The Impartial

The onset of cinematic films being utilized for propaganda and mental conditioning, it seek us - the target audience - to grow some thinking caps

It’s the first time I took some time to watch 'Jangan Ambil Padang Kami', a 45-minute series aired on Astro Ria. As usual, my regimented-spending father never subscribed to Astro, I had a chance to watch it over the internet. I'm really not into television nowadays, yes, there's neelofas, tasha shillas and wawa zainals - pretty girls that excited us a bit amidst the inflation, crimes and corruption. But these actresses are no answer for my lust of satires based around real communities ( kemasyarakatan ). The archetypical of elite Malay conglomerate entangled in a power tussle plot really come to a saturation point, but nothing much to be done, they are the real money spinners.Incidently, I laid my eyes upon a 20second spot on JAPK on Ria and I began digging about it.  

The drama started out well, strong attributes of characters, attached with known idiosyncrasies for a gang of flat lots -  a northern-accented tomboy, a girl living with uninviting brother in law, a soccer star aspirant, a attention seeking wannabe, a school dropout bigger brother figure and a bunch of misfits,on first episode the adjacent field is gated with a large billboard announcing proposed condominium; so the kids rallied up effort to save the field from being mauled by das capitalist. I kept watching it. By second episode, we knew, the developer once lived within the blocks; the son lived there seek his way into the flats and do what Kevin Costner did in 'dancing with the wolves'. If injected with surprise twist, the kids would have kidnapped the son and demanded the cancellation of the project. But, as usual, we Malaysian are rich with sopan santun.The directors decided the quest to save the field a long and winding struggle, so be it. No hostage drama, just bad feeling in the mouth.  

Then, there is people kissing on the staircase, children being beaten the crap out and ran away to their neighboring block, irresponsible double parking made someone honking like mad. Never expect MILFs arguing with her son about who he should choose to marry, mothers in JAPK would tell her son to marry to somebody that doesn't burn a hole on fixed deposits for deity alone. 

JAPK irked me to question Astro intention of airing such drama? Who is brilliant enough to pitch such idea for Astro when their audience craved escapism Malay-conglomerate drama particularly with Lofas in thighs and leggings? The motivation of doing such cerita kemasyarakatan? It strike me that a minor state issue involving an athletic field in Kelana Jaya is in discussion of being handed over to a developer for a fee. 

Ah! ( FYI, Jangan Ambil Padang Kami loosely translates into Don't Take Our Field ) This must been the usual ploy, the satellite networkmimicking other media lapdogs are shamelessly professed in doing;  throwing support for current government and trashing the Malaysian mind to the lowest seabed. But fair indeed, my early observation gotten me salute Astro for playing ( if intended to ) it with  more grace and gusto than current media lapdogs. Jangan Ambil Padang Kami is discreet in its own way, even though the Kelana Jaya field acquisition bid is not a hotly debatable issue as water supply issue or UNISEL hostel management issue in Selangor. But, doing it this way - airing a once-a-week drama has a profound effect. Recreating a scenario of pulled privilege low-income people can paint the current local government in a bad manner. If I can recall, there was short lived Salam Pantai Timur during Mahathir era firing cynical shots at an Islamist party. Perhaps, Jangan Ambil Padang Kami might be a victim of appearing at the wrong time - as election  is looming just around the corner - such creative license can be skewed perceived with partisan politics 

A mirror of Malaysian tragedy 

Who lives in urban flats anyway? The ones that drives politicians crony around, needs a house, and declare a home in flats. The ones that tutor the ministers children around before they take their flight to study in the Western realm has their family under the roof of flats. The ones that cater ketua cawangan/ketua DUN food for their grand kenduri eventually stays in a flat.  In short, JAPK is the mirror of a Malaysian tragedy resulted in a vindicated pocket of society. They faced dangers of crime, watches faded opportunity in their face and finds it hard to tackle the enormous traffic jams of social mobility. 

The character Nik, 15 year old, a footballer aspirant seeking place into a sport school, was devastated for the usual field been acquired for development. In reality, he don't have to be that devastated. A taken over communal field is non issue, no sweat for Nik, but it’s the other factor widely familiar  in local football runnings. The absolutely power owns and manage the football governing body, making it impervious to change for a fear of murka. So, Nik had to bid farewell to his undying ambition and carry on with life less bound to feudal control. Juju dreams of being a celebrity? forget it - chubby minister children can gain insta-fame with their unlimited source of money and fat 'connections'. The bureaucratic red tape made rakyat marhaen complains had to swerve through 20-30 layers of pegawais, and before it reaches the power that can make significant change (which always gone to meetings) by half layers; momentum might have been gone. JAPK is a reflection of how powerless people had become due to the failing of our nation . In a nutshell, negara berkebajikan is not a bad idea after all. 

