Rethinking the [Mess-Sage]

How to patch a punctured innertube?

2009-09-06T03:07:00.002+08:00

ok, i need to put this to record or i might forget. And there are some ridiculously mistaken instructions out there which may lead people to patch tubes the very wrong way. so here goes, the correct way of patching tubes:

1: identify the puncture spot, and make sure its deflated before moving onto the procedure
2: check the whole tube for exact number of punctures
3. use sandpaper (360)
4: visually mark the puncture spot with 2cm in radius around it
5. rub the sandpaper at this spot - to flatten tube seams and remove the tube's dermis
6. observe as i work on sandpapering - surface turns lihgt greyish-then darkens
7. when the surface is roughened, apply a thin layer of rubber cement/glue around the area
8. while waiting for the gluing agent to dry a little, remove protective film from patch
<NOTE: do not blow at the gluing agent, lung-ed air moisturizes it and renders it ineffective>
9. when the gluing agent is 60% dry and appears sticky, apply patch onto the prepared spot
10. thoroughly conform the patch to tube by bending, pressing, flexing with hand
11. inflate tube to check for effectiveness

• • • • •

lesson credits: Keong Loh S.K. (Senior Bike Mechanic)

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published September 6, 2009
Sharon Chong
:0)

所谓－家

2008-10-29T22:17:00.000+08:00

紅花雨（1）
詞: 小蟲. 洪宇曲: 小蟲. Johnny Chen H.
演唱: 趙詠華，胡德夫

紅花開紅的心紅的好美麗
為了你等下去我還在這裡
人不再錯花季雲濃月怎明
傷了心不離棄落成紅花雨
花若開若有你花才會美麗
盼望你回頭看我還在這裡

記得你那一天紅紅的眼睛
你的臉你身影笑容隨你去
在一起流眼淚一起看星星
能有幸能相遇永遠不忘記
漂著雨迎著風雨過盼風清
你牢記我牢記家就在這裡

我的家，又在哪儿？

（1）http://blog.xuite.net/sinner66/blog/8338793

－－－－－§ －－－－－
Sharon Chong

Tuck & Patti - Can't Help Falling in Love

2008-10-25T15:33:00.000+08:00

Cant Help Falling In Love - tuck & patti

CIVILISATIONS by Sid Mier

2008-10-23T06:17:00.001+08:00

picture credit

"Asia's race for space"
"India launches first moon mission"

The front page of Al Jazeera's news brings back an eerie memory of a war game i used to play as a kid - CIVILISATION.

Sid Mier probably had a foresight on the race of nations. In the game, the human player picks a nationality of her liking (eg. French, English, Aztecs, American...). The player competes with computer generated opponents of other nationalities. Each by turn races to gain the next piece of knowledge, the next technology, so as to produce the most lethal weopon, the most effective, glamorous and strongest cities.

To win the game, one has either to wipe out all the other nations, or to be the first to build a space craft.

15 years later, apparently, nations haven't got sick of the model of "success", "game over".
Way to go Sid!

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Sharon Chong

What if....

2008-10-23T05:44:00.000+08:00

click image for better reading

If i was free of the pressure to "be someone", if i was freed of the need to "make a contribution", if i was freed of the need to know what people think of me, if i was freed of the pressure to be useful, if i was freed of the pressure to be right, if i was freed of the pressure to be responsible for others, if i was freed of the need to master, to expertise, to power, to puppetry, to control, to make things happen. if i was freed of my need to be noble...

What would my life be for?

How would life live?

"We'll live, and we'll see." (1)

(1) Anton Chekov. in "Three Years"

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Sharon Chong

Sandakan (two) - Hiding in the Closet of Nature photos

2008-05-26T01:46:00.000+08:00

Here are the snappies for the camping trip:

Yes, the trip's not very legal indeed

My guide for this journey, well, and many journeys passed
or yet to come - Daddy!

First meeting with the river - what was the name of the river again?

Oops...

Rummaging a steep rear of the hill

Living up to my Hakka roots of "land-openers" -
one weed down, two weeds, three, four (woozing sweat & back pain).......
gosh, and they opened forests??

Luxury of a 3-men tent, courtesy of Eric.

Back to the river

Dip time!
i was standing right inside the natural crate below

Yep, i know you're thinking "Ugh... dirty river"
but don't let the colour fool you, it's th natural pigment of fallen leaves.
so my guide told me
;-)

Boiled noodles with onions and eggs -
with a Japanese stage set, free of charge!
Come -sh Eat a-ke!

He's older than he looks. Secrets?
Marrying the right cooking wife, taking it easy, and get a dog.

Paying for ambients? Who needs pretentious ambients when
there's the real thing?

Very important, we brought clothes line.

Just the clouds couldn't hold itself through the night

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Sharon Chong
:o)

Sandakan (one) - Hiding In the Closet of Nature

2008-05-07T16:51:00.000+08:00

The sun is coming out soon. The fog will cease, and the team of clouds will retreat, leaving the trees and low bushes stand in their wooden grey and brown, sometimes yellow, sometimes orange. Their dense green lush their tops, or skirt low to their leafy stems. What a morning, gently greeting the jungle campers.

That morning, with hearts of an explorer, we trot into the reserved forest, just beyond the backyard of my uncle’s house. My father traced the vaguely familiar steps of childhood; I journeyed with care, not knowing what to expect. What can I expect? In a few minutes only, we reached the small stream, its rather flat banks well blanketed with algae, bidding out steps caution. In a hop, we crossed the stream, and continued uphill where in another minute brought us to the open top. The hill is rather low, compared to my expectant heart.

Across the gravel road, the front line of a thinning forest stood facing us, as if they were standing in a line of defense, ready to do anything to prevent anymore human intrusion. We came to the edge of defense, strolled casually past the line, lamenting in my mind the helpless bodies of wood that bear the marks of red painted “X”, demarcating the line of trees that are to cease being cut, while the gravel parades before it. Beyond the defense, lives a completely different world.

No bridle paths, donned with clear cut planks to ease our walking, but fallen leaves of brown, black, dark red and occasional green, carpeted all the face of the hill, covering branches of old that were to crack and collapse at the slightest foot stomp. Trees, sometimes the size of my thigh, most of the time the size of my forearm, rooted at their spot, close by their neighbours. There were almost always a couple of rattan twining caressing tree to tree, enough to prevent us from walking by without swaying a few parang chops. When the marking ropes ran out, it was time to trace our way back to the open.

Now we’ve pitched the tent on the open hill top. Father fetched water, and we made coffee, hot and soothing very well for lunch with bread while we sat under a shade. “Isn’t it great to be able to camp out, so that we abandon our cares and worries, and give all our attention and energy to the here and now?” Father said, with a hint of gratefulness, or perhaps a boyish delight, now mixed with the reality of age.

At about 3.30pm, we decided to have an early bath and dinner down at the stream.

The water spurts and bubbles gently above burning heat from a portable flame, in a while swims inside two chunks of dried boodles, two peeled onion bulbs, three eggs accidentally cracked open in their container.

The motley broth simmers with an oily glow at the surface, sitting nicely on a rock island midstream. In a dip, the noodles swim easily into our plastic cups, pushed gently by the branch-sticks (impromptu chopsticks made from nearby branches) we were using. What came later, was a difficult sensation to achieve elsewhere. Hot broth and noodles steamed itself through my tongue and palate, and glided slowly down my throat and further down where my chest was now swayed gently as the oncoming current swept coolly past the rest of my body. A river cuisine no restaurant can ever offer.

At times like this, father and I were reminded of a song we both love, a song I used to awe in bafflement:

You think I'm an ignorant savage
And you've been so many places
I guess it must be so
But still I cannot see
If the savage one is me
How can there be so much that you don't know?
You don't know ...

You think you own whatever land you land on
The Earth is just a dead thing you can claim
But I know every rock and tree and creature
Has a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are people
Are the people who look and think like you
But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger
You'll learn things you never knew you never knew

Have you ever heard the wolf cry to the blue corn moon
Or asked the grinning bobcat why he grinned?
Can you sing with all the voices of the mountains?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?
Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?

Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest
Come taste the sunsweet berries of the Earth
Come roll in all the riches all around you
And for once, never wonder what they're worth

The rainstorm and the river are my brothers
The heron and the otter are my friends
And we are all connected to each other
In a circle, in a hoop that never ends

How high will the sycamore grow?
If you cut it down, then you'll never know
And you'll never hear the wolf cry to the blue corn moon

For whether we are white or copper skinned
We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains
We need to paint with all the colors of the wind

You can own the Earth and still
All you'll own is Earth until
You can paint with all the colors of the wind

Colours of the Wind said it all. Location is not just a location anyone can simply own and claim. It is a place, a place filled with people with their meanings and languages, a place with life of nature, waters of nature, rocks of nature; of God. I sighed in my heart.

Night came with occasional drizzling rain, making their rhythms on our tent fly right beside our ears. We sipped hot coffee inside the already heated tent. Father laid down to rest beside me, covered with huge drops of sweat, I laid on my sleeping bag beside him, not ready to sleep yet, not even a hint of drowsiness; all alert, all awake and thinking. With my eyes closed, the distant town played its band of large and small engines, toots of horns, whizzing of wheels, a steady and restless rotor. My left side took in all of that. Also now, the hillside aroused its magnificent orchestra of a thousand bug clappers, bird hooters, screeches, whistlers….; a constant midnight concerto.

I will never understand how did such a time came that I should hear this massive “naturally occurring” juxtaposition, each side declaring their own rightful characters. It will not creep inside an album, but it has shouted a question in my head. I came from the city, I hate the city; I came to the jungle, I’m afraid of the jungle. I couldn’t sleep, my ears heard the whole night of torment.

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Sharon Chong. May 7, 2008
:o)

回故小城

2008-02-09T12:33:00.000+08:00

究竟，别人把我当 ”客人“，我不可能生活上，就永远像客人一样表现自己。生命让我走过二十三年，转过来眺望，突然感觉自己好像真的为了身边的人而活着。记得十几岁时，总觉得他人还比我重要；常常害怕说，嘿，我这么做是会伤害到别人吗？他会喜欢我这么说话么？等等。很多时候第一个考虑的，往往不是自己暂时性的利益，而是要确保友情，亲情的巩固。反正，心里想，以后总会有要求人家的时候。

这样一来。说真心话，这不好吗？对他人的友善，不是一种美德吗？当然，轻率得看，抽象的比喻什么想法都能通。但是，文化归文化。摩登的现在，现在的我们，生命不是我要怎么耍，怎么掰，怎么闹，都由我本身决定吗？

平静地想一想，要是没有了文化，我们还知不知道 ”表“ 怎么亲，”太“ 怎么远；”堂“ 为什么是爸爸的，”外“ 为什么是妈妈的？没有家教，我们还会不会礼让，思原，尊师，讲毅气。。。？问到这儿，我更要谨慎地思考，我所感受到，施礼的需要，是被我家人的 ”客家文化“ 遗传到的？那察觉到这个影响，我是要怎么样与她互动啊？

我有权利放弃她么？
我有责任把她发扬光大么？
我有心要为她付出心血力气么？
爱她的人，有么？
为她而骄傲的人，有么？

。。。。。

我呀我，我们呀我们。真的是小城作客来咯！一作（一坐）作了四，五代。

沙巴的田里，橡胶林里走出来，做生意，买地，入大公司，生儿育女，读书，当医生，律师，管理员，秘书等。有没有真心的客人，把过酒，问过青天，那些没有南下作客的同胞，那一村，今夕是何年啦？我这姓张的，多愿乘风归去，唯恐心中那个怕死，怕没钱，没名堂，没作为的鬼。

我家，三代都作客，新年初二，离家却一片南中国海，让我写这些的难道不是重上三倍的思亲情？满三代，客人都没有家而让在异乡的我们来得格外有礼。满三代没有卫家，防家土的权力，使我们无奈地谦虚了。硬哥呀硬哥，是你才有那股臭霸气，作客还要抢做主人家，你要养你的人说你的话，言你的语。是要我们谢谢你啦！

在沙土长大，没有一个客人会不知道沙滩上，没有养育我们（原于中国北方然后又南下的）祖先的奶蒂。公公婆婆们来了，我们没法子就在这儿。离乡两三重，我们这一代是要回北，望英，创马，还是要继续作客哪？

但我主大善博爱，客且客，我们客家人的心却大于地，大于洲，大于国。我主叫有生命的客，到峰下岭，心也要带去，因为家住在心里。我主叫有亲的客，人再少，屋再陋，客要因亲而成家。

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Sharon Chong
:o)

Further Down the Development Road

2008-02-02T18:37:00.000+08:00

we construct with glasses, but not transparency;
we offer many products, but not our sincere services;
we drive many cars, but not going anywhere...
our heart gets colder and harder like the concrete and metal we get closer and closer to.

we get more wooded furniture to get more landslides, worse air;
we give more money to unseen privilege givers to also give away our honesty;
we become polite not anymore to make sincere friendships than customer relationships;
we teach not anymore to souls but to make walking resources.

we tour no more for understanding than be commercially understood and exploited upon;
we praise the sky no more, for it's like a dirted pool of cotton candy;
we journey with pleasure no more, than to curse from jams to tols;
we get paranoid on our streets, because we have neighbours no more.

our kids will learn to be 'modern' not knowing their hearts will be broken;
our houses will be cluttered without room for substance;
our hearts gets blurrer and blinder, till the clothes of development be unveiled;
till the Truth finally befound, that would have maybe been too late to stop many a feet from shuffling, many a minds from cheating, many a hands from toiling, many a mouths from persuading, many a women from proving, many a men from asserting, many a children from wanting, many a ministers from pushing, many a voters from...

Gives Light in the Darkness

2008-01-18T02:56:00.000+08:00

Many people have very fantastic, wonderful, ever-fulfilling friendships or relationships. Some stare the cold lonesome wall at the face. i feel more of the latter. More so when it appears as a withdrawal symptom that hits me after leaving home and coming to metro-kl.

But take heart, He calls me back. Creeps nearer to me, clutch me by the shoulder, met my soul and assures me, "I AM here..."

forever here... Thank you Lord.
this picture is dedicated to You.

Gives Light in the Darkness,
and Grace When We Stumble

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Sharon Chong, January 17, 2007
:o)

Sketch Journaling

2008-01-16T12:44:00.000+08:00

Just got myself some new toys today from the art supply shop near my house. Presently these shall very sufficient for experimenting with black & white sketches. Learning to handle light and depth with lines.

The shopping bag includes:
1. Daler-Rowney's Willow Charcoal (med)
2. Kurecolor: Warm Grey
3. Kurecolor: Grey Tint
4. Pigma Brush: BR
5. Pigma Brush: 02

And the Experiment...

A Stray Dog

Came home this afternoon, and was walking pass a man begging on the pedestrian bridge. So instead of giving him money, i thought i should just get him a pack of rice for dinner: Chicken drumstick, spinach and rice, packed in a poly-box with a 100-Plus by the side. By the time i get back to where he was sitting, there was no more begging man to give to, he left... He left!! crappy poop, what should i do with a pack of rice i can't eat? (for those of you who don't know, i'm a vegetarian).

Standing there contemplating what to do, stunned in rejection and unbelief, i had only to head back home and hope to see any "needy" along the way. This is the first time ever i feel guilty to be looking out for someone to "help".

