No, this is not a movie review....... ...... ......
I have been looking forward to Mukhsin since May 2006, and it became one of my most anticipated movies for 2007, listed together with Spider-Man 3, Transformers, The Pirates of The Caribbean 3 and Sumo-Lah.
---- a'ah.. no no. Sorry, there's no any Chinese movies listed here. So, you got problem?
Pardon me for being emotional here. I just couldn't hold myself to think of the disappointment I got when I was collecting my 5 reserved Mukhsin tickets from the miss big-eye behind the counter.
I got this reaction from her when she checked my reservation details on her pc screen:"Mukhsin?" with raised eyebrow.
"Yes!" I answered proudly with big smile.. (she is adorably beautiful in the first place..).
"Can you repeat your booking number again?" this time with wrinkled brow, after a straight stare at me.
I followed her instruction. Booking number keyed in, same booking details reappeared: 5 tickets, seat numbers, my name, and MUKHSIN.
"... so... it's MUKHSIN..." she reconfirmed, emotionless tone, sounds professional for me though.
She printed the tixs out, I paid, she withdrew the tixs from the machine, gave the tix and the change to me, again, with straight stare, then there came the question of the year which Po'On, a friend whom I shared the question with after that, thinks I should really get frustrated right there right then..:
"WHY WATCH MALAY MOVIE?"
...... ...... ......
No, this is not a movie review, but this is a post to take my hat off to Yasmin Ahmad, the director of Mukhsin, Gubra, Sepet and Rabun; and at the same time, this post is to express my disappointment and sadness to those who don't really appreciate and see the effort as well as the message that Yasmin tried to deliver through her wonderful close-to-real-life movies.
What is so wrong for a Chinese to mingle 'TOO CLOSE' to Malays? What is so weird to have someone try to have his own life in a very 'Malaysian' way? Which is the hell damn logic those people refer to in order to claim a guy 'IS GETTING MALAY-IZED' because he is having 'ANTI-CHINISM' syndrome? Why on earth that watching and liking Yasmin Ahmad and Afdlin Shauki's films made a Chinese guy look dumb?
These things are still going on, even though we claim that we are now a model country that posses harmony in this multi-racial environment -- Man that 'harmony' you claim, is superfacial!I'm confused. I thought I'm a MALAYSIAN, not Chinese nor Malay nor Indian.
Mukhsin of Yasmin Ahmad is another sincere plot to create awareness of the existence of Malaysian -- hey the films themselves are the product of Malaysian, and I believe they are dedicated to Malaysian -- so please don't bother about having an English-speaking character living in Malay community in the movie, and please don't bother about a chinese guy promoting the movie to his Malay friends, please don't bother about a chinese guy 'sibuk' je asking his friends out for Mukhsin or other Malay films....
...cuz he is just being sincere to his own belief, his own passion. As sincere as Yasmin Ahmad, as sincere as Mukhsin.
Thank you Kak Yasmin for allowing me to get some pictures of Mukhsin from your blog, and of course thank you for the wonderful journey of taking us back to our childhood in Mukhsin.
No, this is not a movie review, but if you insist on knowing how do I feel about Mukhsin? I would say Mukhsin is soothing, like the song sung by Kak Yam:
Mega mendung di angkasa
Hembusan bayu dingin terasa
Gerimis berderai di merata
Bagai mutiara
Rahmat di bawa bersama
Limpahannya meresap ke jiwa
Adakala bahagia terasa
Meskipun duka nestapa
... and please don't get bothered if a chinese guy keep singing this keronchong and then the downpour started.
Ps.. wanna know my answer to the QUESTION OF THE YEAR? "Because it's Yasmin Ahmad." ... and Ms Big-Eye smiled me off.
Hembusan bayu dingin terasa
Gerimis berderai di merata
Bagai mutiara
Rahmat di bawa bersama
Limpahannya meresap ke jiwa
Adakala bahagia terasa
Meskipun duka nestapa
... and please don't get bothered if a chinese guy keep singing this keronchong and then the downpour started.Ps.. wanna know my answer to the QUESTION OF THE YEAR? "Because it's Yasmin Ahmad." ... and Ms Big-Eye smiled me off.
