"If you want anything, just whistle..."

To have and have not! (1944)
This Ernest Hemingway story based film is anything but the typical Hemingway type - the one which has a convoluted story with a lot of travel and scenes of Europe. Apparently, the story was modified from the real one. It is a simple story of an world-weary American boat captain and his tribulations of being a boatman set in the seaside town in 1940 France which was at war. Morgan (Humphrey Bogart), the boat man has to put up with dumb non-paying tourist who use his services to fish and French Resistance freedom fighters who plead with him to transport their agents. Along comes Slim (Lauren Bacall), Morgan's love interest, a mysterious wandering American tourist.
Due to financial reasons when a would-be payer is shot, he relents to the Resistance's insistence. He picks up two agents from a hide-out island, an agent is shot during a shoot-out with authorities, manages to bring them across safely and nursed him to health. Morgan manages to dodge the advances of the investigation authorities and sail away into the sunset with his love of his life.
This film is no mean Titanic in production or story but it wins in other subtle ways. Bacall's debut performance is brilliant. It shows the perfect chemistry and verve that sparks between this two actors and must have been the hotbed of the start of a long lasting of a strong on-screen and off-screen relationship. Personally I have not seen any pair ever forge such vibes ever in my novice and limited experience.
The music score, made mostly by the music director (Hoagy Carmichael) who was seen as the pianist at hotel lounge that Morgan resides, is quite catchy. Bacall tries her hand (voice) at one of the songs played. Unfortunately, her voice sounds too rough, probably due to all those smoking. Still, she was only 19 then and had an amazing thin disappearing waist!
Morgan's alcoholic sidekick on his boat provides a few thinking comical moments. A good watch!

Memorable quote from the film, "You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow."

Memories are made to be remembered

Hugo (2011)
A family themed movie set in the 1920s Paris which seem to be teaming with orphans (probably because their parents might have been killed in the Great War), so much so that a goofy policeman (Sacha Baron Cohen, Yes! Borat) with leg braces and an expression full Rottweiler make it their full time duty to hunt them down, often with comical sequel!
Hugo, an orphan, stays alone in a clock tower in a Paris railway station without bothering anybody but maintaining the clock and occasionally pilfering to satisfy his hunger. His father, a curator in a museum had earlier died suddenly and Hugo was cared for by his drunkard uncle in the tower before he also dies.
Papa George (Ben Kingsley), a toy shop owner, accuses Hugo of stealing his things but hires him to help around when Hugo managed to impress him with his skills of repairing mechanical toys. George had earlier confiscated a mysterious note book that was found on Hugo.
The book contained notes about a mechanical man that Hugo and his father were working on before his untimely demise.
Hugo spends a lot of time watching regular attendees at the railway station - the policeman and his keen interest with the florist, the elderly gentleman and a lonely lady with a dog.
Hugo befriends George's god daughter who introduces him to books. Through a pendant that she wears, Hugo manages to activate the mechanical man his father had been working on, who draws a caricature of a primitive spaceship hitting an eye of the moon signed off as Papa George. When viewed by George and his wife, they get upset.
Whilst researching on the subject, the kids meet an author of a book who states that George was a famous movie maker before calling it quits suddenly.
The author brings home a movie reel just to bring nostalgia to George's heart. He starts telling his side of the story....
Starting as a magician, he ventured into to films and was successful at it. The Great War came and demand for his film faded and had to sell off his property off.
George is delighted that someone still appreciates his work. Hugo gets him the mechanical man (automaton) which George invented and Hugo is adopted. In the final scene, George's pioneering work is feted and everybody is happy.
In summary, this is a film about a boy who is greatly attached to his father and did not have enough time to say good bye for his sudden death. As is to continue his attachment to his father, he continues with his father's obsession.
A Martin Scorsese direction but nothing to shout about, highly predictable story line, yawn....