What do i know? there was this dog lurking behind a car, looking quite lonely, sad, and hungry (i believe). Ok, here you go boy... Chicken drumstick and spinach rice...

• • • • •

Bukit Gasing

Went to Bukit Gasing last Sunday, had a pretty good hike. Alas i had to end early. Here's an impression of the little hill.

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Sharon Chong, January 15, 2007
:o)

Strokes of my Sharpie

2008-01-15T15:11:00.000+08:00

Vessel Lust

Inspired by comic book author Will Eisner, and with a sudden pang of a drawing urge, this is my first little sketch, drawn over dinner. Forgive my spelling...

The lines read:

Vessel for oil, perfume, poison, nectar...
Not all pots are meant to be alabaster jars.

Comments and thoughts are very welcomed.

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Sharon Chong, January 14, 2007
:o)

Elina - Som Om Jag Inte Fanns [As if I wasn’t there], (2002)

2008-01-05T07:35:00.000+08:00

Director: Klaus Härö
Scripting: Kerstin Johansson i Backe (novel), Jimmy Karlsson, Kjell Sundsedt
Cast: Natalie Minnevik, Bibi Andersson, Marjaana Maijala, Henrik Rafaelsen
Cinema: [EUFF 'o7] Golden Screen Cinema, Mid Valley (14:C7), Dec 15, 2007

2 days upon my homecoming, yesterday during Sunday celebration in church, we watched a short video. Since it was produced and casted by my own church members, I naturally know all of the actors(ress). And so this highly impressed filmmaker-wannabe went chuckling and commenting away on the supposedly very moving story that should have touched the stonest of hearts. My seatmate almost slapped me (:-p).

But there were days when a story became so relevant and intense that it sucked the brains whose hungry eyes cared to lay upon, never allowing me a chance for observational detachment. A storyline so familiar to the history I could recall, yet bringing a fresh new possibility that I failed to risk. I give to you, my newest Swedish Finnish child hero – Elina.

Making Elina

The half withered tree stands in the middle of a wide field. She sits against the thin stem, alone, but her back not hunched, nor head bowed. She sings the tunes, and smells the air she used to smell with her father. She treads the sinky swamp scarcely covered with low flowers, exactly the way her father showed her how to navigate about without sinking into the quick-mud beneath. “Isä…” She calls her father by name.
“Papa……” she continues speaking although it returns no audible response.

image credits

Inside her home, her family doctor will let us know that she was recovering very quickly from a lung disease, and may well be allowed to go back to school.
“You want to, Elina?”
“I would like to” – She smiles at her own reply.

We could hear her excitement from the leaves ruffling and twigs breaking under her quick and decisive trudging across the woods. Her black boots leading us to the muddy field we have already been introduced to. She looks into the field through clefts of a spread of leafs, her eyes shaded from the morning sun. “Papa, I will be like you.” She determines. “Like you, I will always do the right thing” Her breath escapes as in a quick prayer.

Her mother half walking, half running Elina to school. We are then told the first rule in school…

“Remember you must speak Swedish in school.”

“But daddy spoke to us in Finnish”

… as well as Elina’s young passion for whom she knows herself to be.

And oh… students were not allowed to write with their left hand! This teacher snatches Anton’s pencil from his left hand and thrusts it into the right. The same boy, caught speaking in Finnish, was forbidden to take lunch for the day.

Who could have imposed such tyrannical rule other than a highly conceited, self-important, red-dressed control freak, and her supremacy – the head teacher?

It is this very Ms. Holm that Elina’s young passion is publicly risked against.

image credit

“How could anybody learn if he wasn’t allowed to ask questions?”

“He spoke in Finnish, and you know the rules”

“He doesn’t know how to speak Swedish”

“That’s what you’re here to learn”

“He was just asking me a question”

“And who here is the teacher?”

“But you don’t speak Finnish, that’s why he asked me. In that case, I shouldn’t be eating lunch as well.”

The Right Thing

Warm steamy chick pea soup bids every pupil a good lunch. Only Anton whose palate could taste no pea his nose could smell. A bowl of untouched soup waited beneath Elina’s thoughtful head, occupied in some calculations, maybe about where the chick peas would be more happy to be at. She decided it’s Anton’s belly.

Seeing a defiant plate wandering to redeem Anton from his hunger, Holm had to uphold her punishment and to mend her injured highness:

“You shall sit here until you finish your soup.”

That’s exactly what Elina did, minus the finishing part. The basin took it.

Apparent in many forms of physical or verbal duels, it is never enough to gain advances by making the good hits, it always seems much more justified to advance, and cause your opponent to twitch, scream and cry for mercy under your feet; like dogfights. We shall see this is what Holm very much desire to do, believing so well that Elina is doomed to comply.

The Right Thing, Regardless…

The deeper I went into the rabbit hole, without being aware of it, I began pulling myself into the skin of Elina; as if my soul discovered someone that it could understand, someone it could trust. Her small stature carries such a huge reservoir of dignity and respect; so strong a belief of humanity…

image credit

I had to secretly applaud her when she walked out of the lunch hall the next day, while Holm was attempting an insult devised upon her dead father, and her terribly poor family; secreting every sarcasm needed to remind Elina of her pitiful life, which needed the patronizing education Holm is giving, or so she thinks. Elina’s self-respect rises above such bullying.

Now, it’s pretty natural for us to be curious: What’s so admirable about a kid being stubborn? What’s so difficult about that? Then I must say that it’s actually not that easy to be “stubborn” when people around you pick the cold eyes at you if you were not joining the public act. Consider the things that went against Elina’s effort to be stubborn:

She knows her own poverty, she knows her own health issues, she definitely knows hunger when she feels it. Her classmates never spoke a word of support, and their giggles don’t help either. A few times Holm attempted to seduce her into “apologizing”, promising Elina her approval as an authority, luring her to make a “fresh start”. And as we have mentioned, it’s not enough to just make good points, more so if your points weren’t taken. Holm promoted her tactics to include dirty tricks of emotional manipulation, intentionally pretending Elina to be inexistent regardless of her intelligence.

image credit

At the face of an adult tyrant, maybe very alike a bloody eyed, pot belly-ed, long tailed, flame spitting monster for some kids, Elina holds on to her voice, not relenting to even friendly plea’s to give in and “just move on”; because she knows what to her meant victory, what defeat. She, in her own young mind sees the importance of defending compassion, and basic respect of other human beings; and ultimately, truthfulness to herself even when no one else thinks her behavior legitimate. And she is only 9 years old.

That was the very spirit my soul was unable to come to 15 years ago.

• • • • •

Wrongfully Accused

This episode warped me through my timeline, pushing me back to when I was 7 years old: stood in my terrified miniature-ness, enwrapped with an inescapable trap of injustice, threatened to be punished for wrongs I did not even know about…

After some minutes of threats and unrevealing “interrogations”:
“Was it you?”

(shook my head, jittering with fear, already tearing)

“You were the only one who went upstairs, you still deny?”

(speechless, paralyzed by not knowing what to do)

“Did you do it?”

(still shaking my head)

“Mary*, did she do it” (to which Mary “testified” my deed with much conviction)
“You still deny?? I’ll ask you again, did you do it?”

(by this time, the only thing I knew they want, is for me to nod my head, so I
nodded)

3 strong canings on my palm
“Why did you do it?”

(For goodness’ sake, how do I even know why if I didn’t do it, I thought silently. I shook my head again… this time, taken as another denial)

“Was it you?” (venomous tongue and the metal ruler waved in front f my face)

(I nodded hesitantly with great violation in my heart, hating myself for not being able to breakthrough mere lies despite my own innocence. Hating the “witness”, hating the unverified guesses and false reasoning, hating dirty threats to put me to unjustified defeat, hating the audience who rejoiced at my helpless confession.)

More canes made their mark on my hand and in my heart…

Finishing the Business

Watching Elina sort of provided me a new kind of courage to question what happened 15 years before. I borrowed her strength to imagine myself holding onto truth when the whole house believed I was to be punished. Elina showed me that truth and humanity can be upheld regardless of physical age or size. Thank God for revealing to me that shells and shackles cannot bind me forever; that as He lovingly gives me His strength, fear, disillusionment, and stronghold crumble and be dispersed in the victorious wind of the Holy Spirit.

image credits

I Digress on Impulse: Sabah Tanah Air-ku

2007-12-05T16:22:00.000+08:00

Sabah Tanah Air-ku
Negeri Kita yang tercinta
pemuda-pemudi semua marilah
banugnlah bersatu semua
marilah bersama serta maju jaya
Merdeka Sepanjang Masa
Bersatu Segala Bangsa sentosa
Sabah Negeri Merdeka

I chanced upon an ordinary woman, a great lover for her State. It was such a
divine appointment, and managed to chat with her about the movie she produced
about Dr. Sun Yat Sen in Penang. And more... a lot more...

this, surprisingly, was what transpired :

10:04 PM me: I'm very inspired by the amount of energy you put into
subjects of humanity

10:06 PM Mai: Thank you very much for your nice words. I only try my
very best for Penang and to bring back the honour for those
who had contributed to change the history of China.

10:11 PM me: not only that, i notice also that your work revolves also
around the larger realm of culture: that is around tourism,
education, caring for the not so noticed, entertainment...
10:12 PM because that caused me to think about why i don't like my
hometown Sabah being meddled by commerce driven developments
and then it feels as if you're showing me one of the way i
could help "make my home"
9 minutes
10:23 PM Mai: The best thing to solve the dislike of those happening
around us is not to seat aroudn but to think what we as
individual can do with our own resources. When we changed
ourselves we might change others around us...
5 minutes
10:28 PM Mai: The more support we have, we might be possible make
something changed, even if we failed, we knew that we have
tried our very best instead of seating around and hopelessly
hoping others will doing. It has to start with ourselves
first, not others...

10:32 PM me: i have two more years to complete my tertiery studies.
and i need to learn a lot to understand what shapes culture
and states. Will you teach me?

10:33 PM Mai: I would love to share with you some of my thoughts...
Yet, there is never a simple answer to that.
You may start out by asking yourself, "What can I do for my
State and People?" Your heart will give you some answers...
others cannot tell you what you can do...
Only you have the answer...

10:41 PM me: i know... i think i need examples to work with, to let me
know that it is possible. possible to enrich my home with ideas
of acceptance, ideas of sheer creativity, the smell of art and
apreciation of it, a passion for meaningful aesthetics........

10:43 PM Mai: I never have any guidelines, I only explore all possibilities
by myself.
That is why, I could do what others could not.
yet, there is a ot we can read from the internet.

10:46 PM me: what if my ideals are just alice in wonderland?
10:47 PM and therefore irrelevant?

10:50 PM Mai: Walt Disney can created the real Disney world. If you
use your heart and work things with dignity and sincerity...
I had never made a movie before, but I did one!

10:52 PM me: dignity and sincerity..
Mai: Yes, only that you can win trust and believe in others
to support your works.
10:54 PM I know I have some good reputations in the past, and people
knows that I love Penang so deeply.
10:55 PM I have good track records...
10:57 PM It was over many years of works to establish that reputation.

11:00 PM me: so your question to me is, "Do i love Sabah?" Do i really
really love it, or is it just a fragment of imagined infatuation
for another kind of "fame"?
11:01 PM do i love it?

11:03 PM Mai: Yes, do I love it so deeply, that I am willing to sacrisfy
myself for the best of it?
or the better of it?

11:06 PM It was not that easy when first started... especially to ask
people to put their money into your project.

11:08 PM me: you're so courageous

11:09 PM Mai: I have the most courageous teacher to support me all the
time... Nadia Comaneci...
11:10 PM She guided me to aim for the impossible and give my very best
all the time.
I am really lucky in that.

I miss home.

- - - - - § - - - - -
Published December 5, 2007
:o)

I Digress on Impulse: Negaraku-(a)ku

2007-12-05T11:00:00.000+08:00

Negaraku
tanah tumpahnya darahku
Rakyat hidup ber-Satu dan maju
rahmat bahagia Tuhan Kurniakan
raja Kita selamat bertakhta

By snap of a nervous circuit, or perhaps by cue of an undetected flash
of thought, my mind warped into a symphony of itself, turning the
wind into a delicate piece of the dignified Anthem.

For the scatter of words to account for a flood of meanings, history,
vision, etc... Today shall be my first attempt to find out what
impressions has this song added to my bag of icons.

My country, which land my blood pours for
Her citizens live as One; and as one that progresses only
God shall bless us with happiness
Our King, whose position shall be safely fortified, reigns forevermore.

or

Our King, we bid you a secure rulership

What about yours?

- - - - - § - - - - -
Published December 4, 2007
teh tarik place, The Curve
:0)

Fura Gâru (Hula Girls), 2006

2007-09-16T04:35:00.000+08:00

Director: Lee Sang-il, Scriptwriter: Daisuke Habara
Main Casts: Yu-Aoi, Yasuko Matsuyuki, Etsushi Toyokawa, Eri Tokunaga
Watched: 22 August 2007
Cinema: Cineleisure Picture House, The Curve (4:C7).

I was nothing short of surprised when I saw, that the grass skirted, Polynesian butt shake was to be staged and told tales of, from this little land of the Chinese cousin twice removed – Japan. Cineleisure’s Picture House hosted this show just before the Japanese Film Festival in the Golden Screen Cinema. With Cineleisure showing only this Japanese show for the season, I’m not sure whether to call it pure, or seeming coincidence.

Anyway, I will call it a movie, in the splendor of its richness and island-ic festivity, well selected to make my return to Kuala Lumpur and the reactivation of this blog, a matter of a private fanfare.

See It Coming

Why would anybody in the world think of spending money at, say, an Italian restaurant, to eat a certain noodle made of wheat flour, when we could have our own local noodles?

Reviews after reviews, couldn’t stress enough that the Hula story goes as predictable as the royal marriage that comes with every Cinderella recitation. No doubt about it! Anybody with a healthy movie diet can quote us stories that involved learning a skill in a limited time for a very special occasion, and turn out glorious and breathe taking at the show down finale. Yet I guess, we will miss important details and nuances if we come out of this show, pointing cynically to a list of past movies, as if it was made merely with streams of ragged scenes taken from those.

After all, noodles are not called spaghetti, yee mien, udong, ramen,
phô huá… for nothing.

image credits: spaghetti, pho hoa, yee mien

• • •

From the promotional poster, the ending stands up, peel open his tuxedo to reveal no bombs under his clothes; no surprise. We should know where we are going with the characters from scene one: Sanae, a teenage girl living in a coal mining village called Iwaki, stirs her mind with tickling hopes of becoming a professional dancer…

And invited a friend to go with her.

- - - - - § - - - - -

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Aloha!

Saying hello doesn’t always entail an open arm on the receiving end, not especially when this tropical greeting was forcefully wished upon 2000 coal miners’ lay off. The company initiated a solution for unemployment: to build inside the village, a place, equipped and enabled to transport the full imagination of its visitors to a faraway island – the Joban Hawaiian Centre. Jim Carrey’s jaw drop could not find itself on the coal blacken, stoic faces of the miners, capable of disguising their aghast hearts, when announced that only about 500 employees will be needed at the centre. Flushes of angry questions, and runaway fists in protest turned upon themselves immediately after bouncing off the ironclad decision.

