“You Mean The World To Me”

Hokkien Movie You Mean the World to Me

A Penang Hokkien movie.

Saw Teong Hin’s semi-autobiographical script written by him and set in Penang, where he grew up, portrays scenes that show much of the island’s past and present uniqueness. It’s his personal story of not being able to live and deal with his drunk father, and with having to see his mother’s life turn desperate. She had to cope with financial difficulties and care for his  autistic older brother, besides looking after his sister and him. He walked away, leaving all responsibilities to his sister. He even missed his parents’ and brother’s funerals. Saw’s story, true to life, is one everyone can relate to. A story funny and sad, never verging on sentimentality. A story of many things left unsaid and unresolved.

Saw says, “Your parents are the easiest people to take for granted as you think it is their responsibility to care for you.”

Lost Love

If there were no subtitles the scenes would still speak for themselves beautifully due to the brilliant cinematography of Christopher Doyle. The unfolding story and the flashbacks are seamlessly woven, causing no confusion. Doyle’s perfect style of framing and camera movement gets us deeply involved, and his quiet slow pace makes for a meditative flow. Doyle, a multi-award winner who has collaborated with director Wong Kar-Wai in many well-known films, is the perfect cinematographer.

You Mean The World To Me is a film of an international quality.

Director – Saw Teong Hin
Cinematographer – Christoper Doyle

Main characters
Frederick Lee …Sunny
Neo Swee Lin …Cheng, mother
John Tan …Ah Boy, brother
Yeo Yann Yann …Hoon, sister

Produced by Astro Shaw and Real Films
Theme song by Taiwanese Zhao Chuan titled Kam Sia Li (Thank You in Hokkien).
Original title Hai Kinn Xin Loo, the old Hokkien name for Penang’s Victoria Street, (new road by the sea front) was first performed as a play.

Skyfall

Skyfall, the 23rd Bond spy thriller on the 50th Bond anniversary. Bond secret service spy story has never been more thrilling. Sam Mendes’ Skyfall tops all Bond movies and charts.

Retrieving the lost MI6 data of undercover agents is the job for Bond. 007 begins an intense and wild adventure in Turkey with a car/motorcycle/ train chase. The film takes us from Istanbul to London, Shanghai and Macau and brings us back Britain.

Suave Bond, Daniel Craig, is perfectly steely and efficient yet shows emotion when visiting his old home Skyfall Lodge in Scotland and in the last scene with M, Dame Judy Dench.

Raoul Silva, Javier Bardem, makes a memorable villain. When meeting Bond he says ‘The two survivors. This is what she made us.’ The ‘she’ referred to is M. This gives us a clue to the past, something had gone wrong for the former agent, Silva. Having met Silva, Bond outwits and escapes but not before a few thrilling chases. Soon Silva is caught and placed under maximum security, in a glass cage, shades of Hannibal Lecter here. Sinister Silva manages to escape and is eventually lured to ‘Skyfall Lodge’ Bond’s childhood home where a last fight leads to the death of the villain.

We have only two Bond girls, field agent Eve, Naomie Harris, and bad girl Severine, Berenice Marlohe. But what is refreshing perhaps disappointing to some Bond fans are the sex scenes. They are fewer and tasteful, there is less female skin and there is no overt, boring romps on rumpled sheets.

The old wise Q has been replaced. The new gadget man is Ben Whishaw. We are looking to the future, a young and nerdy Q to carry on the tradition of the former Q. Gadgets are modern, sparse and streamlined, just two items – a Bond palm recognition hand gun and a miniature radio, the size of a minipod.

A general cheer broke out in the cinema when the old Aston Martin DB5 was brought out of storage. Following on with the enormous success of the British Olympics ‘Skyfall’ has gone quite British. Q meets Bond in the British national gallery before a Turner painting, there’s a china British bulldog on M’s desk, when their premises are destroyed MI6 operates from Churchill’s underground bunker, and we have a scene of lost agents’ coffins draped with Union Jacks. Another Turner painting is in M’s office behind Gareth Mallory, Ralf Finnes.

There is much humour and plenty of witty quips in Skyfall.

Check out the amazing cinematography by Roger Deakins.
Go see Skyfall at a cinema. Enjoy the IMAX experience.
I came away shaken and stirred.