Suhan production, led by Rosyam Nor; a veteran actor knew his way to avoid the tricky path of impartial artistic expression. He might be brilliant to provoke minds into thinking one way- JAPK as a propagandistic drama - but in another way which had me reevaluate and personally re-categorize JAPK as a reflection of reality. Powers that previously seek themselves into position upon promises for better well being. A reality check for them. A warning about impending day which powers could bow and pray 'Jangan Ambil Kuasa Kami' for their failure to fulfill promises or in other words - janji dicapati. One way or another to look it, JAPK is totally a light hearted old school tale. It reminds me karangan lower primary school, usually about an unscrupulous kilang that releases toxic dump into the river, we drafted a protest letter to Jabatan Alam Sekitar for their swift action. But the age of innocence is long over. We could say any Jabatan is looking for 'willing' giver to kau-tim. The seven kids in Jangan Ambik Padang Kami is a brave but borderline in vain. 

For the scriptwriters and producers, kudos for being impartial and remained fixated to fundamental issues of urban residential characteristics and public responses. The casts had done a good job, it seem the drama had no script, very casual ( bersahaja ) dialogue - fitting a flat scenario rather than a Malay-conglomerate meeting room power tussle. This may be the last ever fictional depiction of Kuala Lumpur urban housing dwellers. As we are aware, Kuala Lumpur is devoured alive by foreigners, there is no next generation of the present generation KLites. JAPK is a relic for our grandchildren of how locals lost everything within the concrete jungle. While politicians? they don’t even care, their retirement home and grave well is outside of this jinxed land of Malaysia.  

The Hijacking

It takes loads of maturity and emotional intelligence in dealing with matters that had been heavily hijacked and tipped against your favor  

a brick of soap, a hijack story

The not so long penerangan gaffe had netizen all riled up upon seeing the nation 55th independence slogan entitled 'janji ditepati' ( promises fulfilled ), to emphatically remain impartial uttering those words, is hardly possible. Picture this, lay a fish on the floor, within the same room, set a cataract infected cat and watch its claws landed on what smelled as fish - in this case, janji ditepati is beyond fishy -in a myriad of ways to sniff at it janji ditepati is obvious propaganda and desperate mental conditioning of epic proportion. This prompted the minister responsible for penerangan to respond - no, preached - the masses ' to any closed mind, things may looked bad'. I suspected this minister smell nerve may had been misaligned somewhere between the brain grey matter. 

Alas, together with hyper inflated hari raya ever witnessed, makes the national day celebration that doesn't genuinely ever belonged to us, in every possibly way you are trying to swallow it, the propagandistic flavors is too fermented . Janji ditepati is just too much. Previous national day slogan were a successive message of patriotism, words of encouragement or calls for unity. Until 2012 when penerangan had broke the monotony and hijack it for its vested agenda. Trolling further, a song is released to further micro-mould the Malaysian mind that we owes the incumbent government for the wealth, success and peaceful nature of the nation. A plagiarized theme song teaches us a lesson that democracy runs the Japanese bathhouse-way of  'you rub my back - I rub your back'   

As steams hisses and pours, penerangan refuses to drop janji ditetapi slogan and relentlessly kept convincing the rakyat should reconsider their perspective. Amongst the song catch phrase 'janji sudah ditetapi, kini masa balas budi' ( Promises had been fulfilled, now its your turn to … ) had left the opposition laughing on the saliva-savings upon the obvious intention of penerangan to lembu-nized the rakyat into their democracy-defying schema. Penerangan had been suckered into scoring its own goal. Together with allegations that the song presented a uncanny resemblance of an Indonesian Christian song stung penerangan so badly, espescially upon the Utusan Melayu audience; an audience which the daily loves to bombard with the Christening of Malaysia phobia. Before wrapping up, the 'janji ditetapi' gaffe will forever be a fine example to reckon how cheaply the strategies penerangan had employed to win peoples heart. Most importantly, it’s a tale of delirious attempt to hijack national day. 