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• • •

All Journeys lead to the End

Why would a story tell his end before even starting it? I’ve come to see, that with the end in our minds, we are then freed to pay attention to every little transformation as the characters “experience” it, and how may it be different from the notions we always have about people.

• • •

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Emancipation of the Dancing Girls

She twists her hips and brings the grass around it to billow, turns her body with her hands raised, above her head, to punctuate the rhythm of the song with her lush pom-poms. Her wide-open lips charm the hearts of an invisible audience. Facing her, an old projector boldly plays back a hula dance video record, not knowing the amount of naked skin the faint hearted new recruits could bear watching. The little crowd burst out of the room; escaped in their shameful revelation, leaving the hopeful Sanae, dubious Kimiko & enthusiastic Hatsuko behind, and came later, shy Sayuri, whose plump, wide framed and coarse voice immediately suggest her comical role.

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The foursome did not begin their tutorship before their teacher, Madoka, satisfied herself with lamenting over her fate of being sent into a village she calls ‘backwards’, then a good round of sneering at the clumsy and comical attempts of the four to demonstrate any movements they may dare call “dancing”, and reluctantly receiving a reminder from Kimiko’s gentle supporter & brother, about the gender traditions of the village and the passionate trust the dance crew might have on her.

Kimiko, though feeling obliged also felt skeptical towards the Hawaiian idea, it wasn’t until being punished by her mother and tearfully chased out of her house that she realizes how much she was willing to pay for learning dancing, and for being able to command the course of her life; even if it meant disgracing her late father’s legacy in his mining career.

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• • •

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“Ich – Ni – Sa – Shi… (1-2-3-4)”, The students’ intense commitment met with the teacher’s renewed sense of responsibility, and they began stepping into the beginner’s drill; where their bones were seen through rods to rolls. Those who escaped the introduction returned, as the hula stigma wears off; and eventually, their daily routines earned them more and more capacity to speak with dazzling gestures, steps, signs, and swirls.

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The Village, Friendships, & Sorrows

The miners, making up the majority of the village, had to come before their company’s judgment – Released or stay? Those released, heaved heavy sighs to no effect, at their certificate of appreciation, which comforts not to an inch their expectations of ‘lifetime employment”. Some, however, did give the new Hawaiian project a try, and began an unfamiliar occupation for the first time.

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Following the lay-off, Sanae’s father decided for the family to move into another mining village. At the eve of her departure, tender loyalty compels Kimiko to voluntarily strip off her chance to dance on stage as circumstances have deprived Sanae of.

“If you’re quitting, I’m quitting, too,”

To this, Sanae replies, “No, you’re going to be a star, and I’m going to brag to everyone that I knew you since we were babies.”
“This is my hope now.”

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"Goodbye...!"

From this moment, it seemed as if the filmmaker is making a drastic camera pan, to shift the audience’s perspective at the story. I urge you to remember that the story opened with Sanae wanting to become a dancer, and ‘she’ carried our attention with her naïve faith, enthusiasm in practicing and bravery in leaving the traditional occupation that girls were supposed to do. She persuaded Kimiko, and us, to follow through trying this new thing out despite the idea being an unthinkable far-fetched dream.

And then comes the shift: Sanae leaves the village, and Kimiko takes over the show. It’s like the filmmakers using the 2 characters to say, “Enough with playing around, lets move on to the real thing.”

• • •

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• • •

The Team
Coming through weeks of publicity stagings around Japan, the dancers thick headedly hatched out of dancing, and eventually learnt to dance as a team; supporting and looking after each other’s back.

"Sayuri, look out.."

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If the miners’ lay-off wasn’t discouraging enough, the villagers were grieved once again. Parts of the mine lost its hold, rocks sliding off their grip, uncontrollably thrown onto and rolled over dozens of workers inside. Some injured, one, rejoined the ashes…

At such time, the news of Sayuri’s father’s death came to the dance teacher, whose ideal for excellence under every circumstance dilutes under her saturating sympathy. During this intense labour pain, the team pushes itself against the contractions of reality’s womb; at Sayuri’s quivering but steadfast request, they burst into the arms of the stage, their faces professionally hold a cheerful appeal, which on the same, not long after, shall be covered sorrowful dew that tells very little about the bitter sting it was wrung out of.

“Please let me dance…”

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• • •

The Great Appeal (1)

Tscuk-te-Tscuk-Ge-te-te-te-te-Tschuk…! Walking towards the inner hall, she hears the offensive sounding beat, in her heart still feeling unsure if she did right, to chase Kimiko out of the house; and wonders if she should talk to her when she gets to pass her a parcel addressed to her. There was no apparent resolve in her clutch at the sliding door. Yet, the stun of her eyes petrified to escape into all ends of her limbs, as Kimiko paused from her solo practise to see who might come though the door. Her eyes, as thoughtful, as hers.

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The decision was made at the spring of her hips, thrashing across the dance floor as a neat row of falling bamboos. Resolution enwraps her countenance in between her arms, spreading as floating light. Unspoken reasons parade itself all over the room. The sunlight through the windows from outside is her witness. Her statement gathers pace and slaps itself at her heels in concluding her unhesitant swirl. Slaps, in her unhesitant swirl. Slaps.

The message is spoken to her audience.

• • •

The Great Appeal (2)

Naturally, no amount of strippers would do a party any good if there were no guests to play host to.

The hot water pipes supposedly installed to keep the Hawaiian Centre warm, have been delayed. Palm trees transported from Honolulu could never wished more to return home while being propped in the shivering Japanese weather. In order to save these highly symbolic vegetation, Mitsuo, the person in charge, kneels in desperate begging, borrowing stoves from the villagers for warming the trees. Wanting to help her own daughter, Kimiko’s mother joined in soliciting, and as the president of the Women’s Society in the village, reprimanded the villagers for hindering the development of new ideas by their grips on tradition.

“Work doesn’t necessarily mean coal-mining only, dancing for entertainment is also good work!”

Stoves began flocking in at her call.

Total Celebration

" (In a Rojak) You have your pineapple, your cucumber, your 'this' and 'this' and 'this'... but you Must have a good sauce to hold it together!"

Pioneer of Malaysian contemporary dances, Marion De Cruz
said to Off The Edge magazine.

Hula Girls ends with the hula dance number at the grand opening of the Joban Hawaiian Centre. It is not hard to imagine a vast open, filled with adults, children, elderly people dazzled and amazed at the flower laden girls, on stage, giving out all that they have learned over the past 3 months, with much pride and joy.

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I believe, what makes the ending great and moving, is the many emotional journeys that we’ve been taken through many characters in preparation for this grand display. It felt really marvelous because we understand what is sacrificed behind the show, and what it meant to the many characters, because we’ve ‘seen’ their painful struggles of negotiation & compromise, courageous decisions and tried & tested friendships. At just this single event, we’re able to feel many emotions, layered upon layers of their feelings and meanings; appreciating the success from different character motives and empathizing with how important it is to all who were present. That’s why, now, it’s no longer a dance performance, it’s a Celebration… !

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- - - - - § - - - - -
Sharon Chong, published 15 September '07
Cineleisure Picture House, The Curve
:o)

Snow Cake (2006)

2007-07-17T05:51:00.000+08:00

Director: Marc Evans. Editor: Mags Arnold
Main Casts: Alan Rickman, Sigourney Weaver, Carrie-Ann Moss
Watched: 2nd July 2007
Cinema: GSC, 1 Utama (14:A7)

What do these people have in common – plumber, handyman, barber, cobbler, product technicians, and mechanic? I’d say, one of their most important roles is to fix things for us. When something breaks down, we send them for repair, when our hair gets kinda frizzy, we get the barber to straighten things up a little bit. To us, the idea of making things ‘alright’ again, is almost natural; why, if there’s a problem, get something done right away! Make it work again!

Obviously, it’s easy to tell when machines or mechanisms are not functioning normally. So it is with people. We know when to call a person a cuckoo, and when to send them to halfway houses. Why, if they can’t work normally as we do, send them away – fix them; psychologist, psychiatrist, whoever you are! Make them become ‘normal’ again!

I’m telling you, these coo-coo guys are having major depression, delirium, autism, attention deficit, bipolar personality disorder, schizophrenia… etc

In our rush to send them to the asylum, diagnose and ‘treat’ them, why didn’t we have time to think for a second, Why is this person called ‘crazy’ instead me? Who said that behaving like this means being ‘crazy’? Who defines ‘craziness’? Is being productive and socially acceptable, the only measure for ‘normality’?

Without knowing questions like this were to come at me, I settled comfortably at the last row of the movie box, unexpectingly wait, as the line-up of tens and twenty advertisements made their appearance.

- - - - - § - - - - -

Alex Hughes stops for a coffee at a rest house, mid-way through his journey to Winnipeg. Seeing the shop was fully occupied, a girl comes to sit with him, and started asking him questions after questions, to which he impatiently grunted brief answers.

“Excuse me, but I’m not the ‘chatty’ type, would you please leave me alone?” he remarked, trying very hard not to sound rude, at Vivienne’s persistent attempt to strike a conversation with him.

“Do you know why I chose to sit here instead of other places?” She asked.
“That’s because you’re the one here that needs most to talk”
With a cheeky grin, “also because I need a ride home to Wawa, Ontario.”

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Vivienne as a character plays more than just a 19-year old teenage girl. Alex somehow relents to her request, and the duo, cruising on the highway, begin touting each other’s good company, or the lack of it; Alex, in the latter case guards his scanty responses stringently, as if to take precaution lest he gets involved in the conversation too much.

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With much congenial questions and remarks, and sometimes respectful silence from Vivienne’s part, The muscles on Alex’s face slowly soften to humour.

Alex drives out of a convenient store after Vivienne had bought some gifts for her mother. The pair starts their round of lighthearted smiles, jokes and comments. He couldn’t help but notice her child-looking admiration on the seemingly precious light sparkling rubber balls. Her joy seemed to capture something in his eyes, he needed to resume his gaze on the road, he thought to himself; darting his sight to the far right to check for oncoming cars, his eyes met a blinding stream of spot light, paralyzing the two unthinking traveler, unable to even squint; The 40-tonne lorry shoves into their puny truck together with its unstoppable force, the truck sinks helplessly into the air beside it, its metal beams crumples and caves in unquestionably. The insensitive jolt heaves the truck off the ground spinning a few rounds before smacking to halt against a roadside snow pile.

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Vivienne died an instant death. Alex escapes with barely a few scratches.

• • • • •

Such was the introduction of Vivienne. Throughout the story, she qualifies as a ‘phantom character’. It’s interesting that she holds that much presence in the story despite not being on screen in person after the brief but substantial introduction. She could represent a perspective, a point of view, giving sufficient contrast to edge out other viewpoints of the living.

This story, is really a story about relationships, a very special one too. What happens when you have to live with an autistic person? And what happens when you too, have immense baggage to deal with at the same time?

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Alex obliges himself to visit Vivienne’s mother, to apologize and return her the gift from her daughter. Nothing prepared him for his meeting with Linda when she allowed him into her house. She gleams with delightfulness of a child, excited to dance, when she held her sparkling gift to admire the pulsing lights. Apart from her present, all she seems to care about was that Alex’s shoes to be in perfect line with the others, him to not intrude her kitchen, to not dirty her floor, and to dry his drenched clothes. His thoughts unconvincing, his sight confusing, his feet stall, in search of explanation, as to why Linda seems indifferent to her daughter’s death, and even courteous to the driver who gave her a lift!

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The life of their friendship started, when Linda requested him to stay until the waste truck comes to collect her garbage since she couldn’t bear even the slightest poke of anything considered dirty. The opportunity came longer, Alex felt responsible also to help her organize her daughter’s funeral, so he will stay a week longer.

"Vivienne did all the boring stuff, she carries out the garbage"

- - - - - § - - - - -

Private and Confidential

Director Marc Evans and Editor Mags Arnold handle the tension between Linda and Alex very well. Linda utters her thoughts, judgments and requests unrestrained, often too straight for the well-mannered, and linguistically groomed British; creating an unspeakable reserve of energy for Alex to regain confidence in making new relationships and to disclose personal history.

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His comfort came instead from Linda’s neighbour, Maggie; a divorcee, not bashful to quickly develop sexual relationships with Alex. In whom he found safety to discuss about his stay with Linda, his life in very, very common terms., his feelings, eventually, his past...

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Concerning Differences

The story takes great care to say its message. Many delicate scenes are woven carefully together, unrushed, allowing us a good view of the 4 characters. Its love for details helps us to understand and empathize for each viewpoint, making it a very ‘humane’ film.

It comes with a call, for humanity, too.
A call, in the midst of weirdity, strangerous, oddsome, wackerion mad-oeism, to accept, to embrace; putting down our rigid conception of the world for a moment and allow other people’s meanings to take us for a ride.

It’s an ambitious call too. It calls not for reckless, unthinking acceptance in the abstract, but a bold love, a risky attempt, to go near someone, to offer our interest to someone, our gentle presence into their life despite their bizarre attitudes, queer behaviors, and unreasonable rejections.

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"I'd like you to put your arms around me and squeeze me really hard, but don't touch me with your hands."

There were many opportunities for us to pick this up along the movie, many scenes but one hammers this ambitious vision into my guilty heart.

After Vivienne’s funeral, it apparently was Wawa town’s custom to have their guests over at their home for a tea after such ceremony. So was this. Already very vexed by the many guests hovering about her small living room, seemingly doing nothing but converse about anything that comes to mind, Linda bursts out, as if to state her ownership of her ‘territory’. She turns on her music player, loud enough to discontinue everybody’s conversation.

She dances, and my, she dances like an enthralled child. She took the centre of the living room, and jumps and swings and waves at the musical trot. Her guests blush in silent aghast, some tried to stop her from her ‘completely inappropriate’ behavior for a solemn funeral. They judge that she should be grieving and crying ‘normally’. Linda’s mother came forward and stomps at her guests, insisting that Linda dances to her own delight.

Oh, what a scene, what a drama that disturbed Linda not a trivial bit. In her entranced mind, she remembers her daughter, yes; she remembers how very interesting she was. How Vivienne could understand her joy of spontaneous dancing, how she could share her thrill as they danced together, no trace of contempt on Vivienne’s face, but a similar abandonment to play with her mother; smiling enormously with loving admiration for each other. Though she doesn’t grieve like the commons, she remembers her, she misses her.

"I know, I’ll make a snowman whenever I miss Vivienne"

• • • • •

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• • • • •

Character As a Frame of Mind

The notion that a character represents a frame of mind, merely a particular perspective in a situation, is not new, probably not even interesting at all to know the fact, though this idea is not readily apparent to the common audience. The approach in Snow Cake exemplifies this idea very well, rendering Vivienne, an almost non-existent character, to take on such a substantial presence on screen. Despite being invisible, glimpses of her viewpoint frequently resides in other character’s conversations; her opinion sort of hovers above the storyline, subtly hinting the resolution, her statement; giving us a kind of pre-judgment to the texture of the film.

