In the midst of the exam season

Well, I can't be studying all day right? So here I am blogging once more...

I took a breather from my revision on Radiation heat transfer under Thermodynamics to get some nice wallpaper for my desktop from National Geographic. Somehow my mind thought about the movie "Sepet" once again and I decided to read up Yasmin Ahmad's blog to read up on "Sepet" (slit-like eyes) and her newer yet-to-be-released movie "Gubra" (anxiety/panic). Looked at some photos she posted online as well. FYI Gubra is the sequel to Sepet...

I really admire her... She won the Best Women Director at the International Film Festival of Women Directors in France, and "Sepet" is also still winning awards after so long. Its most recent win, and in many ways the most significant one, is the Best Asian Film award at the 18th Tokyo International Film Festival. Woohoo! How cool is that? It's times like this I feel especially proud to be a Malaysian. (I'm quite happy and proud too that Malaysian-made "Sepet" beat Singapore's "Be With Me" at the film festival... can't help it lah; it's an inate feeling that arises in every Malaysian when we beat Singapore... Hey I'm being honest here! =P)

If such an achievement was made in Singapore, the government would probably be the first to dish out some kind of help/incentive/whatever to further promote and expand the movie industry; not likely to happen in Malaysia. In fact, the movie industry might go downhill again because of the silly Lembaga Penapis Filem ("Film Filtering Board", ie. Censorship Board) who will "potong sini, potong sana" ("Cut here, cut there") which might result in the lost of essence and flow in the movie.

There was a part in the movie where Jason, a Chinese guy, brought Orked, his Malay girlfriend, to take photos at a photo shop and a particular scene where the both of them were riding on an imaginery motorbike was cut. Dunno why... probably they were too close to each other?

There was also a scene where a husband tickles his wife affectionately in bed that was cut. Yasmin Ahmad, the movie's director had only this to say:"I don’t understand why this scene has to be cut. We are allowed to show husbands slapping their wives on terrestrial TV. But we can’t show husbands being affectionate to their wives.” How true in Malaysia. Violent shows mostly pass the censorship board easily while a kissing scene might be shortened to a few measly seconds or not shown at all.

Thanks to Diari Pemantau Media Malaysia for the above examples from the movie.

To end this blog entry, I shall show you a scene from "Gubra"...