Brick-of-soap 

A direct seller walks up to you to sell a brick of soap. Asked what are the benefits, the seller struggles to answer much of it. But automagically turns adrenaline driven in telling you it’s a muslim based product, made with halal precursor chemicals and in compliance with hardly heard ultra-stringent Islamic manufacturing procedure. It comes with steeper pricetag. Would the 'Islamic soap' create a critical imbalance in the decision to purchase over the conventional soap? For unsuspected mind, yes, a religion is beyond question - but, in the dog days of penny pinching and desperate ( both seller and potential buyer ), saying no is tempting - and believe me, a self proclaimed agent of God-backed product can call you 'bakhil, kedekut' or 'unislamic' 

Say, our government runs on Islamic platform. By then, choses the motto "Hanya Parti Islam Pilihan Umat Merdeka" ( Only Islamic Party The Choice of Independent Soul ) for the 55th national-day, we would be walking in a different thorny grounds anyway. If 'janji ditetapi' is a clear cut uncivilized hijacking of merdeka celebration the situation above is complete opposite to justify hijacking of Islam. An Islam-based slogan, doesn't matter it’s a creation of mortal minds prone to error - has its merit, amongst its followers, who prepare to defend it on the street, even through forums . Religion hijack job is a double edged sabre, it worked both ways - including scarring those Muslims by birth and by right and non believers. We've seen it - youngsters claiming they are in right path preaching others to do things the right way, right way meaning their way - dress, act, talk and eat their way, prompting a question amongst the existing muslim " do we dress our religion heavily to qualify for one?" 

God team

For God backed team is invincible after all- those who fight for religion causes shall remain fearless and God himself shall protect them, A free haired female economist trying to formulate Muslims out of their financial deficiencies, a wine drinking geo-chemist that worked with NASA analyzing the greatness of God on Martian tectonics and a moral police that patrol Facebook walls to remind people that leggings is haram, in harshest and offensive manner - each doing their bid, but which ones is right?. A whole load 73 of them before the end of time, with a fraction sees the right path to be purist, true to the days of prophet; another chooses the middle path and another progressively seek reinterpretation of Holy Quran -  all doesn't mix all that well. With all these ruckuses, a young person tended to steer off the crowd, do whatever necessary, and keep silent only to be brushed off for being 'ignorant'. God is fair, and a role model is never too far and too hard to reprise, the prophet is a fine example. Even the prophet exemplary are being filtered to fit and justify a certain way. Again, felt to jump out of the cycle only to be shoved in over again. 

Again; who could argue with the self proclaimed God team? Islam is ad-din and applied everywhere, never try to separate religion with daily life strings by strings - you're a secular! worst, you're a kafir! 

In all fairness, it’s a slippery zone to get encapsulated in. To say no to the more islamic brick-of-soap. You reject the soap, you reject Islam. Hijacking can happen in all forms that perplexed us in many ways. National-day for votes in the case of janji ditepati. Religion for political power. Education for wealth gains. Whatever it may be, it’s a crazy world out there.  

The Gloomy Reality

What constitute to a successful Hari Raya? Is it the food? Baju raya? Duit Raya? or have Hari Raya robbed us and failed us big time?

Aidilfitri in the last few years is becoming much  lesser expected. In contrast, it was the best thing in life to anticipate. At time when i was a little boy, tirelessly running around the house and crash-sitting near my mother, panting, as she irons out and hung the new cloths in the wardrobe. I was doing projected accounting, anticipating how much I would accumulate duit raya from pak long, pak ngah, pak ciks and whole other uncles from both mother and father sides. A high probability of additional duit rayas through visiting clients or businessman as they come by my house ( through the time when my father act as branch manager at now defunct Bank Bumiputra ), uh oh, hampers, loads of hampers that we had to dedicate a whole room for hamper back in those days.  

What causes anticipation to dampen heat of Hari Raya this time? Its a dreaded situation to witness as you realized that everything comes with a (overinflated ) price tag. In the wake of gloomy job prospect, house price that aggregately takes 10 years clean salaries and mostly ever-shrinking goal post for striking a wedding date; aidilfitri celebration would have downscaled for my generation and the next generation to come. 

To participate and to outsize the previous hari raya is hurting the wallet and just a matter of ego polishing of the Malay idiosyncrasies  of 'bigger is better' that persisted since the age of Tok Kadok.  And like everyone, which had not being born into this world as badan kebajikan, opportunist suck us bone dry in name of Hari Raya; baju kurung tailor, kuih raya baker and meat butcher,with a similar tone successfully persuaded us that prices has gone up, and buying them is a necessity to show some celebratory respect marking the end of ramadhan. Come Syawal, a call for victory against mortal desire, we may just fall back into the hands of enemy we were trying to stave off  

Piece of monies

I cannot fathom the idea that Aidilfitri is vastly becoming a exposition of material prestige. A ceremony targeted for rapid commercialization that far eclipse its once collectively understood occasion for family reunion joy and long nights of ketupat preparation. On a side note, commercialization is a disease which had long necrotized Chrismas celebration in the West. The half month bonus (correct me if im wrong ) for government servant that CUEPACS succeeded to teat-squeeze from the nation coffers is just timely ahead of election. You know, the power-that-be cannot afford to say no, when nation accounting department justified it’s a definitive no. 

