Smoked out of the foxhole?

Forensic Files (S1-S7)

Netflix Collection

After spending over 50 hours binge-watching 100 over Forensic Files episodes on Netflix, all I say is the idea of a perfect crime is just a pipe dream. With the ever-changing field of forensic sciences, a crime can be solved even without the presence of a body. What used to be science fiction will soon be bread-and-butter stuff in day to day police work in time to come. If the records and specimens of a crime are left intact, the sky is the limit how distant in the future perpetrators will have to do time for their crimes.

I think the most crucial determinant of whether crimes will be solved is the country's financial standing. If one were to look at most of the cases presented in this series, there were cold cases. These are cases where initial investigations hit a stone wall, and the investigators had no more clues at their disposal. They had the resources to set aside time, money and manpower with a fresh set of eyes to look into cases trapped in the annals of time. It may also be pertinent to note that most of the cold cases occurred in a peaceful neighbourhood. To be realistic, the situation may be different in downtown precincts. 

When the population does not breed like rabbits, and the standard of living is comfortable, one can invest in a proper investigation, prove suspect's guilt via science and beat the living daylight out of him to admit to a charge, honestly or under duress. An advanced forensic lab would encourage police officers to treat posting not as a punishment, like a transfer to Siberia, but as an avenue to improve oneself in detective work.

One can pick up a few pointers here. For whatever reason, if you become the person to report a crime, out of social responsibility or otherwise, be prepared to be put on the suspect list and proof your innocence first. But then, if you do not report a crime or move a dead body, you will be accused of tampering evidence. I did not know that they could identify fingerprints from non-rigid surfaces by exposing the specimen to heated superglue. By looking at its unique marking during production, investigators may actually predict when it was made and which store sold the bag from the plastic disposal bag. Entomological studies and knowledge about weather help in identification of time of death of the severely decomposed bodies.   

When you person dies in suspicious circumstances, the first suspect would be their spouse. Come to think of it, the spouse also turns out to be perpetrator is seemingly natural deaths; especially if it a recurrent; e.g. a case of recurrent widowhood could be a serial murderer or serial insurance schemer.

In hindsight, the police are always portrayed as insensitive, and the victim's kin's gut feeling is still right. Most of the time, crimes happen within the family. 

On the other hand, there is the occasional bizarre crime that leaves a very sinking feeling inside. An innocent bystander being at the wrong place at the wrong time, gets killed for no particular reason. It gives the impression that the United States of America is filled with many maniacally serial killers who draw pleasure from systematically scheming and executing the complex and convoluted murders just to fulfil their hedonistic pleasures.

One disturbing thought that I had while watching this programme is how much the jury or the legal system will accept some of the new, untested scientific discoveries presented to the courts. Through their art of persuasion, some of the scientists tend to paint a rosy picture just how cocksure they are about their findings. We all know how experimental results are notoriously poor at reproducibility. Imagine using plant DNA and animal DNA to prove a suspect's presence at a crime scene. To be fair, some of the cases were actually challenged and were rejected after appeal.

Only a deep-pocketed state would finance a crew of a dozen police officers for months to drain a lake to look for biological evidence of the deceased. In one episode, the police suspected that a husband killed his wife pulverised her in a rented wood shredder and emptied the contents into a lake. They had to look for bone fragments and teeth.

Now they have the knowledge to predict how your face would look in twenty, thirty or even forty years later. Interestingly, the Native Americans have similar facial structures with the Orientals, probably supporting the Clovis people's migration from Siberia to Alaska. My understanding is that biological evidence from exhumed bodies is of low quality. Obviously not, it seems. Years after death, pathologists are still able to obtain DNA samples. The tooth canal is the best site to get these. If DNA is too little or damaged, fear not. There is mitochondrial DNA which is of maternal origin. They make it all sound so easy!

Do not ever buy a comprehensive insurance policy for your loved one and make yourself as the beneficiary. It would draw unwanted attention, and invariably, the law would find you guilty. 

After watching all the episodes and seeing all the gun violence, it is mind-boggling why the Americans still think it is their birthright to bear arms to protect their property. Is it not easier to treat injuries from a fistfight than a gunshot wound?

(It is all well and fine that we have all these armamentaria at our disposal. It still does not replace slip shot police work. My dentist friend was robbed at knifepoint by his patient's accomplice whilst the patient seated at the dentist's chair! All the digital recordings and the potential fingerprints came to nought as the cops made a non-show after reporting. Apparently, they were understaffed and had more pressing needs to attend to. Monitoring Twitter, perhaps?)

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Regrets we may have a few...