• • • • •

'Dazlious'

Snow Cake also surprised me with a quaint little scene, where Linda and Alex play Scrabble against each other. Their rules very much resembles Facebook's version of Scrabulous; each player make up words of their own, even if it's non-existent in the dictionary. This little exchange playfully teases the linguistic conservationist, and puts us in awe of Linda's creativity. The scene is worth a posting:

- - - - - § - - - - -
Sharon Chong, published 16th July, 2007
GSC, 1 utama
:o)

Dancing the Dance

2007-06-30T00:06:00.000+08:00

Ever since I graduated from the Disney ‘What’s Up Doc’ Looney Toon cultivation, Cantonese series from Hong Kong never failed to mystify me – I could at nowhere get so close to Kung Fu fighting scenes! Not only did I feel ‘near’, I felt as if I was flying, somersaulting, back flipping, leg sweeping and hip spinning together with them. And come the dreams of all energetic, and imaginative children: “I wanna do that too!”

Now dancing scenes (oh, these make me wanna twist some hips as well!) differs a lot from kung fu fighting. Fighting, puts a mess on screen, with punch blows whizzing back and forth, and knuckles down at the face at impossible speed. Yet, it can afford that mess because the emotion that it tries to support is usually very intense; anger, for example. Dancing, be it ballroom, street, improvisations or any other kinds; have received very different treatment from directors, cinematographers and editors.

The movies you’ll hear me refer to will be: Strictly Ballroom (1992), Dance With Me (1998), and Take the Lead (2006). These films in common tell of fascinations with ballroom dancing. Given the availability of technology in the different years, and themes of which the directors deal with, we could look across the time leaps and perhaps find interesting nuggets about how the filmmakers themselves dance around the topic – Dancing.

Dancing as __________

In the world of science, there’s this ever-obsession with putting down your ‘definition card’, before we can talk further. If this can be important in the kitchen – knowing whether mother wants it sweet/bitter, if 'chocolate cake' meant flour mixed with cocoa, or chiffon layers sandwiched with chocolate bars, or is she just talking about the plastic decoration on the shelf; if that's important, then it will be important for the filmmakers to know what dancing “is”. Of course directors won’t allow him/herself to be as boring as telling you upfront in Times New Romans, font size 12, how he/she interprets it. But we could experience and probe its texture from the final product; much like eating a piece of the chocolate cake and reflectively guess the recipe later.

Dancing as Identity

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Scott, the main character in Strictly Ballroom (1992), seems confused when his ballroom colleagues denounce his circus-like, acrobatic self-invented movements during a state competition. He frustrates himself even more when his first dance partner, parents and coach demands a strict stick with something pre-programmed and appropriate, allowing him freedom for steps choices akin to the Sony Playstation – Dance Dance Revolution.
Through dancing with his new beginner-partner, Fran, who provides us a contrast; secure, assertive yet knows how to submit, doesn’t mind an insult and sure of what she wants; he works through reconciling with the rules, and finding place for improvising.

Baz Luhrmann & Craig Pearce, the screenwriters of the film, I feel, also reflects this identity perspective in the way they position the cameras for the dance numbers. Even as Scott dances, the camera angles help us assume another kind of spectatorship; ‘watch Scott dance’, instead of ‘watch the dance that he is doing’ – So that, in the end, we may interpret the film as a portrait of who Scott was, and who has he grown (in the 2 hours) to be. Well, a lot of help was also garnered from antagonizing Scott’s parents, who lied to him about the fall of his father’s dancing career, when in actual he was deprived of the opportunity of winning because his wife refused to dance with him.

And so, as we are set up to be Scott’s friend, we shall see him flourish in all his brilliance, trotting the dance floor with fierce thumps of the Paso Doble. His grim and confident face pulls close to the camera, making a turn very slowly, almost inching his way forward, too slowly to be regarded as real. The camera frames the dances in a straightforward manner, simple linear cruise on the dolly, bit of close ups here and there; generally documentary in texture.

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• • • • •

Dancing as Gender Roles

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A dance couple due for a professional competition practices in the dance studio. They take a break.
While her partner was gone, Ruby began twirling around a pole column. Sure steps swap swiftly on each whirl of her hips; silky end of the dress rises up, spinning around like a chopper’s blade.
Rafael the handyman approached her and smilingly, with his Cuban accent, said, “I don’t understand how you can dance without music. No wonder you look so stiff.”

Compared to the previous one, Dance With Me (1998) brings in a kind of ‘maturity’, in terms of what the different conflicts the characters experience as young adults. After his mother died, Rafael left Cuba, to work for John whom he suspects to be his biological father. His heart gave way for Ruby, and on sending her home realized that she has a son.

Among these contentions of relationships, ‘dance’ began to brew a new meaning for both Rafael and Ruby. From where Rafael used to live, air of the night never would have time to still from ya-ya hands and tap-tap feet, moving to the reggae. When he saw how Ruby handled her moves without music back at the studio, he knew that he had very distinct ideas about what ‘dancing’ is to him - making his body as a vessel that allows music to ride and articulate itself through it.

On Ruby’s part, a little of her history shall colour for us the process of emotional struggle she goes through. She no longer could understand any sincerity of men, after having been left pregnant by her ex-dance partner. And she wouldn’t have raised her son and stayed sane had she not nursed her wound by regarding herself more competent, more skillful then men in general. But if you wanna dance, you gotta have a partner. So, dancing became not only about movements or body sculpting, a new issue rises up: Leading and following. Control.

Her resolution is a beautiful one.

She decided to partner with her runaway boyfriend for a medley round, hoping to harvest a win after 6 years of losing. On the dance floor, her partner makes very clear about who controls - he crunches hard to make powerful twist, tug and tosses, setting a mad pace for every number. Ruby warns him and almost yells at him to treat her more gently. Her leg cramps.

Comes the final number; in her frustration, she literally glides away from her partner, and stop a few feet away from Rafael, who is watching her from the crowd of audience. She looks intense at him, and he sees her bitterness in her eyes. She began letting the streams of emotions take their own form through her movements. He moves slightly with her, as if telling her that he is in fact dancing with her. Closing her eyes, she falls back into the arms of her partner, and just flowed with mellow mood of the music.

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Photography of the dance has much improved after 6 years. Apart from the simple spectator’s view, cinematographer Fred Murphy includes more variation of dolly movements in relation to the dancer’s direction and those that are around them. And the shots are much longer, recording more actions within a cut. When photographing Rafael and Ruby, to convey a sense of respect and indifference of hoarding control in a dance, the camera always sets its referent point at Ruby’s height. The director even have Rafael to get to his knees while holding Ruby’s hands, letting her guide him around her and pull him up. The editor refrained from using the slow motion, unlike what the editor did for Strictly Ballroom to emphasize certain facial expressions or moves which just looks corny.

• • • • •

Dancing as Narrative

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My interpretation of what ‘dance’ mean for Liz Friedlander, director for Take The Lead (2006), perhaps has less to do with the content in the story itself, but rather giving support to the structure of the story flow.

Inspired by a real person, dance teacher Pierre Dulaine offers to teach high school detention students to dance ballroom. The students labeled as ‘rejects’ regained hope affirmation in this new thing that they are taught. This gave them very rare opportunity to believe that their skills are appreciated and can be honed to mastery, and then of course to be recognized in the highly competitive ballroom dancing ring. You can well guess the plot.

What I’d like to discuss here though, is not about the very story, instead, I hope to highlight some interesting innovations of the way the dance numbers are photographed.

In the previous 2 movies that we’ve talked about, the outcome of the photography and the subsequent editing presents the dance in a pretty fragmented way. We can see that they move a certain hand, lift a certain leg, do a certain turn, but as much as we can sense that they are doing this thing called ‘dancing’, we don’t really see the whole process being done. It’s like starting with a bow, and ending with a curtsy, and stuff just any moving parts in the middle, and there you go, the Tango.

Whereas in this movie, Alex Nepomniaschy places the cameras within meaningful relationships with the process. In the movie’s production note, Liz commented:

“I visualized the movie starting as a stylized documentary, then exploding into a Hollywood movie at the end.” In discussions with her creative team, Friedlander stressed the idea that the film “should take its cues from the learning curve of the kids. As their world opens up, the movie should also ‘open up’ in look and feel.”

How can this be done? I believe, while arranging for camera positions, not only was Alex informed about the specific moves, and which detailed gesture would be close-up worthy, he was also conscious about the space that the dance was to occur in. Apart from the portraits and interesting movements, he also provided us a spatial reference, letting us know where this movement is currently being performed; the right side corner of the hall? In the centre of the dance floor? Immediately in front of the audience?… Thus, he included views of the ‘spectators’, ‘hovering mosquito’, ‘ceiling’, ‘ant’, ‘among-the-others’, ‘cruising-across-the-floor’, and the dancers’ own viewpoints of course. It either involved many cameras or the actors repeat a scene a dreadful lot of times. Consider the spatial sensitivity in the following shots:

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Having the variety of shots is still not enough. Liz and her editor Robert Ivison have chosen to collage the myriad of shots into an understandable story. They carefully selected shots and weave them together so that they can appear as a whole – a complete set of Tango or Waltz, etc. An illustration might be an instructional tai-chi video, which shows you exactly what moves come after which, just that this one is done with much more style and speed than that.

Even if that weren’t the actual dance sequence, all the more I would give my applause to the convincing editing. The shots juxtaposed through the cuts, brought about a logical connection to the steps. And plus, we have sufficient spatial reference point to put the dance into its environmental context.

• • • • •

Conclusion

I should argue, that filmmaking allows for the art of representation, that can be expressed in such many ways. Mark Cousins (1) postulates that every creative director would ask, “How do I do this differently?” every time they handle a subject. But ‘different’ in what way? Simply changing the actors or the language would make it different, doesn’t it? Of course not. From the 3 movies we’ve opened up and discuss about the way a similar subject is handled, I think the question for creativity here could be, “With due diligence, what does this subject matter mean to me?” and according to my meaning, how would it manifest in my characters, their lines, actions, environment and outcome?

• • • • •

Mark Cousins (2004). The Story of Film. Pavilion Books.

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Sharon Chong, published 29th June, 07
:o)

Artistic Zeal

2007-06-27T19:31:00.000+08:00

These past few weeks saw one of my very confusing days. Much like having a spin of yarn in your hands, and not knowing what to do with it. Or closer still, like sitting down in a library archive room, in front of the whole catalogue drawers, searching, searching, searching, for something, something, something. Do i know what i'm looking for? Maybe. Do i have a clue if i'm looking at the right place? Maybe. Do i like what i'm finding? Maybe.

And maybe not.

I've not read philosophy, but damn choices.

Anyway, there're stuff that tickled me and i thought them very interesting. And it's amazing to look at the world outside of movies, or filmmaking, and find myself amazed at creativity that involves things that are more organic. Not that actors or actresses are not organisms, but i meant that word to describe the nature of representations.

Some visuals are works of very mundane things around us. You might remember Buchanan, in Art Attack, making 'large arts' on some empty spaces with simple gears. And he would 'process' those objects into some picturesque renditions.

Vik Muniz, an artist from Sao Paolo, Brazil, gave a little presentation during the TED talk in California. Watch how his exploration into sketches, lines, dots and colours produce such amazing pieces of works.

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Sharon Chong, published June 27, 07
:o)

Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage (The Final Days), (2005)

2007-06-20T16:10:00.000+08:00

Director: Marc Rothemund
Scriptwriter: Fred Breinersdorfer
Main Casts: Julia Jentsch, Gerald Alexander Held, Fabian Hinrichs
Johanna Gastdorf, André Hennicke
Watched: 13, 14th June 2007
Cinema: Cineleisure Damansara (3:C6)

I’ve come across many people who say, and say it proudly, that they don’t hold any political views, much less interested to spend any mindful thoughts on that subject. Now, since this film picks on freedom of speech, we shall talk about freedom of speech in Malaysia. Yesterday morning, I was waiting for my lift to meet up with my college mates. Waiting, you know is really not fun to do. So without much consideration, I pulled out “The Rocket” – A special edition newspaper produced by our opposition party DAP; and started reading. Out of the blues, I became so self-conscious, that I couldn’t help thinking, “Will I get arrested for reading this in the public?” On cue, my brain reminded me seemingly harmless stories of people who received state punishment for simply saying something that sounded “disrespectful” or “scornful” or “insulting” about this or that minister/ leader.

Reflecting upon my reflex-like reaction, I realized that all my life I’ve been taught not to make political evaluations or comments, not in public, not even in whisper to your friend lest the table we are at is tapped. Even if I hear others say it, they would do it in hush-hush.

This film is also a reconstruction of history. Let me impress you with my learning about Malaysian history. It’s not hard to conclude that many countries like our own were Victims of many colonial powers. Those Vicious Scumbags have robbed our power to rule our Own Kind. Their Prideful and sometimes Pathological Impositions probably have stayed on with us till this day. It’s not our fault that our system of “justice” has a somewhat offset in exercising impartiality. When “Malaysia” birthed out of independence… Hmm… actually, from this point onwards I’m not quite sure if I know what I’m talking about anymore; because I confused myself when the textbook emphasizes on M clubs, C clubs, and I clubs, right after the unification. Anyway, I believe our forefather fought hard for our country’s independence and the governance system. Their successors were all heroic and intelligent in forming our country the way it is now. No doubt, the government makes the best choices possible, I’m sure. I have no questions. Yes, Malaysia, we can!

Sigh… Hitler’s job would have been so much easier if he had more citizens like me.

- - - - - § - - - - -

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Once Upon a Time…

This portion of the story happened 10 years into Hitler government’s dictatorship over Germany – after Churchill and Roosevelt announced that “the war (WW2) can end only with an unconditional German surrender” at Casablanca, and German’s first big retreat at Stalingrad (1). A few German students at University of Munich, who came back from serving the army, formed the “White Rose”.

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Having lived the threat of death at the Eastern Frontline, they took upon themselves to write about the massive loss of young men turned soldiers, innocent Jews, women and children, blown dead at SS rifle tips; and mentally ill patients occupy the gas chambers; Jews or Germans, because they don’t economically produce. The “White Rose” called upon German citizens to measure their leader’s military efforts with the moral yardstick, and to resist laws and policies that violate Godly conscience, even if it means having to admit that Germans are not the superior race over other cultures. They took major risks in disseminating 6 batches of leaflets for this purpose, and on the 6th secret distribution at the empty hall of University of Munich, Hans Scholl and Sophie Scholl were spotted and arrested.

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The Fighting

Despite her being one of the heroic Nazi German resistors, Julia Jentsch’s personification of Sophie Scholl isn’t very dramatized. She comes across as unmovable and steadfast to her own beliefs, and offers them only as strongly as respect and composure would allow.

“We fight with words,” said Sophie.

Contrary to mainstream narratives which diligently builds a particular character, I think the “fighting” is exactly what’s dramatized here. Our senses are carried through debate zones to stay with, and feel the tensions along the battle of ideologies. Scriptwriter Fred Breinersdorfer spoke during an interview:

The political dialogue between Mohr, the Gestapo interrogator, and Sophie is my invention because I felt it was necessary to have one scene in the middle of the film so the audience can watch both opinions fighting each other (2).

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Political juxtaposition is almost always verbal in here. A good part of the movie reduced scenes to stage fierce fencing of the foils, allowing us to witness how Sophie craftily attempted to slick away from police charges, only when confronted by incriminating evidences did she give in, yet claimed correctitude even at accusation of high treason. She would later commence gnashing political arguments with the interrogating Gestapo in quick and immediate ping-pong, answered to her communist cellmate, culminating to an unyielding statement put across the court to the President of the People Court, Roland Freisler. A detailed plot description can be viewed here.