Recognise our shared history

By Farish A. Noor

MANY SIMILARITIES: The peoples of Indonesia and Malaysia should celebrate their inter-connected past

SCHOLARS who follow the long and complicated historical relations between Malaysia and Indonesia are sometimes baffled by how and why certain parties in both countries tend to view each other with incredulity and a lack of comprehension.
For many years now, some quarters in Indonesia have raised the question of why Malaysia has "claimed" some of Indonesia's symbols, artistic products and cultural practices as theirs, and this has been accompanied by demonstrations of anger and frustration.
Before going any further, allow me to reiterate for the umpteenth time that as a scholar who works and teaches in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, I see nothing but similarities between all three countries; and that these similarities can be traced back to a common history that they all share -- even if some quarters do not wish to admit it.
The recent spat erupted as a result of Malaysia stating that two dance forms are part of Malaysian culture as well, although they originated from Sumatra that neighbours the Peninsular Malaysia.
On the Indonesian side some groups are claiming that these dances are Sumatran in origin and that they are, therefore, Indonesian in character. But scholars need to be wary of the tendency to backdate historical claims too far, and we should remember that these dance forms presumably existed long before both Malaysia and Indonesia came into being in the form of the modern nation-states they now assume.
Southeast Asians need to remember that our culture, belief systems, cosmologies and languages came into being long before the era of modern nation-states, and long before the advent of colonial rule that divided the region into neatly-compartmentalised blocks. Have we forgotten that for more than a millenium, millions of people travelled regularly between the coastal port cities of Sumatra and the Malay peninsula?
And have we forgotten that millions of those who are regarded as "Malay" in Malaysia are themselves descendants of Minangs, Bugis, Javanese, Madurese, Acehnese, who hailed from what is now Indonesia? Until today my Indonesian students are startled when I tell them that there are plenty of Malaysians who speak Javanese, Minang, Bugis or other languages apart from Bahasa Malaysia, for the simple reason that their families (like mine) came from what is today modern Indonesia.
The reason for this confusion is simple enough to see. On both sides of the frontier, Malaysian and Indonesian history has been written by post-colonial historians who write for their respective national audiences.
In my reading of Indonesian history books, I am pleasantly surprised by the huge emphasis given to the rich cultural diversity of Indonesia, and the constant reminder that Indonesia is a complex nation with many nations-among-nations in it.
It is a pity that this celebration of diversity does not extend to the recognition of the many diasporas that have also settled in other parts of the archipelago such as Malaysia and Singapore -- where there are also thousands of Javanese, Minangs, Bugis, etc, who have become Malaysian and Singaporean citizens by now.
To return to the current huff over the Sumatran dances that are seen as part of Malaysia's cultural heritage as well: this was not an instance of Malaysia "stealing" an Indonesian dance but rather the recognition that so much of what constitutes Malaysian identity has been the contribution of our kith and kin from Sumatra as well. The same applies to the contribution from Java, Madura, Sulawesi, and further afield like India, China and the Arab lands. If I, as a Malaysian of Javanese descent, chose to wear the blankon and sarong, am I "stealing" Javanese culture, or am I celebrating my own diverse origins and roots?
As Asean inches closer to the Asean Charter in 2015, I hope that the peoples and governments of the region would choose to reconnect with our inter-connected past instead of emphasising our differences all the time.
Indonesia on the other hand should see this as testimony to its long and deep cultural outreach across the archipelago, and something it can be justifiably proud of. Nationalism does not have to be of the exclusive, bellicose variety: Sometimes accepting that others appreciate you can also pay dividends.

Read more: Recognise our shared history - Columnist - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/recognise-our-shared-history-1.96964#ixzz1yWECMtjs

February 30? Get out of here!

Feb. 31, 1869?

My son has this fascination that borders on insanity with calenders, dates and time in general - from space, outer space to time travel and everything in between. Just give him a date between 1900 and 2300 and he would tell you correctly its day through mental calculation.

So, one day he asked me (to test my intelligence) whether if there ever existed a 30th February. Annoyed, I told him no and advised him to use his resources for something more productive! It turned out that there existed twice in the history of mankind the dates February 30th and I had to eat humble pie. And he went on rattling about the Swedish calendar (during the conversion of Julian to the Gregorian calendar) and the Soviet revolutionary calendar when the months were jumbled up to serve certain reasons.

And of course, in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Hobbits had a February 30 in their calendar!