2046 (Cantonese; 2004)
Writer, Director: Wong Kar-Wai

Our life is like a moving speed-train. We catch glimpses of experiences that excite us and poof, it is gone. We yearn to immortalise the pleasant encounter's memory, but unfortunately, it is not always possible. The journey itself is so unpredictable that the last delightful experience may not be the best, the best may yet be on the horizon. Or maybe, that was it! Oh, life is so uncertain. 

Are all memories traces of tears and is nostalgia a bad thing? Does living in the memory of the past a wrong thing? Things that we learn in the past are the guiding lights for future battles, but somehow sometimes we still feel we accidentally let something slip by too prematurely or inadvertently. Regrets we may have a few. 

For these, the writer creates a fictitious world/city/future where memories are permanent and can be re-captured. Nobody knew for sure if such a place existed but, nobody who went there ever returned. That is, except the protagonist, Chow. He wanted to change.  He wanted certainty.

This is a rare science fiction that is not commonly seen in the Chinese cinema. Being a Wong Kar-Wai's creation, it is told in a disjointed form with many timelines crisscrossing each other. This film is the final offering of a loose trilogy (the others being 'Days of  Being Wild' [1990] and 'In the Mood for Love' [2000]), based on the experience of love. It is a visually satisfying presentation that brings back the nostalgia of mid to late 1960s Hong Kong.

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In the mood?

In the Mood for Love (Cantonese; 2000)
Director: Wong Kar-wai

This film must surely be a fruit of a labour of love. It is such a joyful experience to watch as the viewers are cradled back to a Shanghainese community's claustrophobic surroundings in 1962 Hong Kong.

It is a story of a close-knit group tenant, specifically of two couples, in an apartment building. Two spouses who are often left alone by their busy working partners end up developing feelings for each other. The busy partners in real fact are embroiled in an affair, between themselves. The scorned spouses discover a common interest, create a platonic relationship but soon realise it is romantic. They resist the temptations to be as low as their partners, despite the circumstances of time and the lure of their biological attractions.

The theme of this story segues nicely into a discussion I had with my friends recently. What is this thing about marriage? Is it a mere a public declaration of a property much like when Vasco da Gama hoisted his flag in the shores of a particularly cold Christmas morning to claim Natal as the property of the Portuguese King Emmanuel?  Is it an injunction to limit his sexual prowess to a single named party? Is it a decree to ensure the union's earning member's responsibility to provide for the economic and biological needs?

Believe it or not, the Hindu scriptures have looked at marriages as the souls' union rather than physical bodies. It is a continuum of their karmic evolution. Sex does not come in the equation. It is perfectly normal to have a sexless marriage. Polygamy and polyandry were accepted in ancient Bharat but not accepted in the modern legal system. My research shows that various dharmic texts like the Manu-Smriti and Vedas have classified marriages into eight forms - Brahmana, Daiva, Rishis, Prajapati, Asuras, Gandharva, Rakshasa and Pisaka. The first four forms of marriages are done with the blessings of a father figure. The Asura type is a form of bride selling. Lovers in 'love marriages' would make secret pacts of their union utilise the Gandharva rite, using an animate object or a person as proof. Rakshaha and Pisaka marriages are frowned upon and are deemed criminal. It is equivalent to the bride abduction and 'date-rape' in a modern setting.

The decision of union of the individuals and matrimony is all about an individual's perception. Sometimes we decide on life matters and feel it is warranted to satisfy our inner desires and personal intent. Whether copulation is a mere biological act or a divine cosmic dance of the feminine and masculine forces is a personal preference.

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In the spring of youth...

Days of Being Wild (1990)
Director: Wong Kar-Wai

What is the thing that keeps a person plunge deep into a relationship so toxic and still longs to be embroiled in a never-ending imbroglio of heartaches and melancholy? Is it just physical attraction or a sense of achievement, a kind of trophy? Is it some kind of masochism or playing victim to gain attention?

Is this the same power of love that made King Edward VII abdicate his crown for a divorcee with two living ex-husbands? Is it merely a hormonal surge at the spring of one's youth or a debt that needed to be settled if relationships bring in baggage and its encumbrances?

Something that springs up quite so suddenly may fizzle out just as quick when the fluff disappears. Then what? Do it all again? But then, by then, there would come too many webs of entanglement and spoils of love that are just too difficult to detach. It appears that it is a play of time. Invariably, with the passage of time, the ludicrousness of all these may appear all so plain.

This film brings me to the time in my childhood when I used to watch those intense black-and-white Cantonese movies over the local telly. The only thing here is that this film is in colour. The same tight-knitted rooms and the narrow roads on hilly terrains were there.