Having their ears hearing the rumbles of the ground, the business people had long sets their eyes on these bonus monies - they concluded that its natural for them to have a fair share, jack up the price to make it trickle down to their pockets. Private sector where my father work? they had not gained much, private companies are all about cut costs and efficiency, to find that holy grail of efficiency, they might sponsor a scientific study of maximum work load a person can do before passing out - out of their liability . Thus, Hari Raya actually drains the financial resources that never gained a notch throughout the month of Ramadhan. Primary concern regarding my father approaching retirement in coming months had bugged me to think what kind of Hari Raya would in years to come?  

Ziarah (visiting)  is one routinely done during aidilfitri but imagine those with low salaries counting their coins and calculate the mileage every liter of petrol could bring - plagued by worrying the car might have stalled mid-way through the journey. The toll discount offers wouldn’t be much of a blessing, when more tolls are popping up next to one existing. Malaysian gambled a lot in terms of penny pinching, large families would be fitted inside a sedan, almost asphalt kissing overloaded sedans scattered the highways. Thus, its a ticking time bomb when for a country that does not have a scraping programs and reliable car costs four years of untouched graduates salary. 

Meat, kerisik and santan - all essentials for rendang, is either downsized or replaced with other economically viable food like laksa. Perhaps, Aidilfitri these days gravitate towards facebook and twitter exposition, to see whose got the shiniest 2K colour baju raya or whose got the cutest siblings. Technology can intervene in many ways; almost everybody saw it coming, if anybody recalls the days of Nokia 3310, the then youngster tentatively remain buried in the sofa sharing the ringtone composition code of the blaring monophonic speaker; today, a child would smirk at the smell of kerosene from a pelita, and remained euthanized by the effects of swiping their fingers on tablet computers.

Trimming Down   

Its well understood, as we crept into the realm of competitiveness, Hari Raya celebration shall brace for downscaling. Just get what we can afford or if you don't love it, do not celebrate at all, just enough with little well wishing and ampun maaf, like we always do in other aspect of life: ala kadar. We should begin to plant the seed of subculture which adaptively shed the need for nostalgias and tone down celebrations like Hari Raya to a day or two and then its back to work. Accept it, its getting costlier. This shall be known on to our children and down the history books where the Malays are those who used to slug out seven days and seven nights to party like a rockstar for occasions like kenduri kahwin and hari raya.    

On a last note, I hope the seniors would be much more understanding in dire situations and the screwed-up generation that we belonged. We are the generation that might popped up in the wrong place; Malaysia as a country trapped in middle income crisis and its national capital being run by Myanmar and Bangladeshis - worst, wrong time, when population had perched over 7 billion level. We are the generation which bosses/employer are laughing out loud at job seekers that kept asking for more ( alas , its prostitutes trademark to basically 'asks for more' ), so please, seniors, do avoid asking what work we are doing ( as most graduates too hop so many jobs and remain unemployed ) and laugh a little lesser when you lectured us that rezeki would flow like piped water as soon as we got married - we do listen, we got nothing but time to listen, but these days, actions, cannot be more earth shattering when you are broke, jobless and limping our way out of the mess. 

The mess who created? It would be another topic to begin with, but for now, we shall begin enthuastically try to wrap our head around the idea 'to earn more, we need to work hard', lets see if working hard really rewards us in Malaysia.

The Red Notification

Social networking given us the exposure that we never thought we had before. Gone are the old days where an appearance in local television, you’ll call each and every one of your friend to remind them about your impending appearance. Timing has to be perfect and you expect everyone punctually be at their couch sipping coffee or munching any sorts tid bits to witness your grand appearance, now, the internet offers a time wrap ability where you conveniently press play, rewind and even more, share!

Social networking delivered not only as a stage to voice out, but it served as a news source. It’s a brand-less news outlet, thus, its truly a ‘peoples’ channel which the people become the journalist. The people’s news can be as accurate and quicker than that conventional type. Now, that collective voice can be tracked through ‘trending’, anything that gets people talking, it will top out the chart. And we can forget the wrath of television channel hidden agendas forced into our mind on daily basis.