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“ You will very soon, stand where we are standing today (as the accused)” - Sophie

• • • • •

The Leaflet

The content of the 6th Leaflet of the White Rose can be downloaded here.

“Hans Scholl, Sophie Magdalene Scholl, and Christoph Probst have been found guilty of high treason, troop demoralization, and aiding the enemy…”

Roland Freisler, Judge of the People Court.

It is very clear that there’ll be no story had the White Rose not differ in Hitler’s political vision. In fact, any slightest form of deviation could become a state affair. Of course, the criticism here is directed towards Nazi Germany’s conscious intention on killing other cats to feed on their fish; while tacitly understanding their unjustified cruelty, seek to remove any thoughts that might suggest so. Thus, the necessity to ‘catastrophize’ and ‘criminify’ the White Rose’s harmless piece of leaflet. This will become clear if we compare the following pictures in succession:

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An essay needing involvement from the Gestapo

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Essay content so 'damaging' that it requires court examination

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Words found to be so evil that the writer deserves the Guillotine

• • • • •

And perhaps, we might begin to wonder what kind of mentality would render, an act of patterning blots of ink onto papers to represent one’s thoughts, as a crime that deserves the guillotine?

Trials before the “People’s Court” were conducted in secret, owing to “national security” concerns, and appeals to higher courts were not permitted (3).

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Punch Bags

One thing about movies that talk history is that you can criticize the subject matter as brutally as you feel necessary. Because if ever you are caught denoting insults to a living ruler, there’s always this assumption that movies are merely stuff of imaginations and fiction, thus, any discussions that may stem from it theoretically stay within fantasia-land.

So, anyone of you angry fellows who cannot stand speaking in obscure terms, and seemingly gentle and respectable language, I suggest you consider criticizing movie characters and contents. Punch bags are good for catharsis…

Where is God?

“ The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of the life is its unobtrusiveness. It is like a corn of wheat, which falls into the ground and dies, but presently it will spring up and alter the whole landscape (John 12:24, parenthesis by author).”
Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (June 19)

I’m convinced that I will not find God, in the context of this movie, if I looked for Him outside of Sophie Scholl.

The interrogator asked “How could a society be in order if they were no laws?”

“Conscience” - answered Sophie

Sophie does not shame away from telling in my view, the truth, about God given Conscience, she splats it right at the face of her atheist interrogator. In her urgency to make a point, she was never engaged violence to achieve that end. In this film, she was shown praying for God’s strength in between interrogations and trial. Yes, clear sight of hands clasping together, calling out to Jesus, and even a prayer for Germany as a country, and reciting a bible verse by a prison minister. Her valorous opposition involved supernatural aid.

A Christian review of this film can be viewed at Christianity Today.

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1) The History Place, (1996). World War Two in Europe: Timeline with Photo and Text. Taken from http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/ww2time.htm

2) Richard Phillips (2006). Fred Breinersdorfer, writer of Sophie Scholl-The Final Days, speaks with the WSWS. World Socialist Web Site. Taken from: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/aug2006/soph-a17.shtml

3) Jacob G. Hornberger, (July 11, 2003). Crossing the Rubicon. Taken from: http://www.fff.org/comment/com0307h.asp

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Sharon Chong, published 20, June 2007
Cineleisure Damansara, MY
:o)

La Môme | La Vie en Rose (2007)

2007-06-11T20:23:00.000+08:00

Realisateur: Olivier Dahan
Acteurs: Marion Cotillard, Pascal Greggory, Sylvie Testud, Gérard Depardieu,
Jean-Pierre Martins, Marc Barbé, Emmanuelle Seigner
Watched: 24, 25, May, 2 June, 2007
Cinema: GSC 1 Utama, GSC Mid Valley

Colin McGinn, while working on his book, “The Power of Movies”, calls his movie-going habit - “research”. ;-) Excellent perspective to borrow. From 24th May to 3rd June, I was doing a lot of field research indeed. The end of this French movie-watching project found me drunken romancing over 2 new gems, which I’m bringing into my collection of cine-knickknacks. Both have got something to do with musiqué; and its Directeur de la Réalisation & monteur (editor), prove to be very inspiring.

This time, watching "La Môme", sitting in the dark box will be a different experience. For those of you, like me, who simply take that whatever the characters utter is indeed French, will need to transfer some of our audio vigilance to our eyes, so that we can capture the detail-rich scenes, on top of the English translations, plus, processing implications and humor. But it is this inability to predict that makes the anticipation worth its tingle; a constant open patience that would allow the story imprint itself in our mind as the way it is.

‘Raising’ Edith Piaf

When your goal is to tell a person’s life story, the plot will be simple – she was born, she lived, eventually she dies. The opening sequence makes this very clear right from the start: A heavily made-up lady in a black suit stands singing on a stage. Her lungs throw out streams of sonorous chant, sending her audience out of reality’s door, into an unseen realm of heavenly reverbs. Meanwhile, a stretcher was brought out of an ambulance parked at the back alley of the concert hall. The man ushering the medics through the stage passage briefs them, in his urgency, that our singer on stage had a fainting fit 10 minutes before they arrived. They watch from the side, her face strains as she pulls off the finalé with a booming refrain. “Heaven have Mercy, Heaven have Mercy, Heaven have Mer-“ Her body falls back on the floor. A sheet of black consumes her vision… All she could do now, is to pray…

Almost immediately we know where the story would be going. It’s set in the music industry, it’s glorious, and like it or not, it’s going to be tragic.

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A film like this essentially demands the filmmakers to explore at length, what made Edith the person she was. This film, titled after her stage name, “La Môme Piaf”, attempts to track Edith from her childhood, through to her old age; speculating for us the deterministic moments that eventually brought Edith to her glory and fall while she lived.
Though the story rides on a time-crossing editing style, we could observe very clearly whether a scene describes a 5, a 10, 20, or 40-year old Edith. And the film takes an approach that subtly denotes transformation in Edith’s growth in personality and identity:

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Childhood

In this part of her life, the audience is put on a tour, so to speak, taken right into her family and her social circle. At age 5, her father, upon release from the French army, snatched Edith off her drunken, street singer mother and brought her to live with the grandmother. Her grandmother managed and lived in a prostitute house, where constant erotica runs wild, possessing real men and women in display of sensuous, playful toying, giggles, fondles and such. Of course, when the men left together with their un-shameful groans and whimpers, she also got to make friends with and witnessed what became of the women – unforgiving self-batter, cursing their own self-betrayal to insanity, if not death.

During her time in the prostitute house, she contracted conjunctivitis and went blind. Little did she know that she would soon receive her only faithful friend and helper she could spiritually rely on for the rest of her life – Saint Theresa. A few sisters at the brothel brought her to pray to Saint Theresa, and her eyes miraculously healed.

As we observe little Edith, we realise that we’re really being shown how people around her treated her, and the lifestyles they demonstrated to her. We’re led to understand the environment that was dictated upon her. In those scenes above, she had very little to say, nor any chance to publicly express her views, only to accept, and react to anything that was smacked at her. It’s as if the filmmakers are trying to say that she had no choice, but to take in for herself what she saw other people were doing.

After a certain time, her father came back, and took her to join him in the traveling circus he worked with as a contortionist. The moment came for her to discover her gift of singing, when her father left the circus, and began throwing off solo acts on Belleville streets. On a particular show, the watching crowd requested, or rather, insisted that the young girl perform. Unsure if she was terrified or spurred, the moment came for her to open her mouth. She sent out a resounding song that raised eyebrows, sounded applauses and moved hands to give.

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Once the curtain’s pulled up for Edith, the rest of the story saw her self-assertion pops up, as from a toaster. It feels like a psychological marking, where the film says: Now, Edith grows up…

• • • • •

Youth

Very quickly, we’re brought into the busy streets, within ever-flowing streams of shuffling pedestrians. Two giggling girls came to the foot of a flight of stairs; they started running, racing each other up to the top; approaching ‘us’ from the front.

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I’m thinking, this scene is cleverly used, indirectly but tangibly, to bring out the notion of Edith increasing in age and energy. We eventually discover that after coming out of her father’s care she developed a close friendship with Simone (or Mômone), with whom she sprinkled the streets with singing, diffusing her spellbinding vocal trinkets along their trails.

In the context of this film, this is the period when Edith begins to feel that her existence matters to the world. Playing on the one craft she knows best, people who could hear her and could afford, gave her their minute or two, and their coins. These unfamiliar faces upon hearing her sing, would pause from their own itinerary, and admiringly mesmer in a dream staged in their own ears. Those coins Edith received in her early years, not only paid for her meals, more importantly, they told her something that her parents; her grandparents couldn’t tell her – that she is appreciated.

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Her affair with the audience began innocently flirtatious, only to gain momentum, and escalated in numbers and passion together with the growth of her career. Her break came, literally just ‘around the corner’. On a curb marking the start of a diverging road, she did not know that she would stand in between Louis M. Leplée and his home. Who would have known this stroll of strolls, could set once sorrow to rise on the wings of sparrow?
Leplée brought “La Môme Piaf ” – The Sparrow Kid, to high society.

• • • • •

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When Leplée died, despite her astounding voice, Edith went on a series of painfully unlearning and relearning new platform cultures, before her mentor Raymond Asso could book her into her first show up at musical hall – the mark of a real Artist in their time. This would be one of the dearest scenes in the film –

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Pacified from her paralyzing stage fright, Edith comes on stage, under the scrutiny of the overly bright spot light, though, through the beam she wasn’t blinded to the many who wait, but impatient.
It’s like attending a blind date, where both sides try to size up the other, yet without crushing him/her with too much prejudice.
Edith opens her mouth in her audience’s anticipating gaze.
No sound! But the orchestral film score continues streaming.
Together with the daunting score in the minor key, unsmiling eyes attended to Edith with caution. Edith closes in.
The more she engages in her song, the more it pulls her into a life of its own, coming out in all its drama as she throws a humourous sneer or raised an indifferent shoulder.
Lip-lines began to soften into an arch, necks losing their stiffness.
Only in a graceful turn of tone, the score ascending towards a choral spirit lifts with the audience’s responsive laughter, unaware of their lack of composure…
They like it. They like Edith Piaf.

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• • • • •

Adulthood

It will come clear for us, once we consult the adventure-abundant biography of the real life legendary French singer, that this film has adopted emphases and omissions that are quite unique.

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A recurring theme is of merciless separation and the mirroring desperation to fill that tear. Abandoned by her mother, she thought she found home in the brothel where sisters surrounded her. The panic shrieks alone will never explain how painful when her best friend was pulled away from her. Titine, last saw her drifting farther and farther away, riding on her father’s horse cart. After Louis M. Leplée, whom cared for her like a parent, was murdered, the authority also forcefully took her buddy Simone away. The separation that began the fall of her life came in deep horror for her, when she heard that the man she loved, crashed to pieces with the airplane that was bringing him to see her.

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With that background, director Olivier has chosen to give us the Edith who is “feisty, impetuous, egotistical, self-destructive, downright infuriating at times”(1). After the devastating death of the love of her life, Marcel Cerdan, her body became a deposit of serious amount of alcohol, morphine and the casual musk of many men. On top of a rib-breaking car crash, arthritis turned her already frail body into an ashy, hunchback, shivering senile woman, looking 60 although she was only 47 when she died.

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Directorial Lessons

Any review essay for “La Môme” will surely make comments on its generous time-jumping cuts. And I believe it’s one of the rare films where time-jump works. To illustrate why it works, this is a linguistic version of it:

“Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,
it deosn’tmttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the
olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the
rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can
sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn
mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef,
but the wrod as a wlohe.”(2, p.27)

Michael Guillen attended the 50th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF-50) and interviewed director Olivier Dahan. Michael commented:

… The film was seen through "shards shed from the spotty memory of an ailing drug addict", as Dave Hudson pointed out at The Greencine Daily. As a director, these drugged fugue states served Dahan's thematic and creative aims by allowing him the freedom to shift the story away from factual realities. He didn't want to make a biopic in the first place; he wanted to paint a portrait. He might have felt obligated to the facts but the facts were not the reason behind his film… he wanted his audience to relax into the film and to feel it, not think it. (3)

Many criticized the film’s time jumps, giving us a child in one scene and then flies across decades in the next. On first reception, the cuts felt to me like random picks of chapters from a book. Though many were gracefully transitioned, it still requires some effort to follow. But as I viewed it the second, and third time, I’m convinced that there’s a motif in laying the story in this seemingly jarring sequence.

For one, it prevents movie veterans from actively preoccupying themselves in critiquing the film even before they finish viewing it. Abrupt changes to the path of the story discourage comments we say in our heads based on our predictions, whether consciously or unconsciously. Which means, like it or not, as audience, you are not in control of the flow; you will be subjected to surprises in the unfolding process.

And as I mentioned in the earlier part of this review, the plot is made very clear right at the beginning of the story. The time jump puts child-Edith and old-Edith into juxtaposition, providing us a big picture already at the start. And it is this very knowledge that poses the challenge for Olivier. Could we audience still be entertained, informed, gripped and led into the story despite seeing the overview? This challenge is even more valid with French audience who knows their national icon well, or at least through her biography.

So, given the uncertainty of time and setting, the audience can only ‘attach’ themselves to the only one that is constantly present in the scenes – Edith Piaf. Which achieves exactly what Olivier wants; a portrait that pushes aside other things that could distract us from the person.

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A word on acting. Marion Cotillard’s heart felt personification of Edith Piaf, left me feeling both emotionally drained and rewarding at the end, and regret only that I couldn’t stand in ovation as the credits rolled. What more could I say about the film except for the incredible cohesiveness of plot, drama, performance, scores, transitions etc; one that requires an editing with both consistency and ability to accommodate dynamics. A brilliant masterpiece.

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1) Dave Hudson, (2007) Greencine Daily. Berlinale Dispatch: La Mome. Taken from
http://daily.greencine.com/archives/003231.html

2) Michael Dean, (2004). $30 Writing School. Boston, MA, USA: Course Technology
http://site.ebrary.com/lib/mybc/Doc?id=10065747&ppg=47

3) Michael Guillen, (2007). La Vie en Rose: The Evening Class Interview with Olivier Dahan. Taken from http://theeveningclass.blogspot.com/2007/06/la-vie-en-rose-evening-class-interview.html

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Sharon Chong, Published 11th June, 2007
GSC, 1 utama
:o)

The Final Cut (2004)

2007-05-25T11:50:00.000+08:00

Director: Omar Naim
Main Casts: Robin Williams, Mira Sorvino, James Caviezel
Watched: 16th May, 2007. Wednesday 10.00pm
DVD: Lions Gate in association with Cinerenta, Speedy Video Distributors S/B

If we look back in our lives, and if we will remember hard enough, some moments will surface in our minds; those moments that we thought we should have forgotten for the longest time. And some of us may have felt it, where this one single memory sucks us in like a toilet bowl, into the sewage of deep hurt, guilt or let downs that cripple our very being or our fragile confidence. Or maybe a time when we rose above all storms and saw our visions through; so seductive are our memories, as if we were seeing it right before our eyes, or can we?

And imagine at the end of our lives, lying in the glass coffin, with our spirits looking at the ceremony from above, we might wonder, do people know what kind of person was I, really? How I thought of those around me when I was alive, really? How virtuous was I, really?