In summary, the story, set in the 1960s, is about a philandering young man, York, with his upbringing issues. His adopted mother refuses to divulge the whereabouts of his biological mother for fear of abandonment. The adopted mother has her own problems, with the bottle and her frequent affairs with numerous young men. York's first dejected lover finds solace in the company of a foot policeman. York's second beau is an obsessive cabaret dancer. Their relationship is best described as predatory - each preying on the other for personal gratification. As York's adopted mother is about to leave for the USA with a new lover, she reveals York's parentage. He was born from a union of a prostitute and a Philippine aristocrat. York leaves for Philippines only to be ignored by his biological mother.

Peel open the eye of ignorance

Doctor Strange (2016)

They say Dr Strange dabbles with magic in his crusade to fight the destructive forces that attack Earth. An intelligent but arrogant neurosurgeon in the real world, he is floored by a nasty accident that damaged his hands so severely that all the modern medicine could offer could not put his hands in working order again. No amount of aggressive physiotherapy or experimental avant-garde modality of treatment could resurrect his limp hands. They continued tremoring like leaves.

At this juncture, he heard of a patient with a transacted spinal cord who attained 100% recovery with alternative therapy when modern science failed him. Dr Steven Strange's subsequent journey for a cure led him to Kathmandu to things beyond his imagination. He got sucked into a world of 'magic', harvesting inner energies, dark forces and alternate dimensions. Things became so complicated that he found himself defending the Universe's right side against the Dark Forces.

I could not help but saw parallelism in how the story went to what is perceived in Vedantic teachings. Similarly, the mathematician Ramanujam saw his formulas spilt out of his mind as he sat and gazed at his devata, Namagiri. Hindus believe that the various Gods and Goddesses are a personification of conduits in pursuit of specific vibrations. Tune in a particular wavelength and see a sea of knowledge deep and too immense for the human mind. Seek Saraswati for an educational path, Durga for athletic endeavours, Lakshmi for a road of prosperity, Ganesha to remove obstacles, etcetera. 

Another exciting part of the story is the concept of time in a loop form. Unlike modern man's idea of time being linear, the Vedic teachings suggest that it could be cyclical. What takes place now had probably happened many times before and bound to happen again and again.

Among the many that get thrown in along the movie's course, one philosophical question is whether it is alright to be dishonest to win over your opponent? Is it acceptable for a leader to do the very thing that the rest of the subjugated are forbidden from? When life is simple, the rules of life must be followed to the tilt. As life becomes complex, rules are not so straightforward and can be bend.

We can draw our conclusions from the events in Ramayana and Mahabharata. Ramayana, depicting simpler times, portrayed Rama's life decision that was cut and dry. Do this and that. Simple. During Mahabharata, things become complicated. "They are your relatives, but you Arjuna still have to defeat them in battle. That is your dharma, the correct thing to do." In another scenario, it is perfectly expectable for Yudishtra to 'lie' that Drona's son Aswatthama 'died' when in fact, Yudishtra meant Astwatthama the elephant died. It was justified as Drona was almost undefeatable in war with his unfair usage of the celestial weapon. Drona's subsequent slaying was excused. These days we call these half-truths white lies.

Watch out for its sequel in 2022.

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A believable myth

Tumbbad (Hindi; 2018)

Interestingly, myths, folklores and scriptures of lands far away carry a similar line of storytelling. As a baby, we find Moses let loose on a waterproofed basket in River Nile to escape the Pharoah's clutches and how he was brought up in another family. Is it a mere coincidence that the cases of Karna whose mother, Kunti, left him in a basket in a river to escape shame and Krishna, whose mother, Devaki, did the same to escape the tyranny of an evil king strike a similar chord? Like that many similar stories are found in the Zoroastrian scriptures and even the Greek myths.

One plausible explanation was given to Moses's comparable tales, Karna and Krishna is the time Jews spend in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar decimated Jerusalem and its first Holy Temple and took Jews as slaves to Babylon. Cyrus freed them and helped them to build the Second Temple in Jerusalem. Apparently, in the 60 years, the Jews spent time in Babylon they had assimilated some of the Hindu mythology into their own scriptures!

 The exciting thing about this film is the storyline. Given a fictitious tale of a greedy child and his doting mother. The Goddess of Prosperity is said to have mothered 160 million gods. Her first child, in her womb, was a greedy one. He was eyeing for his mother's gold and food. He got the gold, but the other gods managed to stop him before acquiring the mother's food. The goddess made a deal with the other gods that the child, Hastar, would not be worshipped and lost by history. 