BOOKS INTO MOVIES

CLOUD ATLAS

I became a David Mitchell fan years ago when I met him and since then started a collection of his books. Recently while chatting about books Indra mentioned reading Cloud Atlas and rekindled my interest and I am now reading Cloud Atlas again, on my Kindle.

Books being turned into movies. A short list below.

“Cloud Atlas,” by David Mitchell

Trailer on Youtube

Plot Summary: The book follows six separate stories, going from the far past to a future postapocalyptic world, in which each story is suddenly cut off to follow the next character who somehow connects to the previous one: an unenthusiastic voyageur crossing the Pacific in 1850, a poor composer living in Belgium, a journalist from California, a publisher trying to escape his creditors, a genetically altered “dinery server” on death row, a young Islander watching the death of science and civilization.
Starring: Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, and Halle Berry have all taken roles in this movie.
Release date: October 26, 2012.

“On the Road,” by Jack Kerouac

Plot summary: Kerouac’s classic novel captures America and the Beat Generation as he tells the story of his years spent traveling America with friend, Neal Cassady. The two wander through the country searching for self-knowledge and life experience. This classic novel about the yearning for freedom and longing for something more has long defined what it means to be “Beat” and has been an inspiration for many generations since.
Starring: Garrett Hedlund, Sam Riley, and Kristen Stewart.
Release date: 2012, yet to be announced.

“The Great Gatsby,” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Plot summary: The novel is set on Long Island during the roaring 1920s. Nick, just returned from the war, rents a house in West Egg where he is invited to the extravagant parties hosted by his guarded and mysterious neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Nick eventually learns Gatsby’s story – the tale of a young man who corrupts himself in seeking to attain the American Dream and gain the love of the idealized, and unattainable woman, Daisy.
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio is starring as Gatsby, and Carey Mulligan is playing his ex, Daisy.
Release date: December 25, 2012.

“Life of Pi,” by Yann Martel
Plot summary: The novel follows young Pi Patel, a 16-year-old whose family moves from India to North America on board a Japanese cargo ship, along with a number of his father’s zoo animals. When the ship sinks, Pi is left alone in a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a zebra, and a Bengal tiger.
Starring: Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, and Tobey Maguire.
Release date: November 21, 2012.

Movie – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

The Movie

The answer by one of the characters to the question – ‘What do you see in this country?’ sums up the movie:

‘Light, colours, smiles, all life is here!’ And I will add to it loads of laughter. The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is funny, witty, full of dry humour and is inspiring

Seven British actors Judy Dench, Maggie, Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Penelope Wilton, Tom Wilkinson, and Ronald Pickup, all with much film, theatre, and television experience, team up with the young Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) mesh well to give a brilliant performance.

Outsourcing at its best. All seven, retired and retiring men and women, who for various reasons can’t afford or don’t want to go into ‘homes’ and who have never been to India (except for one) make up their minds with great leap of faith to retire affordably at the this palace hotel in Udaipur, in Rajasthan, India. Besides the culture shock that awaits them the best exotic Marigold Hotel is a run down, dirty, dusty establishment that the young Sonny is trying to put together. Nothing like the much ‘photo-shopped’ brochures and TV ads portray. These seven are Sonny’s first paying guests.

What follows is a hilariously funny story.

Evelyn (Judy Dench) is stable and is open to new experiences. Financially depleted she even manages to get a job to work with young people at a telephone outsourcing company when she get to India.

Muriel (Maggie Smith) is very ‘English’ and is in India for a quick and cheap hip replacement. She has brought her own biscuits and pickle: If I can’t pronounce it I don’t really eat it’. On her arrival at the hotel, she turns around and says, ‘There’s an Indian there.’ She makes a brilliant racist.

Douglas (Bill Nighy) and Jean (Penelope Wilton) whose marriage is falling apart can ill afford anything back home having given their savings to their daughter for a business venture. Douglas goes with the flow and Jean absolutely hates her life and India.

Graham (Tom Wilkinson) a dignified gay gentleman, a retired high court judge, the only one who knew India,a very different India, as a young man. He ventures out to look for his lost love and finds a beautiful and touching end.

Madge (Celia Imrie) is on the look-out for a rich Maharaja, and I do believe she succeeds in finding one.

Norman (Ronald Pickup), an outrageous rake, is desperate for that last sex fling with help of Viagra and a paperback copy of Kama Sutra. He succeeds without Viagra.