Well, most of us will have our last chance, having somebody to gracefully save or enhance our life impressions through their eulogy for us, recited in front of anyone who cared to come for our wake service. Which is good.

Now, what if, while cocooned in lifelessness, yet, we could still speak for ourselves, and everyone else listens? What if we could put those people into our heads to see what we saw when we were alive, to hear what we heard, and maybe imagine feeling what we must have felt? By then, could we, as persons, handle our power to perform this 'final act'?

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Alan on the right, Louis left

“You’re not from around here, are you?”

“No, I’m here for the day with my parents.”

“I’m Louis”

“Hi, I’m Alan”

• • • • •

A Cutter's Story

Alan Hackman works a queer profession; one that resembles very closely with video editors. The Final Cut invites us to imagine, right now at this time, doctors could help slip in a ‘Zoe’ chip-corder (as opposed to camcorder) in our stillborn baby’s brain, so that whatever the baby sees and hears for the rest of his life will be recorded; second by second. When a chip-carrier dies, a “Cutter’s” job is to immerse himself in the lifelong footages, choose scenes that could representatively signify the deceased, arrange them into a 2-hour feature (called the “Rememory”), and have the Rememory shown during the person’s wake service.

- - - - - § - - - - -

Louis shouts, “Alan, just stop!”
Alan continues walking across a narrow wooden plank over a floor opening

“Come on Louis” said Alan when he reached the other side
“Just don’t look down”

Took a deep breath - “I’m coming”
Louis walks to the middle of the plank when-
“I CAN’T MOVE!”

“Hold my hand, Louis!”

Louis jumps towards the concrete slab. The jump falls short, only his
hands were clung to the surface. In a second, his hands no longer could
hold the weight of his body.

Alan saw Louis’ hands slide off the surface, disappeared from sight, and felt the loudest thump of his heartbeat when Louis’ body rammed the ground, four floors down…

• • • • •

The necklace Alan found hanging at the edge of the opening surface, where Louis fell, follows him throughout his life, together with the moment’s memory it carries. And a lifetime was the very thing Alan gave to be a cutter.

Alan carefully chooses “pleasant scenes” for Rememory videos according to how the family wants to remember the deceased. He will be the only one who sees what is left behind the glossed up 2-hour Rememories – Best of glories, and worst of shits.

• • •

“Tell me something. Why is your name the first on the list for cutting scum bags and low lives?”- Asked Fletcher, an anti chip implant activist.

“’Cause I forgive people long before they could be punished for their sins.
• • •

Most of his colleagues could bear not a second, seeing for example abusive behaviors inflicted upon a victim. To Alan, he thinks, who could commit more evil than himself who caused somebody else’s death? Cutting jobs almost become like a cavern that allows him to nurse the immense guilt that coloured his entire consciousness; becoming his attempt to serve a free man’s sentence for his sins.

Being habitually feeling about life in such a way, Alan never really took seriously the social risks of Rememories – factual memories, but re-sequenced. Protests of anti-implant activists never quite bothered him, be it being called a liar, in the name of human rights or anything beyond that. Alan simply thinks he is contractually responsible for caring and consoling the living people who were close to the deceased, just that.

• • •

“Alan, are you going to fix what daddy can remember?” – A dead attorney’s daughter, Isabel asked

“In a way, yes.”

“Can you make him forget that I drew crayon on his contract? And that I
pulled dolly’s hair until she cried? Will he forget that?”

“Yes, he will forget that. “
“But make sure you don’t.”

• • •

‘Just a respectful cutter’ he thinks himself to be, until he stumbles on this attorney’s memory that has Louis Hunt recorded in it, the boy who supposedly fell to his death in front of his eyes 30 years ago. Somehow, Louis lived and became Isabel’s English teacher, but finally died in a car accident a year before their conversation. In his desperation to know exactly how Louis survived the fall, he secretly searched the Zoe chip sales database, hoping that Louis might have had a chip implanted in his brain. Disappointment met him at the end of the ‘H’ list - no Hunt, only to turn into a thunderous jolt when he returned his gaze to the start – “H” for Hackman A. W. – a Zoe chip in himself!

Waves of disbelief, confusion and dread hit him while he sank helplessly into the deafening echoes of reality. He can no longer bear seeing himself in the mirror, knowing that someone else will have every liberty over the most private of thoughts throughout his life. Only at this point did the angry protestors made sense to him.

• • •

“That’s me!”

- - - - - § - - - - -

The Seven Sins of Memory

Given the juicy possibilities of exploring social and ethical repercussions that a Zoe chip might bring about, Omar takes The Final Cut on a psychological ride. Not surprising when the whole show throws all eyes on Alan Hackman.

In the field of Cognitive Psychology, Schacter D. L. assembled a list of 7 ways our memory can go out of whack, preventing us from remembering things as accurately as a video camera would. We receive Omar’s introductory psychology lecture after a Rememory screening when the brother of the deceased approached Alan-

“Hey did you change the colour of our fishing boat?

“I'll never do that”

“Are you sure? Because I remember it being green, not red.
Weird, like all my memories in that boat had been green.
Like it just, blew my mind.”

“Maybe it was green.”

At this juncture I went, what did he mean ‘maybe’? What was making the difference here? Only later along the show did Alan explain while showing his girlfriend a private cut of dreams and hallucinations recorded inside the chip because of certain defects. So instead of objectively recording what hits the eye, the chip records what the mind sees.

And Alan would discover the second answer himself. Knowing now that he had a chip in him all the while, he decided to brave a pre-mature Zoe playback, which risk him losing his entire memory or even consciousness if any error happens during the procedure.

As his history played before his eyes, he simply allowed some important episodes in his life to register again in his mind and soul. He quickly came to the part when he was 10 years old, inside the old building with Louis. He recoiled as the fall repeated itself, letting all the guilt he carried dance amok in his vulnerableness. He continued watching himself “remember” running frantically to the ground floor, seeing Louis lying flat on his back; little Alan traces backwards, away from the body. “Clunk-K-lunk”, he looks down and saw his own feet stepping on a pool of deep red liquid.

There and then, 40-year old Alan realized that it wasn’t blood that he thought he stepped on when he was there at age 10. It was just red paint. And he heard Louis coughing faintly in the background of his own loud panting, which he didn’t notice at that time when all fears numbed his senses.

How much more soaring freedom could he have felt to know the truth that the sin he brought with him throughout life was really just a sin of the memory??

"I tried to warn him, but he wouldn't listen. And he fell...
but he was breathing, it wasn't blood, it was paint. Now i remember..."

“I Remember…”

- - - - - § - - - - -

Interesting Afterthoughts

Although the film explores largely on Alan’s thinking and emotional changes, Omar subtly inserts a few questions here and there, though he didn’t answer them. At the start of the show, where we are introduced to Alan’s profession, his cutting client came to preview his work. And on farewell commented

“You’ve done a hell of a job with him, Mr Hackman. You’ve done him son-of-a-bitch right.”

And that leaves us wondering, who is he to decide what footage chosen was ‘right’ or 'wrong'? Isn’t the deceased the only one who knows which periods of his life are most significant, representative and impactful for him? They may have his visual and audio footage, but who are they to judge what meanings had the deceased given to those episodes?

And that leads us to another question. Who then is a funeral for? The dead, or the living? Of course we already know what Alan thinks. In rejecting the notion of Rememories being lies, he holds strong beliefs that those living are the ones needing peace, needing respect and consolation in times of grief. Is it not true that even we write eulogies to help us remember the dead person the way we want to remember him/ her by?

• • •

On a personal level, more of Robin Williams’ serious shows come across to me always as moving and often highly emotional. His acting in The Final Cut really drew me right into engaging in the material and even “feeling for” what Alan “must have been feeling. His facial tweaks of the slightest inch sent me into a ruthless empathy with Alan.

- - - - - § - - - - -
Sharon Chong, published 24th May, 2007
12, ss 25/21
:o)

The Messengers (2007)

2007-05-14T13:53:00.000+08:00

Director: Oxide Pang Chun, Danny Pang
Main Casts: Kristen Stewart, Dylan McDermott, Penelope Ann Miller
John Corbett, Evan Turner
Watched: 9th May, 2007. Wednesday 5:10pm
Cinema: Cineleisure Damansara, Curve (4:C10)

You may find this piece of review covering much more details than previous ones I’ve written. I would go the length of reconstructing, I believe, the establishment of characters, because I feel a couple of problems happen here, and they nibbled on me as the story unfolds according to its trajectory. There will be comments in bold; those are my thoughts as I try to repaint some moods I personally felt when I watched. Of course, the opening sequence doesn’t leave behind the usual danger mood; the piano would come in together with high pitch strings assemble, choppy, disturbing, and very suggestive especially making you aware that there is only the movie, you and darkness…

• • • • • •

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“Why are we running mummy?” the little boy was put down on a bed very hastily. “I need you to be a brave, brave boy, Michael.” His mother said to him.

The door to the room was wrecked open when Michael got shoved under the bed by his mother. He couldn’t see anything that was happening, only very loud terrifying shrieks and a thud, as if somebody was rammed roughly against the wall.

He knows he’s going to be getting it next. No. He saw an opened door, through which he could escape through the hallway – darted across the room, and clumsily shuffled down the staircase when he knocked straight into the chest of his elder sister.

“Run Michael, run!” he heard her said as the banister beside him was ripped off the staircase. He could only see what is in front of him, leaving his sister’s long bloody shriek falling behind him. The kitchen cabinet, under the stove! Michael closed himself in, and waited intensely, together with a musical toy tractor clutched tightly in his fist.

Light streamed onto Michael’s face. He stared right through the opening door. “What will it feel like to lose my life?”

Michael saw his last impression of the predator..

• • • • • •

A family is journeying quietly in a 4-seater MP-Van. Father, mother, teenage daughter and a little boy. No one seems to be interested in what anyone else on the car might be thinking about.

*Beep*
“We miss you” says a picture message showing a party through 16-year old Jessica’s Motorola. What is on your mind? She looks out of the car window. The journey continues.

Is this a flashback of the family being killed?

“Hke-Ehech-Ha” utters the little boy. His sister turned towards him, saying “Hey buddy”.

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An old farmhouse awaits their arrival while the MPV was brought to a halt in front of the house, together with its cargo. The family comes out to briefly survey what stood in front of them “I know it looks run down, but wait till you see the inside” father assures them.

Inside the kitchen, Jessica begins unpacking their stuff; pulls open the tape that sealed a box when a cabinet catches her attention. She reaches out her hand, takes hold of the knob and peeps through the opening. Something is in there. It’s the truck Michael was holding in the opening sequence. She stretches her arms to lay hold of that thing… an inch behind; stretches again… still not reaching it, stretches again…

The toy tractor springs to life - “(instrumental bells) Old Mac Donald had a farm, E, ei, ~e.i~…(battery depletes)…”, and then stops as soon as it falls onto the floor. Jessica’s chest pumps heavy breaths through her airways.

“Within two days, I’m going to turn all these into as though they were new” on the field outside the house, the husband, Roy, affectionately promises his wife, Denise. She giggles and asked “Even that?” pointing to a tractor under a shed. “Rrrr… that will take a week.” He replied.
“This is it Denise. We’re gonna make it. This is something that I know.” Roy assures her, out of his experience growing up in his grandfather’s sunflower farm and learned how to plant them since young.

Jessica walks towards the staircase and treads cautiously as she makes each step up. A few steps before reaching 1st floor, she stops and turned to look back into the living room. The bright sunlight coming through from the windows falls on her troubled face as she takes a long minute to feed her eyes with this new place she’s going to live in. Jess, are you sensing something unusual, or are you just feeling the reluctance to adjust?

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She reached the 1st floor, and saw that the window at the end of the short corridor allows her to see the field in front of the hou-“WHAM!” before she could blink her eyes; reflexively takes a step backwards to realise that a black crow slammed itself onto the window, then fluttered to stop on the surface near the window sills.

Jessica regains her posture, and began to walk downstairs. Roy was walking up too. At the turning he asks Jess, “What do you think about this place?” To which she replied “Neat” then she walks down. After all the surprises, you haven’t felt any strangeness in here yet??? What are you thinking?

Ben stood in the bedroom Denise while she yanks and lays the bed sheet. “Hey Benny…” She turns to smile at her 4-year old son behind her; while yanking the bed sheet to waist height; a pair of grey legs stands under the sheet, someone else is in the room! Ben just watches. With an eye level lower than your mother’s waist, you saw the legs didn’t you, Ben?

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At night, Jessica sits by her bed, looking at a framed photograph. Roy walks slowly in, smiles tenderly, asking her to get some sleep. The framed photograph on Jessica’s bed briefly catches his glance, so he sits down at the edge of her bed, turns to her saying gently “The only way we can make it, Jess, is to give it a try”
“But it’s so quiet out here”
“I know… It just needs some getting used to.”
Jessica thinks a minute, nods briefly and Roy then seals the agreement as their hands met with a clasp.

- - - - - § - - - - -

If you felt some jarring moments as you read the paragraphs, that’s probably similar to what I felt during the show. No doubt, the story revolves around the family, and it is a strange family to begin with. They seem too unnaturally polite and too separated from each other to look like one; as if they were a bunch of randomly picked people from a neighborhood, came together to play family members swap.

I think they appear unconvincing to me partially because of the way they relate with other family members and with the camera lens – (1) How close are they physically from each other, (2) How they do things together (3) How the camera ‘sees’ them

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Proximity
I’m assuming that families normally appear together fairly often, without much space in between them (typically hold hands/ rub against each other’s garments/ hugs each other…), and sometimes kissing each other on the forehead or other places.

But in this show, the Solomons are very sparing with their physical contact. Between husband and wife, there were neither kissing nor necking, not even affectionate touches.

The only character with the most relationship establishment was the little boy, Ben, who got carried by his parents and sister. Even then, he was only held onto their shoulder height. No nose rubbing, kissing, snuggling, prolonged hugging, tucking to bed etc…
Interaction
The moment when the Solomons stepped into the house, whatever creature in the house came in to manipulate most of their choices. The family members would always have time to explore the house, and discovering its peculiarities.

Come to think of it, the interaction between casts seems to be very “digital”. Especially the scene where Roy talked to Jessica, it felt like it was purposely designed just so that she can call him “Dad” and briefly clasp his hand – no subtlety, yep, that’s the word.

Any reference to the past was purely verbal, stating what happened in the past in a catalogue way. The events created to invoke conversation/ interaction just seem too well designed. Almost fool proof.
Camera Framing
I suspect another reason why I felt the lack of relationship, is probably because of how the camera ‘chooses’ to see the characters. For more than 60 percent of the movie time, only one individual can be seen on screen, even if they are in a conversation. Over shoulder shots that helps facilitate empathy were only sparsely used here.

Apart from conversations, I believe it’s also because the characters are “confined” to their individual area. The farmer father for example is almost always in the field outside the house. The mother is almost always in the kitchen or in the bedroom. The daughter is almost always venturing around the house alone or with her brother Ben. And Ben is almost always looking around the house and stretching out his hands trying to grasp what seems to be air.

The story puts the individual casts in different locations most of the time; appearing on screen alone as they react to the oddity they discover around the house.

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Putting the 3 elements together, it simply communicates to me that this family is not a closely knitted one, although the actors and actresses presents a stereotype of a big happy family. The Pang brothers might want to convey a sense of loneliness, yet we don’t have sufficient representations of warmth and tenderness to compare the relationships with. So I struggled a bit, wanting the family to come closer yet the story takes a long time to go that way.