You can say goodbye to the television. The idiot box is ripe for a makeover, more realistically thrown off the cliff into a lombong ( mining pond ), the television in my rented apartment is longing for a touch and had been long sleeping under a warmth of dust blanket, and those millennium babies that saw one of these idiot boxes though the screen is touchable and interactive by all means.

Thus social network had tastefully feed our hunger for entertainment. We now know what your hipster friend is listening so you can be hip as well. Those new bands who thought they would die without a record contract now can operate on their own as promotion is done virtually free virally, and distribution? Thank whom? Thank those social networks.

Social networking is not a new thing, those 80s and early 90s baby cannot deny the original ‘facebook’ is literally a ‘facebook’. It’s a physical book that is being passed around and penned down with biodata, favourite food drinks, movies and books – and for those rare occurrences – with full colour photographs! Whoa! Now social network had travelled into a new paper-less realm, beginning with Friendster followed by MySpace and learning through its predecessor mistakes, Facebook lives until today to become one of the world most valuable brands that trades on people personal information which is voluntarily given.

Social networking is becoming the extended version of ourselves. Lacking in touch with our extended self can be detrimental – some may feel ‘incomplete’ for neglecting their virtual presence. That red notification signal has some hypnotizing effect that makes us want to click them. We feel rewarded, happy and wanted by any or some way.  

Off the grid

Some are bold enough to live ‘off-the-grid’. Just like how we heard people living money-free inside an RV or dedicating oneself to become vegetarian, some had the guts to reject social network and firmly stood their ground regardless the thousand advantage proponents of social networking are throwing at them.

Social networking is akin to waters to thread in, you have to be skillful where the current is and what the tide tells. In dangerous water infested with falsehood, fear, uncertainty and doubt ( FUD ) we can be easily swayed by emotions. At the comfort of our living room, we feel confident to speak or share as we will. At the same time we feel sheltered from any consequences from the thing that we speak or share.

We may be swayed to believe that a Middle-eastern leader army just beheaded a child from an unverified photo, a famous cookie brand in Malaysia knowingly uses lard in its food manufacturing, a river had become a dumping ground for a rare-earth plant. All these FUD that exploit our unwavering concern in matters such as children, religion and rights. And we felt responsible to share them without the responsibility to verify its truth or question them.  

With social networking, we have become more susceptible to pigeonhole our friends into circles. Of those circle, we generally had the liberal circle where we allow them to view our private photos being half drunk at a club. The conservative circle had been restricted from having those privileges due to the comments and critiques they might throw at our face. Social networking had inherited the mechanism of distorted realism where oneself become truthful with selective audience. Others are just wayang.

Social network spawn a syndrome which is clinically untreatable – the TMI (too-much-information) syndrome where oneself had to share everything, from the meals they about to ingest to a pair of cute socks they worn and those messages from their phones. From that on, people are carried away to announce every personal decision they made to the whole world. We are not taught in school about what is networking and personal sharing, clearly the lines had been blurred.  

Its not the people fault anyway, social networking likes them. Plus, there is continuous demand for this kind of information. Just be careful because this readily available information can possibly bite back. It’s a matter of time – sooner or later.

Looking forward to the end of this era some had started the social network death watch. A ticking clock which foresees the demise of Facebook to the likes of MySpace and Friendster. Facebook dead? Maybe, someday…but social network is here to stay, for as long as people hunger and keep fishing for attention, the red notification retains its hypnotizing power in a different reincarnation, shapes and form.

The Freak Show

rarities, oddities, defects and such. Like human physical, the mankind emotion is full of them

There is a notion amongst moviegoers. “I want to go to cinemas and have a good time” Good time can come in several pleasant combination; a short line of  ques, problem-free ticket purchase online, a great company of friends and loved ones and warm popcorns that are not pre-packed and left to cool down along the counter. In short, a good time at cinema is a movie that does not tire your brain digesting it. It as easy as “happily living ever after” or “good triumph over evil”

Amongst the actor, they are more likely to take up good, positive and protagonist characters onto their portfolio. It poses fewer challenges. A good character does a stoic sympathetic face, It attracts good karma and garners admiration by fans. No actors/actresses badly want a prostitute, pimp or gambler role on the silver screen. Bad, for most actors is the third entity in love triangle, but not to such badassery of mentioned above roles. Off camera, there is no fear of living and being associated with bad character they brought. Its play safe.

