Hark-the-Harold

the title is the name of a Malay film from Suhaimi Baba, the same director who brought the Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam 1 and 2. Read about the review in Berita Harian (online obviously, am at NZ) but never got myself to watch it, even when a freind of mine told me the whole show is available in Youtube. Watched the story in YouTube today. Great show, who says Malay films are all about trashy KL romance?

Guess it’s Suhaimi’s style to explore all these mystical aspects of the Malay society. If i am not wrong this Harimau Saka (i dun know, weretiger perhaps?) thing should be considered syirik. but its good that the show did not get axed or anything. Its what makes the show intersting anyway.

apart from seeing the tiger, another theme in the show is about transexualism. These ‘pondan’s are a visible minority in the Malaysian society. Rusdi Ramli did a great job in portraying one. being ridiculed by people, having the courage to do a sexual reassignment surgery (like felicity huffman in Transamerica) and face his family. Guess its hard to be a women trapped in a man’s body. the confusion and self-hatred and denial can be overwhelming.

I guess my favourite character is Azean’s Tok Wan, who i think if i am right a kind of witch doctor, who of course is half tiger half human, or can change form from human to tiger (hence the term i coined weretiger). pretty much the departure of her usual Datin role on other TV drama. Heard about her breast cancer surgery from mum the other day (thanks mum for keeping my updated with the celebrity gossips). hope she is doing fine.

anyway, good show, going to continue with six feet under next (last season, yippie!). working later.

Oh happy mid autumn festival folks, eat mooncakes but remember the calories count! haha

i must say that my two weeks of holidays have been wasted. i promised myself that i will be productive in this two weeks. reading the assignments stuff ( i have 8 journals to read for my history paper) and also starting on my ESOL, Educ and also lang thcg assignments. However, i have used up the first week watching tv shows.

i am proud to be one of the founder of the Kumpulan Gema Tari Malaysia or the Malaysia Echo of Dance troupe. Adha and I are fortunate to know girls who are into and know tradional malay dances and with other enthusiasts, we formed a , well i would say, amateur dance club. we teach each other the steps and also teach those who are interested the steps and routine in the three main malay traditional dances (Joget, Zapin and Inang). we also performed for a few functions (Malaysian week, AMS merdeka night and the upcoming PETUNIA farewell dinner). we do not get paid or anything. mostly we get free treats. well we dance because of interest anyway. its funny how as a chinese i am dancing malay dance, and know quite a bit of these dances to actally help choreographing some of our dance routines.  Well i hope the grop will stay strong even when we left Auckland, GeTaMa should be able to self-sustain, provided there are people who will continue to bear the torch.

Well at least when it comes to assignments, i have finished reading the journals required to write an essay for the History 106. i am doing French Revolution. throughout the reading i have learnt more french word that i could ever imagine. cahier means note, noble de race means royal kinsman, roi means king and the list go on. i have also prefected the spelling of the word bourgeoisie, which i failed to spell correctly but now i can spell it with ease. guess i have seen the word too many times that the spelling is actually drilled into my head. its pretty interesting to read and explore a historical event from multiple perspectives. My sejarah peradaban dunia gave a touch-and-go account to the Revolusi Peranchis, saying it as the victory of bourgeoisie but studying the journal helps me to see what is behind the actual winning of the bourgeoisie and who else are involved in the story. It was such a fascinating discovery and i cant wait to start writing the essay, though i doubt if i can come up with a good one.need the good grade.

Recently i am watching six feet under. i will say this is a very different show from the ones that i am used to. i usually watch a show as entertanment. but for this show i am learning facts of life. I view death differently now. As Catholic there is a purgatory, hell and heaven but from the show i learn to see how people cope with death, what is the meaning of life. and seeing each character of the show struggling with life makes me realised that each ad everyone of us is not so different after all. all of us are living this life as a pilgrim and seriously, who knows what happened when we left this world? who are we to condemn who goes to hell or heaven? having a faith is good but making others feel bad about themselves because you force your faith unto them is not something christian like to do. i hope all Christians around the world will love everybody just as Jesus loves people around Him. If he didn’t despise sinners and gentiles, who are we to despises those around us?