- - - - - § - - - - -

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- - - - - § - - - - -

The Ride

As I read other people’s review about the film, I had a particular resonance with this one:

“The objective view gives the audience too much room to unravel its schematic plot…”(1)
Sam Adams, Los Angeles Times, 2007

This film explores every character’s point of view giving it a narrative documentary kind of texture. As you are watching it, you’ll be given almost equal opportunity to discover what each character sees and thinks. Every character here represents a different explanation for why the vision of a one big happy family is not coming together.

We as the audience, are given sort of an “Insider’s view” from the very beginning, we know that the house is definitely haunted with some very malicious creatures. And I guess, having that viewpoint creates tension. Because then, I would prefer Jessica not be so daring to venture into the cellar; then, I would prefer the parents to get their share of fright quicker; then, I would prefer little Benny to not “play around” with the creatures that he sees…

Yet the resolution is so glaring, that I began to anticipate what would happen next. Which is not good for a horror show, because I had so much time to prepare for any jolting images the film may have to offer!

- - - - - § - - - - -

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The Fallen Mystery

Thinking back, my guess is that the Pang brothers might have been planning a horrifying mystery solver kind of story, to keep the audience terrified yet curiously hooked on to the flow of the story at the same time. Having said that, it really didn’t come clear to me during the show because I wasn’t even sure if there were any missing link.

If the mystery bit had work as planned, the opening sequence should have served as a cue for the audience to wonder who/ what killed the family members. As the new family moves in, we should have suspected that the same creature was harassing them, only to realise that the creatures manifested, were actually those that got killed in the opening sequence. Enlightened by this knowledge, we should then have raced back to the supposedly even more rousing question, “Who then, is the killer that these creatures are trying to tell us?” Then finally comes the resolution bit, where the killer identified himself. So it turned out that their temporary worker killed his family but lost his memory after that. Yet it happened that he regained his memory, but was distorted and he began to believe that the Solomons were his family members, so proceeded to re-enact what was his attempt to stop his wife and child from leaving him – the killing, in the opening sequence.

I think what marred the mystery, is that the Pang brothers antagonized the creatures that harassed the Solomon family, but provided very little information explaining the harassments. The creatures just seem to be robotic beings, existing simply to destroy lives, without any apparent cause or history. Their expression of hurt feelings over unjustified violence was also not clear.

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This miss-representation also becomes a problem when they try to resolve the story using Jessica. Being a victim of a horrifying encounter with the creatures, it seemed superficial that Jessica would have any trace of curiosity towards why the creatures attacked her. It felt even more unbelievable that she would all of a sudden conjure up empathy with them, and then desperately figure out how they became that way! This is where all the miss-establishments blew the story out of proportion.

It might have worked better if there were explicit communications shown between the creatures and Jessica such as letters, visualizations or symbols. That way, the personality of the creatures will provide more opportunities for us to feel curious about their death, and justify having Jessica solve the mystery.

- - - - - § - - - - -

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I would still applaud “The Messengers” for its outstanding cinematography. I especially liked the lighting designs applied, to give the picture an elegant look. Although the Pang brothers might have casted the movie with more ‘suitable’ faces or created some stereotypical western impressions, the film does show what happens when a stereotypical eastern family puts on a western skin.

- - - - - § - - - - -

References:

1) Sam Adams (2007). The Messengers: Critic Review. Los Angeles Times.
Taken from: http://www.fandango.com/themessengers_98234/criticreviews.

- - - - - § - - - - -
Sharon Chong, Published 13th May, 2007
Cineleisure Damansara, Curve
:o)

Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)

2007-05-08T16:35:00.000+08:00

Director : Steve Bendelack
Main Casts: Rowan Atkinson, Max Baldry, Steve Campos,
Emma De Caunes
Watched: 5th May, 2007. Saturday 11:55pm
Cinema: TGV, One Utama (Box 2)

When you’re down and troubled
And you need a helping hand
And nothing
Nothing is going right

Close your mind
And look at me
And soon you will be here
And I’ll brighten up
Even your darkest night

Austin Powers, Jim Carrey or Bean
All you got to do is watch
And I’ll be here
You’ve got a friend…
(1)

People tell me about the tranquilizing effects movies can have on them. For me, it’s probably more a therapeutic relief to a troubled soul.

The late night shows listed available told me & buddy that Bean’s Holiday will be our best bet. Then, when the lights went down, and my back slumped spinelessly into the cinema seat; with my very dear buddy stuck by my side… I was ready for the midnight show.

- - - - - § - - - - -

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Uncanny Regression

I got sick of Bean’s cameo retarded stupidity and when I was young. And I think that explains why I didn’t rush to this show when it got released. Being 10 years older now, watching him again in a bigger mind actually brought back quite a bit of nostalgia. Along the movie, I would be reminded of some old scenes from the TV episodes that I used to watch with my family, remembering the tickles we all had when Bean’s acting humoured us.

Misunderstanding Comedy

I have always been amazed at coffee making machines. It’s fascinating, for me at least, to just press a few buttons and see your cup filled slowly with fresh brewed coffee – it’s just plain simple & easy. For most people I guess, comedies seem to be that way too. They fascinate us; and the stories are plain simple & easy to follow. Yet, in the case of coffee machines, we sometimes miss the fact that before the black liquid comes trickling down, beans have first to be ground, steamed, sieved, before its sterling delivered to our cup – an effortful processing work to give us what’s at the end.

Imagine the same for comedic movies; imagine the same for Bean’s holiday. What effortful scripting, character & plot planning and comical acting that must have been poured into this movie, and gave us the laughter and lightness in the final show?

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So, realising that funny scenes are not there by accident, I began my interest in the person who created, and became Bean’s expressánt – Rowan Atkinson.

- - - - - § - - - - -

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Self-Puppetry

Before we revisit what I find interesting about this film, I feel that we need to bear in mind that Mr. Bean, as a character, has a history in the film world. He gained shape and personality in our minds through the many, many episodes we saw through TV. So I believe the way Rowan handle this movie will carry more meaning if we talked about it in the light of Bean’s history.

While reading an archived radio interview, what surprised me was that Rowan already graduated in electrical and electronic engineering when he arrived at Oxford University for his doctorate (2). He got opportunities to perform in school plays and stage shows, that led him to his journey of “finding his face”.
In the interview, he recalled:

“ I just looked in the mirror and started to improvise… had a look at my face, and explored it and stretched it, and tweaked it, and just had fun with it.” (2)

Going back to the earlier Bean-shows, Rowan made Bean to be self-consumed, self-flattering and inconsiderate of others around him; essentially going about his life doing things on his whims. Yet, nobody talks about his past; we’ve never seen his workplace, we were never told why he behaves that way, he is just this bloke in some place infecting the community with his menace. It’s as if the movie is not really about him, but rather other people’s reaction towards what he does, that makes it funny (2).

But, to put Bean into a feature film, he needs to be given a more humane character. He can’t just walk around annoying other people while making a fool out of himself for 2 hours. In another interview, Rowan talked about this issue in making the 2nd Bean-film “Johnny English”:

“You have to explore more facets of the character. You can't just have a single attitude… That's what we had to do with Mr. Bean – we had to get this very, very selfish and kind of autonomous character to acknowledge that maybe he'd done something wrong 2/3 of the way through the movie, and then the last 1/3 is him trying to put things right again.” (3)

- - - - - § - - - - -

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A Modern Autobiography

Seems to me, Rowan already had a gist of what he wanted to do with this film by the time he finished “Johnny English”. He briefly mentioned:

“It's sometimes better if he[Bean] doesn't vary very much... or whether you give it a different kind of conceit... Mr. Bean sits down to write his autobiography, and he remembers all the marvelous moments in his life.” (3)

Now, if you remember the earlier Bean TV episodes, you’d recognize that this story includes memoirs of those old ones: the terrible experience with raw mussels, his attempt to pacify a depressed boy on a plane and him copying a stranger’s actions while sitting on a bench. On hindsight, these scenes are like what Rowan mentioned, an autobiography – “hey, you remember those times when I did that, that and that?”

[ref: Mr. Bean in Room 426, The Buffet]

[ref: Mr. Bean Rides Again, Holiday]
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[ref: The Curse of Mr. Bean, The Park]
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In this story, the video cam sort of provides a way for Bean’s thoughts to be seen. His fascination at trivial things, his over-attention to himself… In the beginning, we are perhaps simply annoyed by the silliness, random, and uninteresting shots that Bean was showing off to us.

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Yet I think, having us, audience, watch how the video recording was done, serves at least 2 functions. 1. An entertaining element itself, and 2. To help us see Mr. Bean’s character in retrospect.

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Regarding the 2nd function, towards the end when Bean’s randomly done video was positioned together with Carson Clay’s self-serious film, it almost sounded as if Rowan is making a statement here. Perhaps, presenting his bias about what stories will audiences relate with. I don’t know. But the strong juxtaposition of a perfectly cinematographed, self conscious, heavily made up & costumed, with a total wreck in terms of visual quality, plus the audience’s standing ovation at the end for Bean’s part, seem to contain some statements there, or not, I don’t know. What do you make of this?

Well, whatever meanings there could be, on hindsight, the standing ovation does look like a nice way to signify a farewell celebration for the decade old character; paying homage to him who in some ways liberated the restrained child in his audience’s mind, at least mine.

- - - - - § - - - - -

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Thank you very much, So long, and Farewell

Being the last Bean-Film that Rowan and his team had made, I’d really like to show you what I saw, as how the production team humbly wrapped up the Bean legacy, and have him gracefully retreat from the cinemas.

I’m sure you’ll recall the final scene when Bean walked out of the movie hall, and at the corner of his eyes caught sight of the beach of Cannes. And as he began to record the momentous walk towards the beachfront, he was so absorbed in the image he was recording that he never realized he was going to walk off the top of the building! Right before he stepped into hollow, a tall truck came to a halt at the traffic light, allowing him to descend a small step onto its top. The second truck came to receive his step. You will remember every subsequent cars that came are lower than the previous ones, like a staircase, laying a safe path for Bean to set foot on the sandy beach.

And then I thought, Wow! Is that not like a Grand Descend from the stage? And I believe, Bean skipping around the beach and singing the ending song with the whole cast is by itself a curtain call!

Curtain Call - Image Credit

For a comedy character that could be honoured and remembered all by himself, I think it’s very humble of Rowan to remind us that Bean is only funny because of the casts around him that makes him so.

Thank you Mr. Atkinson for a laughable character genuine and selfless by 'nature'.

So long, Mr. Bean !

- - - - - § - - - - -

1. Carole King (1971). You've Got a Friend. Tapestry.

2. Rowan Atkinson interview (year unknown). Canadian Radio.
Taken 6 May, 07 from:
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/8889/rowanint.htm

3. Ken Plume (2003). An Interview with Rowan Atkinson:
IGNFF's Ken Plume talks to Atkinson about Johnny English, Mr. Bean,
Blackadder, and more. Taken 6 May, 07 from http://movies.ign.com/articles/429/429385p1.html

- - - - - § - - - - -

Sharon Chong, Published 8, May 2007
TGV, One Utama
:o)

The Reaping (2007)

2007-05-02T08:20:00.000+08:00

Official Website

Director: Stephen Hopkins
Main Casts: Hilary Swank, David Morrissey, Idris Elba, AnnaSophia Robb
Watched: 30th April, 2007. Monday 5.15pm
Cinema: Cineleisure, The Curve (4:C7)

The brief synopsis reads: … (this story has got something to do with)…10 plagues of Egypt… (and the rest of the story).... That got me pretty curious & excited; I thought to myself “Biblical based movie!” When someone has a piece of message about God, what they’re gonna say and how they say it, matters for me, and I believe for other Christians too. It matters because that metaphorical message blown up onto the big screen points to something in the real. And having that reference in mind, I believe that the thinking audience usually engages in more reflections upon the argument that the movie is making, especially in this case, about God. Through encountering the visual experience and the later reflections, anything that could be remembered is then added to our worldview inventory.

The movie left for me a very interesting effect. As a Christian myself, I think we should celebrate the success of this story. As I’m writing this, the intricate plot, the surprising twists, muscle-twitching suspense… all meshes into the blur; leaving the message of God’s character and power, embossed in my mind. Is that not God glorifying?

- - - - - § - - - - -

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Story Set

The story sets its audience up as the skeptic – Katherine opens the initial scenes as a university (good place to associate with spiritual escapism huh?) lecturer, going to bizarre places, debunking and revealing the industrial polluting wastes that causes what people believe as miracles – rivers turning red, people getting sick… In the name of secularism, she even spelled out 10 scientific causes and connections regarding the 10 plagues in Egypt recorded in the Bible. Gradually we know that, in fact, she was a missionary herself, with her husband, a son and a daughter – All, but her, died in the mission field.

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The audience is also encouraged to retain an open mind about this ‘God thingy’. Ben works for Katherine as her research assistant. He is a God believer, believing that science makes evident, the works of God; and backed with a strong saved-from-death testimony to tell. Ben’s character serves here as a gentle ‘possibility which you may want to consider at the back of your mind’.

One day after a lecture, Katherine got invited –no– begged to investigate a miraculous occurrence at a village called ‘Haven’, where its river turned red like blood. She declined, then accepted when she heard a girl child was to bear the blame and might get killed if the villagers are convinced about her so-called magical crime. So off she went with Ben to Haven.

- - - - - § - - - - -

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The Invisible Character

In this movie, the circumstances developed, pushing Katherine to fully realize Who God is, and what He can do. I urge you to read that again and notice the passivity. Thanks. Why do I say that? It’s very interesting the way the story evolves. Katherine was commissioned to find out why rivers turned red, why frogs appeared out of nowhere and why cows die. But in the story, the focus was never on solving the mystery – there were no light shedding clues to be analyzed, no laboratory ah-ha moments, no code deciphering, no eavesdropping, no age-old scripts scrolled in an abandoned dungeon, none, nada. Not one of the Sherlock thingies. The plagues just happen, one after another, leaving no time for anybody to think about any plausible explanation to it (except for the initial guess that a certain microbe caused it, which later was disproved anyway).

The way director Stephen structured the movie gave me a feeling that aside from the visible character, there’s another character that’s being talked about. One we cannot see, but it’s there, and that’s the real one Who’s causing things to happen, yes – God, and His opponent, Satan.

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For a good 3-quarters of the show, the plague-like events revolve around Loren, girl in her early teens, as if proposing that she, the satanic villain, caused them – Villagers saw her by the bloody river, a boy saw her at the field where the cattle died, a great mass of locusts seem to attack, at her command, those who tries to shoot her. A cultic altar was also found in her family’s basement, indicating that some satanic rituals were going on.

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In the midst of panic flee from the mass of locusts, the complete and abrupt turn, comes when Katherine faced Loren in the middle of the plague of Darkness. With a dagger, and a Christian priest’s advice, she lunged at Loren, pinning her to the ground, swooped the dagger at Loren when she said –

“I thank God, because I have you…” – The exact words Katherine said to her daughter while she was at the mission field.

