the unseen enemy, but nobody actually gives him a second look. 

There are more things to appreciate than the story itself in these two and other episodes. The subtle inclusion of motifs (like the fire in Vaikunth - fire to cremate at the end of life, fire to light the stove for sustenance, and fire to light a cigarette to enjoy life) and the excellent cinematography. The episode ends with a poetic message about how the ashes from the burnt bodies are used to fertilise the rice fields to germinate new seeds, completing the circle of life from ashes to ashes. 

Hope is the thing with feathers/ That perches in the soul…." Emily Dickinson

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