Amongst the director they want to do an easy-to-digest movie. Like baby food, movies should be fluid and quick to pass the throat and into stomach, so that the next can be fed more and more and more. Directors dislike( in my words, failed ) to articulate characters in a subliminal way – so a gangster must obviously spoken “ lu, gua, lu, gua “ and a businessman must have emphasis on scene where they chaired meetings and discuss about selling stocks and arranging meeting with fictitious Mr.Yamamoto from Japan.

Producers choose to fund “feel good” movie. At this time of writing, feel good movies can assert itself as escapism cum fairy tale. Like the recurring theme of poor god-loving tudung girl marrying a filthy rich man but along the way, a jealous girl tries to wreck the relationship and you’ll shed a few tears before the epic ending. Suggestive titles like Dhia, Levender, Elysa, April, Qaseh and a whole lot of contemporary feminine names pulls young girls with identity clout to say “hey, this film is like a mirror to my life! Lets watch it!” adds the variety to this subgenre.

Sponsors are more likely to contribute their merchandise/product to movies that convey positive messages in it. Besides, what would a product be any good if they pour sponsorship upon actors which played the role of a , say… a pimp, a gambler or a prostitute. On a bright side, even though it made them look more pimpy and first class prostitute respectively, still, a no-go. Definitely, a clothing company wouldn’t want people saying “ Yeah! This is what a pimp/hoes/hustler use “

Is Malaysian films that FUBAR ?

I got that skeptical look from my father. “ What a bad film title!? “, he hasn’t watched Malay even Malaysian movies since forever. He is a keen movie goer. The recent title was Dream House starring Daniel Craig, which is a lukewarm Hollywood product (I admit,I watched it too). I persuaded further to convince him to watch this film, I even said it had artistic flavors of arwah Yasmin Ahmad – Plus, Syafie Naswip is amongst the cast, " Syafie Nas what...? "my father again gave me the skeptical and uncertainty look. Even the versatile late filmmaker cannot leverage the film that it’s no typical Malay movie made by someone awarded Professor Madya.

I do not even have assurance that the film would be good, I only relied on scarcely available movie reviews. I defy the old saying ‘never judge a book by its cover’, im utterly convinced by the film poster which is plain minimalistic but well thought out ( coming from architecture background, less is absolutely more )

Finally he let himself in, the whole family watched the movie at a cinema in Seberang Prai. We remained seated for the next 100 minutes, thus, exiting the cinema, we did not say much. Until at one moment my dad mentioned one of the strings of praise for the movie “ Watching Fauzi Nawawi playing a pimp is likeable! He really knows how to act! ”

Along the way back to Sungai Petani, he kept non-verbatim mentioning lines from the movie like “minta berkat” ( a scene where Shaheizy Sam being cynical to his new boss )   “ Ad! Jahanam kereta aku “ ( again Am scolded his brother spontaneously went on fire inside confinement of a wreck Saga )“ Anak kalau kecil kecil memang comel, bila dah besar, baru tau “ ( Am confronts Hawa after she refuses to sell her father-less baby to a syndicate), we laughed calling back the fragments of the film scene that still vividly runs in our mind.

On serious note, he praised the humanity aspect which is portrayed by Ad, the character which regularly visits an old prostitute and believed (or might have) been his mother. The theme and portrayal of the modus operand of human trafficking. The heavy subject which became the spotlight, and the intricate, scene by scene that unwrap the storyline very delightfully albeit with a help of thinking until the ending credits ( bet, who would like to do thinking inside a cinema? A library is probably the better place to do so ) .

My Malay-cinemaphobic dad gives 8 out of 10 rating for Songlap. Thats impressive. Isn’t that eye opening for him?

Leaving Normalcy At The Door

Songlap is a movie that will never eclipse, even, matched the collection made by Osman Alis Ombak Rindu also playing along currently. Judging by the attendees of the cinema that day (Saturday) , Songlap might not recover their filming budget of RM1.5 million. But Songlap successfully distanced itself from other archetypical Malay (yes, im tired of using the word typical ) as a brave realist sociocritique movie. It did more than distance, but joins a niche distinct class of its own following the footsteps of Perempuan Jalang dan … )