There and then, she understood it all, as she saw visions of Loren about to be sacrificed at satan’s altar according to the long tradition of the villagers’ satanic worship. She escaped to the nearby river, when her own brother shoved the same dagger into her chest. Yet, she didn’t move a bit, while her brother shriveled to death. Her wound healed and closed, but her blood flowed out, and filled the entire river – Satan tried to kill her, but they failed. God is protecting her. God has turned His wrath towards the perverted village, which turned to Satan worshipping when their livelihood was threatened.

And as the entire village gathered at the ruined church, browbeating Katherine to kill the God protected girl, God Himself made His grand appearance. The last plague was announced – Death of the First-born. Thunders and torrents of enormous hail with fire struck down at the villagers hitting and burning them to death. Fire licked up the man who invited Katherine to the village, and took him off the ground. He held Katherine hostage, threatening her to kill Loren; only to have her say, “Don’t be afraid Loren, it is God’s will.” God’s Holy Fire scorched and swallowed the man together with Katherine in a grand final Blast… And as it turns out, both Katherine & Loren were saved, with not a scratch of injury inflicted on them (See the streaming featurette below).

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I sense, in the resolution, a very strong and vivid presence of God (it helps when the cinema loud speakers boom and vibrates the seat under me). The ending allows me to say, “God is Sovereign. He rules over all circumstances, makes things piece together in a perfect manner, and He triumphs over evil. God protects those who genuinely love Him, and gives second chance to those who are confused.”

And I’m very; very glad the movie left it at that. God’s just punishment (signified by the plagues) meant God’s just punishment – period – no further explanation needed. And mind us, God always triumphs at the spiritual battlefield, even at Satan’s every deceptive turn…

Featurette Trailer

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Sharon Chong, published 1st, May 2007
Cineleisure Damansara, Cathay MY
:o)

Whose world is this?

2007-04-29T09:27:00.000+08:00

A long time ago, where the start we will never really see clearly, stories of the Gods and Mystiques were told. In the form of Lord Rama and Ravana (Ramayana). And people of the Middle East, feed on tales about the Arabian Nights; Englishmen & women, girls and boys, had a good staple on legends of medieval conquests… …

These epics, and many-many others, we know they usually are narrated around heroes and villains. Through telling us their actions, their attitudes and the effects of their behaviors, and of course ultimately their punishment or reward, people who hear them are informed about what are acceptable values, virtues and moral in their society.

Now, I’d just like to fast-forward, to the here and now (your ‘here’ and your ‘now’). If we were to float up and travel around the skies over the malls and across cities, and continents, I wonder how many DVD’s and cinemas, no, cineplexes nowadays, will we be able to find in the world? If there isn’t a number in your head, I’ll take it that you are thinking, there’s a LOT. And we all know it means audio-visually narrated stories are gaining more and more grounds over the years.

Other than the already well-argued, thoroughly researched, brutally attacked notion that movies has the potential to corrupt minds and feed illusions, and fantastic logics, and gender stereotypes, and biased political agendas, and false identities, and violence, and …. (Ooops..where was I?) Ah..! Despite all these piled up high, how can this image and sound flicker, be a threat to the mind of a spiritual person?

I’m going to talk about this as a Christian since that is my faith, and it’s the values I gained from the Bible that allowed me to realize any insights or knowledge as discussed below. And I hope my readers who are of a different faith will try to examine if there’re any similarities of beliefs where we can agree upon together.

Film Snoop

“ For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

Ephesians 6:12

Only recently it became interesting for me that Heroes and Villains are so easily distinguished on screen, but rarely so in actual daily interaction with people and situations. And conflicts are normally very obvious and usually occur externally, therefore requiring some sort of external actions to be carried out to resolve it. We see Superman or Spiderman or their female counterparts harnessing their super powers to solve a problem, which usually involves a Destroyer. Or more subtly, a portable x-ray scanner fights with never ending financial problems, marriage problems, parental problems (which are caused by other people) to survive. Of course, in the end, our guys in these cases will receive their ‘rightful’ happiness, or happyness in the latter.

Having been told these nicely woven stories, what are they about then? We are not satisfied at the level of storytelling, because we know we can see 2 hands and a bunch of numbers, but we only know it’s 2.46pm if we know it as a clock; and that we need to hop on a car fast if we’re scheduled to meet somebody at 3pm. We all make meanings out of the movies that we watch, and the process happens so fast and so automatic that we don’t realize it. We simply get a gist of idea about the whole movie. Very often people can revisit the process. Sometimes it’s conscious and deliberate, when we write a review or talk about it with a friend; other times, it slips right into the unconscious mind without much processing.

So, if we take some time to read about film analysis, we are giving ourselves an opportunity to lift up the clock cover, and peek into its insides. And we now begin to see the working mechanics of a movie. Whoa..!! screws, escapement, pin, wheels, rings… can’t see it all in one glance! I feel that movies are like that too. A lot of people talk about the flow of its mood, techy-s spill conversations with camera angles, lightings, edit/directorial gestures, tru-blu film students will tell you about mise-en-scene, social symbols, character building and consistency, signs and code… … (that was a mouth-full)

Now at this point, if you may allow me, I’d like us to remember a movie, the one you were so attracted to its world, inside that movie. Or maybe just one movie where you felt the environment was quite nice, you don’t mind living in there.

Hmm... Have you ever asked yourself, Why do I want a life like that?

What is in that world that’s appealing to me?
And why am I attracted to that?

See, we are all, upright and civilized city people. We’ve seen what will happen to criminals, we’ve seen that bad will be punished, good will be rewarded, and we all get that message. But what happens when this binary system doesn’t work anymore? Especially not so hard and fast even in our faith? When villain is no longer the big Goliath or the Anakites who can be overcome by flesh and blood, what is the evil one, trying to sell to us now?

Lie – Get what you want. Plus, you can do it without God!
(1)

From a Biblical point of view, this classic one our Jesus tasted too:

“The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. "All this I will give you," [the devil] said, "if you will bow down and worship me."
Matthews 4:8-9 (New International Version)

In the case of the common moviegoers – us, perhaps it doesn’t seem so grand. I’m using the verse as an analogy. What are movies showing us, in terms of the world’s splendor and glory; of which we are told that we can attain if we think and behave like the protagonist?

The “bow down and worship => world’s splendor” comes in so many forms: “Believe that we should strife at all cost to be wealthy.” Or “You’ll have more friends if you act cool”. “Luck will come to you if you keep buying on chance.”, “Girls will look at me longer if I have broader shoulders, and thicker chest.”, “If I continue to droop my head and not speak to anyone, one day, somebody will notice me and talk to me.”

Taking all these under the microscope, it’s easy for us to say that we won’t fall into that trap because they appear so obvious now. They have been stripped off their sexy lingerie so that they don’t seduce us, now. And often, I find it a bit tricky to identify whether a suggested value/ idea in a movie is wearing a devil’s horn or an angel’s halo. Sometimes, we might even think we see a halo, but which in fact is actually a straw ring.

The Great Enticer

The world is very skillfully and persuasively lulling its inhabitants to embrace its values. The Spirit of the world doesn’t wage wars with us, presenting itself in horns, sly faces, deep red shirts, mafia codes or powerful machine guns. Instead, we are now gently being invited to dwell in the promised world of beauty, of enchantment and colour, drama, fantasy and fascination, bursts of juices of excitement at every turn of the corner… of utter satisfaction, if we would just succumb to the prescribed ideas. Love it, nourish it in our minds, and play the act in our daily life. We can hear that so clearly in the cartoon Aladdin’s song – A Whole New World. You might still remember the melody:

I can show you the world
Shining, shimmering, splendid
Tell me, princess, now when did
You last let your heart decide?

I can open your eyes
Take you wonder by wonder
Over, sideways and under
On a magic carpet ride

A whole new world
A new fantastic point of view
No one to tell us no
Or where to go
Or say we're only dreaming

(2)

A good many movies chant this romantic musicál to its audience. And if you notice, a lot of times, the lure becomes more suggestive because of the innocent way it was put together (by script writers, directors, costume managers, music composers, editor, sound engineers…) sometimes not even intentionally. Appealing to our child’s mind, “How can something so beautiful, so right, so wonderful, majestic, not be good?”

Conclusion

For that, I’ve come to believe that anybody who has a history with television or the cinema, should all be given a chance to see where we are at, within the system of mass communication. And also to know what our attention is worth to content makers, with a whole bazaar of agendas, be it to have us grab that bite, or lick our fingers, see the world as a philosopher sees it, or worse, as a certain political party wants us to see it. And it seem o’ so right and eye opening, when we sink ourselves trustingly on the magic carpet, ready to go for a ride!

But where are we going?

… And according to whose map?

I guess these are some of the questions that we, as audience, need to retain power on.

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References:

1) Kenneth Copley (2001). The Great Deceiver: Unmasking The Lies of Satan. Chicago: Moody Press.

2) Tim Rice (1992). A Whole New World. Taken from: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/aladdinworld.htm

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Sharon Chong
28/4/07
:o)

Provoked (English Version, 2007)

2007-04-23T00:22:00.000+08:00

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Director : Jagmohan Mundhra
Main Casts: Aishwarya Rai,Miranda Richardson,
Naveen Andrews, Rebecca Pidgeon
Watched: 21st April, 2007. Saturday 7:35pm
Cinema: Cineleisure, The Curve (4: D7)

On a Saturday afternoon, with a heart that’s dully unsettling, I just felt the urge to stop thinking. Any of us who is familiar with this desire, knows that the next thing close to achieving that is like trying to make a hard-boiled egg hatch into a chick.

But lets consider the cliché, “If you are feeling down, think about something else.” I think we’ve achieved way beyond that when we became Homo Cinematicus. When Columbus-es of our time found the Neverland of ever-streaming life stories that never existed. And now, coming back to the cliché, not only can we think about something else, we can let somebody else do the thinking for us! (At a certain level)

After flipping and flopping between a number of titles on offer in Cineleisure, there I strolled into the black box, to be provoked…

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The General Mood

I chose the header picture (from scene), and I think it’s representative of Kiran’s character. I’d like to ask you to notice the pattern of light that’s shone on her face. You’ll see that only a narrow area of her eyes are being lit up, leaving a good amount of contrast between the rest of her face.

This story tells of a woman, who stands herself behind closed doors, barely making contact with the world with the small opening not almost the size of half her face; the hole from which she peeks through with much intimidation, and fear, with not a trace of sense of power to change anything.

The film will play for you what thrust her to the back of her high barricades. While in her need to help herself in the face of real, ferocious life wrecking nightmare, she faces her internal grapple that stops her from being the “free” person a “free” country promises her women.

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Engendering Character

30 minutes into the movie, Kiran remains a mysterious woman, uttering no more than 4 lines of fragmented English sentences to the questions asked.

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Because she was involved in a court trial concerning accusations of murder of her husband, her stubborn reticence, utter powerlessness and inevitable helpless display evoked a sense of impatience in me. It was a feeling close to wanting to reprimand her as a result of that judgment. Every options prompted to her was met with her going into major self-doubt, inability to decide and a strong reluctance to fend for herself. And the framing of the screen was such that almost all attention was garnered to sympathize with her emotional cage.

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Slowly and gradually along the storyline, bits of her abused past gets revealed through her own flashbacks. Heart wrenching events of severe verbal degrading trickles in, episodes of drunk beatings that left her completely aghast, and a thorough humiliation and destruction when her own husband raped her.

Such was the careful moulding of Kiran’s character. I thought it was very patient in connecting with its audience; empathy was not rushed at all.

Tied in with her social worker’s, prison mate and her own effort in pleading for a second trial, the transformation from being helpless and powerless to an open, cheerful, and reasonably bold self occurred a bit quickly towards the end. And of course their success in reducing the sentenced term signifies both an external and internal victory – of a breakthrough from deep personal strongholds, and of the new burst of meanings and hope for women in America who suffers unspeakable oppression and abuse in her family.

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Pertinent Issues

Punishment for murder in conditions of abuse, helplessness, arranged marriage, gender inequality, prison settings, sisterhood, generally feminist, power of court rule

Editorial Gestures

The simple dip-to-black transitions across scenes gives me an impression of a clean and straightforward storytelling. Much like a simple turn-of-page for its book equivalent.

Flashbacks are regularly called up to paint the journey that led her to where she was, often tagged onto an object she encounters in the “present” time.

Others

Language-Accent

If you lend your ears to the speaking styles of each character, you’ll begin to detect a pattern in their accent. The major ones are American-American, Indian-American, Indian-Indian. Of course the casts here speak in the English language like what you’re reading now. So, imagine seeing an American on screen, you can expect him/her to sound “American”. The ethnically Indian females including Kiran and her social helper Radha, speak English with a Punjabi accent (stronger explosion on the P’s, T’s, K’s… Punjabi-like intonation etc, etc). As for the Indian males, they would speak with an American accent.

I have a hunch that the director is intentional in doing this. Of all the characters (main or sides), only Indian females were shown speaking in Punjabi or English in Punjabi accent. All males carry American enunciation and intonation. Why?

I’m thinking in the feminist direction. Director probably wants “Indian Audience” or people who value ethnic identity to separate a special place for the women, therefore using this analogous tagging to mark for us the emotional differences. And perhaps, months after watching the movie, the elements remained outstanding in the audience’s minds will be the ideas, changes and transformation connected with the women.

Homosexuality
In general, what i'm hearing from public sounds as if gaism/lesbianism is beginning to settle in its own 'rightful' place. At least in legal terms, and more so on screen. Scriptwriter for 'Provoked', has some personal ideas on this topic too. The way director Jogmohan frames it is pretty straightforward. You'd notice that the prison big bully clutches another female prisoner close to her chest (bout 15 sec of screen time), and will later be commented by their inmantes as lesbian. While the closely knitted relationship of Kiran and her cell-mate Ronnie, that gets closer to (platonically) exposing part of their chests and with more hand touches, is framed as sisterhood. Seems to me it's director's way of saying, "Women, please find yourself a man." I am very glad the film didn't go the opposite way.

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Subjective Ratings:

Entertainment:

Enjoyed: o o o o x x
Laughed: o o x x x x
Cried: o o o x x x
Warm & Fuzzies: o o o o x x
Afterthoughts: o o o o x x

Cinematography:

Editorial inspiration: o o x x x x
Directorial inspiration: o o o x x x

Message:

Social: o o o o x x
Redemption: o o x x x x
Moral: o o o o x x
Commercial: x x x x x x

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Sharon Chong, published 23, April 2007
Cineleisure Damansara, Cathay MY
:o)

Rethinking the [Mess-Sage]

How to patch a punctured innertube?

所谓－ 家

Tuck & Patti - Can't Help Falling in Love

CIVILISATIONS by Sid Mier

What if....

Sandakan (two) - Hiding in the Closet of Nature photos

Sandakan (one) - Hiding In the Closet of Nature

回故小城

Further Down the Development Road

Gives Light in the Darkness

Sketch Journaling

Strokes of my Sharpie

Elina - Som Om Jag Inte Fanns [As if I wasn’t there], (2002)

I Digress on Impulse: Sabah Tanah Air-ku

I Digress on Impulse: Negaraku-(a)ku

Fura Gâru (Hula Girls), 2006

Snow Cake (2006)

Dancing the Dance

Artistic Zeal

Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage (The Final Days), (2005)

La Môme | La Vie en Rose (2007)

The Final Cut (2004)

The Messengers (2007)

Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)

The Reaping (2007)

Whose world is this?

Provoked (English Version, 2007)

所谓－家