Fast forward to 1918, Hastar in the form of an old lady is kept in a dungeon under shackles. She is fed regularly and kept asleep by a mother and her two young sons. One day the routine goes haywire when the younger boy injures himself and has to be taken to another town for medical attention. All goes wrong when the elder son, Vinayak, is tasked to feed the old lady. She becomes violent and almost gobbled him up. The returning mother immediately sends the elder away to another town. The younger boy had died.

 Knowing that there are secrets hidden in the mansion that he lived in Tumbbad, Vinayak returns as an adult full of debts. He finds out about the gold that he has to fight out with the imp, Hastar himself. Vinayak steals a few gold coins from Hastar's loin-cloth as he is busy gobbling food. The story becomes twisted as Vinayak becomes prosperous and that stirs the curiosity of his creditor. As Vinayak gets older and too weak to fight the imp, he coaches his son to take over. 1947 had come, and Tumbbad is appropriated by the government.

An interesting piece of storytelling and has a string of accolades under its belt to prove it. It a symbolic representation of man's greed for material wealth. They fail to realise that what they need in life are simple. They need a stomach to fill and to live life to appreciate the positive things that life has to offer - the joy of seeing a happy family, seeing the children grow and nurturing them for the next generation. People take their family members for granted.

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It is bullying!

The Stoning of Soraya M. (2009, Iranian)

Everyone is innocent until they are proven guilty. Not so, according to this controversial film which is an adaptation from a book (La Femme Lapidée) of a French journalist's experience as he, Freiduone Sahebjam, was travelling through Iran. He stopped in a small village at the edge of the country to be narrated of a recent stoning of an alleged adulterous villager, Soraya Monitchehri. The authenticity of the story was always disputed by the Iranian authorities. Still, by a twist of fate, the book's release coincided with the trial of another accused awaiting sentencing by stoning for adultery. About 190 persons were stoned to death in Iran in 2010.

The world kind of accepted the fact that the one who had sinned should cast the first stone, but apparently, the memo did not reach everyone in the world. Stone-throwing is still practised as a form of punishment in many traditional Muslim societies. 

Do not, for a moment, imagine that our modern society is immune to this type of harsh punishments to something which happens in the confines of the four walls within the ambit of personal choice. Snoop squats are freely available at the drop of a hat. Remember the number of volunteer orthopaedic surgeons who were willing to perform amputations if Kelantan expressed its wish to carry hudud law? All they need is a dog whistle.

Soraya, a mother of four, two boys and two girls, was trapped in an abusive marriage. Her husband, Ali, a jailer, had intentions of marrying a 14-year-old girl. He did not, however, wanted to pay child support or return the dowry money. He did not even provide for the day to day running of the household and did not want to utter talaq to free her misery. He concocted a tale of a clandestine affair with an old widower of a home where she worked as a helper to supplement her income. 

An ulama with a shady past, whose secret is known to Ali, influenced the local chieftain to begin sharia proceedings. Even though the husband was accusing his wife, the wife needed to prove her innocence rather than the accuser providing proof of the accused beyond a reasonable doubt. The accused is no longer innocent before proven guilty. Why? Because she is a female, and the fairer sex is easily confused, their evidence is suspect. In this patriarchal society, women have no rights.

Ali managed to arm-twist the widower and his son to admit to inappropriate conduct with Soraya. On top of that, the women in the village have no voice. They cannot stand as witnesses. It is herd mentality at its heights. He says, she says, hearsay and then everybody agrees. Even Soraya's father curses his daughter as a whore to cast the first stone.

The most excruciating part of the movie is the graphic 7-minute graphic depiction of the brutal stoning as the family members, one by one, even her sons, take turns to do their bit to ensure God Law on Earth. (I fast-forwarded the scene.)

Every law is manipulated to suit the convenience of the affluent, the rulers, the influenced, the elite and those at rubbing shoulders distance with the above. For the rest, the whole wheel of justice will roll not to mete justice but to guarantee that the law is upheld. That is it. 

With the adultress buried in the sand to her waist and her hands tied to her back, she is target 

practice for village folks. It becomes their battleground to showcase their piety to Almighty. 

It is an arena to display their assertation that God's Law is carried out on Earth. 

''She is drenched in blood and crumpled on the ground, mutilated face partially obscured by a mass of dark hair. Over an excruciating seven-and-a-half minute, she has been disowned by her family, buried to her waist in a hole at the centre of the village square and finally reduced to tattered rags of flesh by a baying mob hurling stones. Now, tentative, her husband bends to examine her face. The filmy eye blinks. He recoils. 'The bitch is still alive,' he shouts. There is a roar of fury and the crowd close in.''

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1320989/The-Stoning-Soraya-M-The-horrific-execution-scene-got-film-banned.html

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