On socioritique alone, a film cannot fascinate. Songlap cannot achieve this without a combination of chemically compatible cast, intuition-defying storytelling , witty scripts and daring filming methods. Front lined by triple-S ( Shaheizy, Syafie and Sara Ali ), these actors really packed a punch to provide consistent drive force to the film. Shaheizy Sam which I started to notify how startling his acting when he played a blind man in a teledrama years ago, never disappoints. Sam move to never let ( or he got tired )‘Metrowealth’ encapsulate him and sucking him dry on recurring stagnant themes , is definitely a smart move. What recurring theme? Well, a hint, In Songlap, his character, Am, owns a car to spin around Yipee! Syafie Naswip acting has found new leash of life after the departure of Yasmin Ahmad. Sara Ali ,an architecture degree holder in real life, effectively plays the moody post-natal mother of child born out of wedlock

Secondary ensemble, includes Normah Damanhuri which played an old hoes and takes rm30 per half hour of feel good session, he is accompanied with Chipun, a pimp that would woo men and women to visit his red lit little ‘happy house’, he is brilliantly played by Fauzi Nawawi. Eliza Wong played Mama, a women that runs the baby mill house and his strings of Chinese staff that forged documents through Photoshop CS5, cooks and manage the house. Omar Abdullah plays a father that shamelessly raped his daughters ( yes, raped two daughter to get that animalistic libido done )

Intuition defying is best described when audience actually nodded or bemoans oh! and ah! at certain important juncture of the story. I was led to believe the story would be going somewhere, but as the seam connects, it turns out to be the other way around. Yet it still floats and maintains my keen to follow-on till finishing, nothing of the misleading crap that makes you want to walk out of cinema.

Finding dark and tight corners in KL for filming to realize the sinful nature of the film theme is a technical challenge. In Songlap there are no Japanese sport cars burning its rubbers on Dataran Merdeka or exploding upon crash, the focus of cinematographer is  simply human emotions – and to capture the dynamics of human emotion from stressed, to fear, to hopelessness, to the expensive 'I-don’t-know what to say’ face is priceless. Added doing scenes during night time? Clearly a humongous challenge there. No wonder even Professor Madya like to do daytime scene and having comedian-actor ensemble to do….., what else…., comedies, because that’s the challenges befitting the title Professor Madya.

Effendee Mazlan and Fariza Azlina Isahak are penggiat seni that have closed the 2011 chapter of Malaysian film industry with an eye opener, for those who chooses to still take the dreamboat washed by ombaks and gelora, that’s their choice. We cannot line them up and force them to watch something as realist as SONGLAP. Life is not all about sugar, SONGLAP hits me like a freak show, A freak show would have weird human oddities, defects and abnormalities for display – oddly enough SONGLAP had drawn similar projection of the ugly heads of whats life and how people got through it, felt as good as reading Shahnon Ahmad Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan, A.Samad Said Salina and Abdullah Hussein IMAM .


 I did walk out of cinema hall feeling good after all.

The Atelier #1: Scaling Back and Staying Relevant in Architecture

Welcome to 'The Atélier', a series of blog entry I specially made for thoughts on architecture. On this pilot entry, I shall describe in layman terms the harsh reality architecture as a career. And the vast possibility when architecture embodied as a 'spirit'. Nothing spooky okay.

Welcome to architecture. A career where its participant would aim for the stars. If you doesn’t come from an architecture background, names like Mies Van Der Rohe, Rem Koolhaas, Santiago Calatrava and Antonio Gaudi would sprung series of mental imagery of buildings you commonly see in magazines or places you have visited before. By the way, those architects are some of legends which had carved their names in the architecture constellation – something like sailors do when compass doesn’t exist. We look up to them when we are lost, but it seems most of us never admitted we are forever lost

But times have changed, and as the architecture field gets crowded, your chance to carve a name in the constellation becomes faded. The architecture field has not become a field of passion, but extreme competition, client demands, cut costs and dog eats dog cannibalistic scene. Architects would work to extreme hours next to nothing, sight of blankets and toothbrush at workplace is nothing uncommon. It pays barely pays your bills and emerging architects overtook you from behind fleecing your clients with further ridiculously lower prices for such valuable design advisory you had your neurons spark for with the help of caffeine.

Present economic volatility had construction industry halted or slowed down to a snail pace. Malaysia is no more in its glorious boom seen in mid 80s. Construction is guaranteed the first to be affected and even get out of the clout. I fondly remembers my lecturer saying “ a sign of healthy economy is shown through the construction industry “. Even so, when times are good, your client would never forgets the discounts given when you scrambled for living during hard times, so, the struggle becomes a vicious cycle and balancing act on a tight rope of karma and luck.