15 comments:
wat's so damn wrong if chinese watches malay movie or malay watches chinese muvie?
wat on earth should this kinda 'discrimination' thing still plays around in this year of 2007..i think that chinese-eye-catching lady sumhow feel insulted or still have a thinking that.."chinese is chinese"~ who speaks only kantonis n eats using chopstick..
she never knew..this fren of mine..a kelantan-chinese guy..well mingled with malay frens n eat ulam with budu..haha..n speak without chinese slang..
haha..i am with U around spider when she raised her eyebrow while asking u "MUKHSIN?"..
went to yasmin's blog and ended up in yours..
well, i'm malay and i've been a big fan of chinese movies. although chinese movies have a lot of "inside jokes" that can't be decrypted that easily especially if you spend the whole two hours reading the subtitles, but i still love them.
i've never had any chinese friends before. but now that i'm studying somewhere overseas, i now have at least 30 chinese friends (malaysians community here is close-knit). and i learn so much from them. and they love yasmin ahmad films too. i've always been embarassed with malay movies, but not with Yasmin Ahmad's movies. still, if i'm watching Cicakman alone in my room and a chinese friend suddenly barges in, i will quickly shut my PC down (Cicakman embarasses me). I don't want them to know that I'm watching a stupid malay movie hahaha.
i think malaysians need to open their eyes a little bit. i've been hearing about the "bangsa malaysia" since forever but up until now, there's only been indian, malay, chinese etc etc. when are we gonna call ourselves malaysian, i have no idea.
is Mukhsin realy tat gud? bcoz i didnt quite like gubra. i dont actually :-| sepet boleh-lah. rabun never watch it b4 :-)
anyway, cheers 2u 4liking malay muvis. i strictly agree tat all of us r malaysian n we shud like or at least accept everythng tat comes wit it.realy, thers nothng wrong wit chinese watchng malay muvis. tat so-said big-eyed girl's mind set needs 2b retuned big-time!
To edani.. mung memeh pandai mempromote ambo... Yes u're right, u were with me when collecting the tix, tp mung cabut berlari, tinggalkan aku sore to deal with this embarassing situation -- aci xaci?
To The big kahuna, perhaps u have a point: Malaysians will only be proud to be MALAYSIAN when we are not in Malaysia, inside our own house, we have all kind of dengki and tak pueh hati... weird mentality, maybe can term it as another kind of flexibility..
To Anis, HEY WHAT A SURPRISE!!!! Yes I can firmly tell u that Mukhsin is good.. and BTW, the 'mind-set retuning' idea is somehow too idealogy -- and Yasmin Ahmad is giving out her great effort on this.. but how many malaysians do appreciate that? *sigh*
Spider
Tak aci. Nak tengok juga. Weekend ni balik KL will try and catch the movie. Tengok the snippets they've been showing on the tellie pun dah teruja :)
Mukhsin is truly classic. I like Rabun & Sepet but don't quite like Gubra. For me Mukhsin gives me different kind of emotion.
Beautiful soundtrack. Honestly i never loved any keroncong songs before but now I love Hujan. Lagu melayu paling indah.
Btw, cool blog. u travel a lot. I just revealed the title for my travel show. Feel free to read. Exhange links? No problem. I just added u in my list.
Do not bother about all those racist remarks.. Hold on to ur belief like Yasmin Ahmad does.
BTW, haven watched MUKHSIN yet, but will go and watch it after reading ur blog..
Shunza
once, my wife and i went to see a chinese movie in ipoh. we were the only two malays in that cinema. but we were quite annoyed because there were no subtitle for the first half an hour and everybody else were laughing their heads off.
that was a bad experience.
i'm not a big fan of yasmin ahmad. but i respect her works, and i would like to see mukhsin if i have the chance.
btw, ko tengok muvi kat mana ni, wong? eh, ko mana bleh tgk muvi laa. gi stadi2!