(...from www.timeanddate.com)

February 30 was a real date

February 30 was a real date at one point in time in Sweden and the Soviet Union. However, the introduction of this date was temporary. In Sweden, February 30 resulted from an error with calendar conversion in the 18th century. About two centuries later, the Soviet revolutionary calendar featured February 30 as a result of an attempt to cut seven-day weeks into five-day weeks and to introduce 30-day months for every working month.
Sweden’s 30 days of February
In 1700 Sweden, which included Finland at the time, planned to convert from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. Therefore 1700, which should have been a leap year in the Julian calendar, was not a leap year in Sweden. However, 1704 and 1708 became leap years by error. This left Sweden out of synchronization with both the Julian and the Gregorian calendars, so the country reverted back to the Julian calendar. February 30, 1712, came into existence in Sweden when the Julian calendar was restored and 2 leap days were added that year. Sweden’s final conversion to the Gregorian calendar occurred in 1753 when a 10-day correction was applied so that February 17 became March 1 that year. Not everyone was pleased with the calendar reform. They believed it stole 11 days of their lives.
The Soviet revolutionary calendar
February 30 existed from 1930-1931 after the Soviet Union introduced a revolutionary calendar in 1929. This calendar featured five-day weeks, 30-day months for every working month, and the remaining five or six days were “monthless” holidays. The abolition of the seven-day week in favour of a five-day week was intended to improve industrial efficiency by avoiding the regular interruption of a non-working day. However, the Gregorian calendar continued to be used in the Soviet Union during this period. This is confirmed by successive dates found in daily issues of Pravda, the official newspaper of the Communist Party, in which February had 28 days in 1930 and 1931, in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. The Soviet revolutionary calendar was discarded as it was difficult to eliminate the Sunday rest tradition. The original seven-day week was restored in 1940.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_30
http://www.timeanddate.com/date/february-30.html

Beginning of life?

Sculpture depicting the churning of the ocean at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand

Now that everyone can fly, everyone has a chance to see the wonders of nature and man made structures near and far! A point in question is the mammoth man made structure in Swarnabumi airport in Bangkok. Incidentally, 'Swarnabumi' is a Sanskrit word meaning 'land of gold'. It was initially used by Indian traders to describe the strip of land protruding from the mainland of south east of Asia, i.e.peninsular of Malaya.

The giant elaborate structure depicts an event in Hindu scripture (Puranas) of Lord Vishnu's second avatar. It all started when the God of Sky (Indra) was given a garland by a passing sage. Indra placed on his elephant's trunk who threw it away because of the strong scent. The sage, angered by this action of throwing away God's offering, passed a curse rendering all the demi Gods and Devas powerless. (Hey! I thought saintly sages are supposed to be patient and able to control their animal emotions!)

Same story in Angkor Wat

Lord Vishnu joined forces with Lord Shiva to save the world as demons, with special powers acquired from Lord Brahma and Lord Shiva at different times were terrorizing. Lord Vishnu assumed his second avatar as a turtle assisted by Vasuki, a serpent and a mountain. They had to churn out the nectar of immortality from the Ocean of Milk to restore powers of the Devas. Vasuki became the churning rope, the mountain became the churning rod, Vishnu sat on the mountain to stabilize it. On the tail end of the serpent were the devas and the demons at the head. This process produced lots of toxic power which was engulf by Lord Shiva but it got stuck in his throat after the neck was clenched by his consort. Shiva became blue in the face but the toxin got permanently stuck in his throat. The end results of the churning were aplenty. Beside the nectar which was held by the divine physician who flew on giant bird, Garuda, other by-products were Lakshmi who became Vishnu's consort, thulsi plant and many more. Lord Vishnu had to disguise as a pretty maiden, Mohini, to steer the attention of the demon while Garuda scoots off with the nectar. Unfortunately, things became complicated when Lord Shiva also gets excited. That is another sub-plot on the evolution of the Ayyapa and the justification of same sex union in the Hindu religion.
At one look, all these may look like a fictional tale coined to entertain the masses at an era where there were no outlet of entertainment to spend those long winter nights. Others may say it denotes symbolism of our daily life - our eternal fight with our inner demons to bring out the best in us.
I would say it sounds very much like a 'Big Bang' theory. An explosion of sorts in Ocean of Milk (?Milky Way) emitting radioactive explosion resulting in production of many lives, planets and beings.
Just a point to ponder...