Architecture firms are getting much more like hypermarkets. Only big firms seems to cut the deal and mopped the floor clean, if they employ you, they pay you real cheap, you are taxed for being in a well-known firms.  While the smaller firms folds or survives on unique idiosyncrasies that majority of people wouldn’t seen it necessary.

But amidst the frustration the real world doesn’t give a F of your superb green design or poetic aesthetic light-coming-through-a-froghole features, there is no need to throw off the hat. Architecture is a versatile knowledge. It lets you swerve and maneuver with plenty of room keeping your mental faculty occupied and your hard earned college credits relevant. Architecture spirit simply doesn’t quit on us. It’s a matter of we quitting on them.

Alternative careers for architects are endless. I always picture Architecture as an accumulation of several branches from the tree of knowledge. We learn to articulate our ideas ( mostly bullshitting thou ), so we are naturally public speakers and happily accept offers to give any fiery speeches at a rally. We learn how to sketch, so we can utilize that and illustrate wonderful things ( and probably gets into someone pants, I mean, their pockets). We calculate things, our calculus mastery is somehow superior, few notches behind engineers, but, yah, still commendable. We learn to read people minds, we learn to understand the current trends and most importantly -  we design.

Identity by design

Design is always something which people disregard. Nissan, as a case, had suppressed its car designers in turn for cut costs with awful plastic and interior upholstery selection. Nissan nearly went bankrupt when Charles Ghosn, the new CEO, had given designers more freedom in designing and material selection and Nissan fortunes began to turn.  

Apple Inc. the makers of iMac, iPod, iPhone and other i-whatever-devices had similar blunt decision to disregard design. Before Steve Jobs were at the helm, a corporate trained leader was at the top, telling designers to forgo their wet dreams and instead ordering manufacturer to boost up production. Their products failed to sell and had been stockpiling like an old junk. Apple was at terminal stage when Old Steve Jobs took over.

Steve Jobs, being an innovator at heart recognizes design as part of product and subsequently, company identity. In 1998, we saw the candy colored iMacs, from then on; Apple design has been simply stunning and refreshing. The rest is history.

The rooms are there for us, there are people who attentively listens and humanely considers what we do to an extent that doesn’t diminish our creative flair. The Architecture spirit is never confined to the design-follows-budget stigma. Architects like Hijjas Kasturi who had come to great heights locally finds time in to designing watches, lifts and yatches. Why such figure wants to scale back to designing petty stuff that people rarely use? Has he lost his prestige? 

Nah, IHMO, Its because the spirit of architecture roams everywhere, architects can wake up at 4 in the morning and went to the drawing table just to sketch an eclectic space inside a home. Nobody stops them, because ideas comes like a squall or gust and goes away quickly.

Arkitek Kampung

Scaling back of our dreams means we don’t have to murder our Architecture spirit. Instead of licking the floors at big firms and envisioning to construct the next  300 floor towers, try looking at the community level. Architecture can contribute a lot to the society by improving the existing spaces. It doesn’t mean an excavated clear ground is always our playground, present spaces can be our canvas of creativity.  May it be a kindergarten, taska, wet market, 4 footers, 6 footers or Sunday flee market, these spaces desperate for an architect’s Midas touch.

Architecture also needs perception change with people unfamiliar with them. Parents expect us to design multistory complex for a multinational companies whatsoever and laughing our way to the bank with millions, while it seems viable ideally, the contrasting reality seeks architects to dedicate their energy in a different way. In college, I was though about simple installations, a panel or mirrors or just string encompassed in-a-way to concentrate certain qualities of a site – the genius loci, blending and respecting what came earlier to the place - this is the next of architecture.

 The imagery of heavy pile driver and noisy bulldozer chasing like cats and mouse on-site should be applied with much more opacity to it. Architecture now is no longer an all-out intrusion but a tacit intervention, just like Glenn Murcutt quote “Touching the earth lightly ”

Architects were also given task to give a new leash of life onto old building. Cities like Malacca, Penang and KL has plenty of pre-merdeka building that needs restoration to retain their beauty and historical value. There also might be a fine-tasted financier who would want to turn old walls into exciting place for candlelight dinners. We, architects, can step up to the plate.

Architects can be a bona-fide superhero. When crimes arise in densely populated cities, it’s the responsibility of architects to help the society out. We change the existing landscape from crime prone to something safer and better for people. Little changes like straightening of streets and installation of lamp posts make a huge difference!

In short, these hard times had architects arrested for upward growth, but who cares, we grow sideways. We reconsider and explore new possibilities and keep the architecture spirit (yes, architecture is a spirit, not profession ) relevant throughout times.