Jannah, k pergi pulau kapas tak ajak ko rase aci tak??? gi watch MUKHSIN!!
Rewan, thanks for the visit..it has been an honor for me for somebody bakal produce something big to drop by and drop a comment.. yeah, u're right, I've nevert thought keronchong can be so touching.. Hujan is now the lagu in my head..
Shunza, thank you very much, and go watch MUKHSIN..
Sayut, my same bad movie experience belaku kt Ipoh gak..Ape? Study? I thought hari tu ko singgah kampus aku utk ajar something kt aku utk spoilkan study aku... x ker? kekekekeke..
Spider
hahah cino kelate ko? interesting. skoloh mano dulu nih??? cino kelate meme laa kecek fluent Malay. huehue..
Hai bro..dont bother what people said...lots of people still have closed minded about it in Malaysia..so just ignore it. I always did that when i face that kind of problem. This is the real live and nobody perfect..i'm not watching mukhsin yet but i will..i like Yasmin's ideas in her movies but sometimes at certain part it touched the sensitivity of Malay culture esp..anyway, whatever it is, think possitive and always look at the massage that she try to share with Malaysian..
salam berbalas tandang
I love Malay movies, especially when they were brilliantly made i.e good script, good actors and have moral story and less stereotyping. Have you seen Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan? I've watched it once and it's damn brilliant!
I can't comment on mukhsin as I've yet to watch the movie, but I don't like Yasmin's Gubra. She should not interpret Islam without consulting the experts (the imams and ulamas) although I'm all out about culture and racial assimilations.
good luck!
I'm not going to talk about the movie.
The issue with being a citizen of a multi-racial country is:
1. You will be more Chinese than Malay when you're a Malay mixing with Chinese
2. You will be more Malay than Indian when you're an Indian mixing with many Malays.
3. You will be more Indian than Chinese when you're a Chinese mixing with many Indians.
and it goes on & on.
It happens to everyone. I'm a Malay when I lepak with my friends who wear tudung and Chinese when I'm eating bak kut teh at some stall. Even my boyfriend who never had a Malay girlfriend says I'm the CLOSEST-to-Malay girlfriend he ever had. Funny but not surprising.
Malaysians just need to be more open with this cross cultural/races & their interest issue. Ironic since we live in a country that has 28 races... or is that 32?
Well, I am Chinese and I love Sepet. My son and I both have sepet eyes and this is now our pet name for each other 'cos we think we are special and we felt Yasmin really showed how as a nation we CAN love and appreciate each other.
My dad was a government servant - 24 years ago, he was given an opportunity to buy houses built by the government for government servants - can you imagine what kind of community we have now? Chinese oso got, Melayu put ada, Indian same2 - even though most of our neighbors are all retiress, let me tell you - you want help in the immigartions department, go to Uncle Adnan, you want help in your child's English tuition go to Mrs Suresh, you want help to settle some court matters, go to Mr Ho.
I have a wonderful neighbourhood and I'M LOVING IT!
Oh, not forgetting the festivities that goes on almost year round - sometimes I forgot that I am Chinese. Ooops, sorry, sudah salah - Malaysian Chinese - this is what I always write in credit card app. forms, passport app. forms, etc - cos they always ask you what's you race/ bangsa, etc. - which I absolutely hate - I am MALAYSIAN-la - THAT'S ALL! The person at the other end of the counter always give me "the eye", like I am trying to be funny...
Seriously..
I dont understand either..
Why separating chinese, malay, indian in different entities..
I think one of the reason why I admire Yasmin Ahmad is that she is not afraid to see with her heart what others cant see with their eyes...
At the end of the day, we are all one kind. Thats all that matters.
BTW, nice camera you got there! COngratulations on your first DSLR :-) Aku juga nak start ni..and you still need to teach me how to make a blog :p
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