Sagar Manthan

http://hinduwebsite.com/churning.asp

Into the kaleidoscopic maze of life....

Blind Chance (Polish: Przypadek) 1987(release)

I suppose, in conjunction with the Euro 2012 finals co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine, it is only proper to review a Polish film. Actually, it the movie upon which 'Sliding Doors' (which I discussed earlier) is based on.

Even with excellent subtitles, the first half-hour of the film just whisks by without giving a clue what was going on! Characters were coming and going leaving us wondering what was actually going on.

The story starts with Witek screaming on top of his lungs. In the next scene, bodies of dead people are dragged by doctors and attendants along a hospital corridor, leaving a trail of blood along the way. Then it goes to the time when Witek was a child, and his friend Daniel moves to Denmark. And a young Witek with a girlfriend. A cadaver is dissected in full view of the audience stirring up a medical student who could not stomach the gore. Then we see Witek, a 4th-year medical student, coaxing her, who actually fancies him. Witek's father dies, and Witek, who was doing medicine to fulfil his father's wish, takes a break to reflect on his future. He runs to catch a train, and that is when the real story starts.
While rushing to buy a train ticket, he collides into an elderly lady who drops a coin. The coin is picked by a vagabond who buys a beer. When the drunk savours his excellent fortune and beer, a hasty Witek knocks the drinker and barely made it to the back of the leaving train. He befriends a middle-aged man, Werner, and follows him home. This man is involved in the Communist party movements and probably just out of prison. Witek is coaxed to continue the work that he had failed.
Witek meets his first flame. He also comes to meet a government Minister, Adam, who takes him under his wings.

He is sent to rescue some health personnel who were held hostage by a group of junkies. After successfully saving the day, he is lured into the party's ideology.
He discovers that his first love had been tortured and is now working with an anti-Government group. We also find that Witek had a stillborn twin and his mother died during childbirth. He must have been born during a national disaster. That was the scene shown at the beginning of the film.
Witek's boss, Adam, gets Czuszka arrested for illegal activities. Thinking that Witek snitched on her, she leaves. Witek assaults Adam and tries to flee his country to France but is frustrated that his passport had been withheld. And he screams.....

Next, the scene moves to where Witek runs to catch his train. The same view but this time he knocks the vagabond's beer costing him valuable milliseconds that made him miss his train. He assaults a railway officer who prevents him from running after a speeding train. Witek is incarcerated with community service.

There he meets Marek, a fellow detainee. Marek introduces him to a priest who in turn passes him some money to be given to a death-defying lady who is harassed by the members of the Workers' Party. During one of the anti-Communist meetings that he held in his apartment, Witek bumps into his old childhood friend, Daniel and his sister Werke. Witek wants to be baptised. He tries to go to France, but his visa is given only he informs the authorities on anti-Communist members.

In the third option, Witek misses the train but is not apprehended by the rail guard but waiting at the railway station is his medical school girlfriend, Olga. He returns to med school to complete his training. He marries his girlfriend and is offered to pursue a Ph D in his university. The Dean's son is arrested, and Witek has to replace his boss for a conference in Libya. The plane that he boards via France burst into flames during lift-off! Zakończyć (End, Fin)

It is a somewhat abstractly tricky movie to watch, I had to view it twice to understand what in heaven's name was going on. As the shooting is mostly indoors, one does not get the opportunity to see the landscape of Poland in 1981 (it took 6 years to release due to bureaucratic red tape), Eurozone's one of the poorer cousins. It was shot at a time when the Berlin Wall, Kremlin and the Iron Curtain was about to crumble down giving a knock on Communism ideology leading to its demise and opening the floodgates of economic reforms and globalisation. The purpose of making this film is to express the director's anti-Communist sentiments and to ridicule people's preoccupation with psychoanalysis.

Back into McCarthy's era!

Manchurian Candidate (1962)
This is not the one where Denzel Washington acted in 2004 but rather the original one cast in black and white from a time before I was an embryo.

It starts with scenes of Korean War when some American soldiers are caught by their enemies (Russian and Chinese) and transported away on a helicopter.

After the show of credits, Staff Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) arrives home from Korean War to be feted as a war hero, much to his annoyance. The whole brouhaha is his mother's mastermind, a conniving opportunist lady who has only one thing on her mind - to make her senator husband, Raymond's stepfather the President of USA. Raymond has had a strained relationship with his mother (Angela Lansbury of 'Murder! She wrote' - Boy, that lady was old even then) and his stepfather.

Instead of working for his stepfather, Raymond decides to work as a confidential secretary to a reputable political journalist. The said journalist is, however, is not in his parents' good books as the senator had been accused of being a Communist by his papers.

Meanwhile, Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) and another fellow platoon member (who worked with Shaw) keep having recurrent nightmares where all the platoon members are subservient soldiers to the enemies and kill their own people at the order of their enemies.
It looks like during their tour of duty, Shaw had been brainwashed and indoctrinated to be a zombie-like killing machine for Soviets and Chinese.
Marco is ordered to go on leave because of his inability to cope his work. On the train, he befriends Eugenia Rose (Janet Leigh of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho). This scene is actually just a romantic sub-plot with no relevance to the story per se but at one moment, we cannot help but think that she is a femme fatale! She helps him to get back on his feet.

Marco goes on to pay a visit to Shaw as he cannot stomach the idea of everyone in the platoon singing praises of Shaw when in real life, Shaw is an introvert and is disliked by everyone. After a rough start, Marco and Shaw eventually click.

Over drinks, he explains the reason for his bad relationship with his mother. Shaw had earlier fell hopelessly in love with a rival politician's daughter, Janice Jordan, whom his mother had labelled as communist. Thanks to his mother, the relationship crumbled and Janice went off to Europe and Shaw enlisted in Army.
All this while, the Russians are experimenting with brain washing hypnosuggestive techniques and Shaw is their guinea pig. The deal is for him to be used by American communist agents for their agenda to infiltrate into USA. Solitaire is code word used via phone and Queen of Diamond is the trigger to make Shaw do their killings.

During a chance meeting during a party, Janice and Shaw marry. The marriage did not last as Janice and her father is programmed to be killed by Shaw after some political rivalry.

Shaw's stepfather wins the election as Vice President nominee. Shaw is assigned to kill the President nominee by the Russians' American operator - his mother, the real Communist sympathizer. However, at the moment of truth, Shaw comes to his senses and saves the day and America. He fires the gun right through the hearts of his mother and his stepfather. Wearing the Medal of Valour, Shaw turns the gun on himself and shoots his head to smithereens.
This film can be classified as an anti-war movie which mocks the loss of lives and relationships purely for political ideology and medal. People are programmed to do things to meet the bigger agenda set by the state and its elected leaders. It questions the meaning of all these killings.

Some trivia on the movie, Angela Lansbury (nominated for Oscar here) acted as the hero's mother but in real life she was only 3 years older than him. The assassination scene is a replica of Hitchcock's 'Foreign Correspondent' but rather than calling it plagiarism, they named it homage to the great director! They decided not to screen the movie around a year later when JFK was assassinated. In the original story from the book it was based on, there was incestuous relationship between Shaw and his mother. In keeping with the sensitivities of the times, it was appropriately altered. I suppose if were to be made now, how the story would be. Would they in keeping originality, keep the original story? I wonder how the Denzel Washington's version is?
The memorable quote that was of interest to me:

Dr. Yen Lo (the Chinese agent) speaking to Russian agent Zilkov on his interrogation room...

Dr. Yen Lo: Attractive plant you have here.

Zilkov: Thank you, doctor. It's actually a rest home for wealthy alcoholics. We were able to purchase it three years ago. Except for this floor and the floor above it, which is sealed off for security purposes, the rest functions quite normally. In fact it's one of the few Soviet operations in America that actually showed a profit at the end of the last fiscal year. 

Dr. Yen Lo: Profit? Fiscal year? Tsk! Tsk! Tsk! Beware, my dear Zilkov, fires of capitalism are highly infectious. Soon you'll be lending money out at interest. [Chuckles] You must try, Comrade Zilkov, to cultivate a sense of humor. There's nothing like a good laugh now and then to lighten the burdens of the day.