The totally optimistic, energetic and hardworking Sonny is the young manager who has great vision for his hotel for senior citizens. He is also in love with the beautiful Sunaina (Tena Desae). His mother tries to put a stop to his ambitious dream of succeeding with his plans for the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as a place ‘where it could be so wonderful that people will refuse to die.’ She also tries to crush his desire to marry the girl he loves.

A brilliant movie directed by John Madden, director of many other brilliant movies and television series.

The well-written script is adapted from the novel ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ by Deborah Moggach.

And the gist of it all: Everything will be all right in the end. If it’s not all right, then it’s not (yet) the end.

THE LADY

Movie Review: THE LADY

‘The Lady’ – the love story of Aung Sang Suu Kyi, directed by Luc Besson is set in political turmoil of Burma (Myanmar). Michelle Yeoh gives a brilliant and elegant performance as Aung Sang Suu Kyi, and David Thewlis as her noble husband.

A touching movie of love and sacrifice and choices made. Aung Sang Suu Kyi has to choose between her loving family – husband and sons in England, and her love for her people in Burma. Two loves, two countries.

Without doubt this is one of the most realistic portrayal of a living heroine by an actor. Michelle Yeoh, has an uncanny resemblance to Aung Sang Suu Kyi. Her acting – her body language,and intense facial expressions bring out compassion and strength, confusion and determination, and longing, timidity and boldness. She is all of these.

Being a linguist Michelle learned the language. Her speeches are beautiful. It was during my visit to Burma many years ago that I had heard Burmese spoken and had forgotten how rounded and soothing the language is. Michelle’s sylph like figure in Burmese attire and flowers in her hair make her a gracious lady. The old home by the lake that we have seen so many times in news reels, the home where Aung Sang Suu Kyi spent her time under house arrest, is perfectly re-created that it is difficult not believe it is the same one. The Burma scenes were shot in Thailand. The portrayal is realistic. During filming some of the Burmese actors were so overcome by emotion, the story and the plight of the Burmese people, that filming had to be suspended for a short time.

The story moves from England to Burma seamlessly. There is no confusion with the shifting back and forth from cold England to humid hot Burma, from mist and snow of Oxford to the monsoon deluges of Rangoon, from contentment and joy of a happy family to devastating sadness of oppression and student uprising.

Luc Besson likes making films of strong women and in ‘The Lady’ he has excelled himself. It was during the filming of the movie that news of the lady’s release from house arrest was announced. The director and crew found it difficult to believe that it had happened at last.

The film script is beautifully written by Rebecca Fran. She and Andy Harris spent time in Burma. They never met the ‘Lady’ but interviewed many who knew her. Andy Harris researched the happy times of Sui Kyi’s life in England with her husband. Much of the English outdoor scenes were shot in front of the house they had lived in.

This is truly an inspiring film. Through her sacrifices, faith in her people and her steadfastness in her beliefs Aung Sang Suu Kyi is on her way to achieving the vision her father had for Burma: Democracy.

All who do not cry in cinemas please take your fathers’ large handkerchiefs.

PS: ‘Wild Orchids’ in Bathing Elephants, my second short story collection, is set in Burma and lightly touches on Myanmar politics, the student uprising and on Aung Sang Suu Kyi. It is a fictional story of two simple young people who fall in love and marry but due to the political situation are separated.

‘Minh Thida slid away silent as a shadow. Fireflies floated in the dark space between the trees through which he disappeared. Bats swept the air. All fell silent. Thura Khin heard no noises, no birds, no small animals rustling in the bushes. She remained still for a long time, uncertain. Had he been there in person or had she hallucinated? As she turned back to go into the hut she felt something drop to the ground, by her feet. She picked up the bunch of wild orchids he’d placed in her hair. She did not go back into the hut but sat on the log by the fire holding a spray of wilting wild orchid. Dreams of a dead man not dead.’

MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 4

GHOST PROTOCOL

‘Your mission should you choose to accept it’ statement and the familiar toe tapping music throw us right into the action – the latest impossible mission – Ghost Protocol, an action filled, spellbinding, adventure thriller. The Imax format scenes get the adrenaline pumping for more than two hours, long enough to keep us engaged in MI world.

Starring Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in the lead role. The rest of the team are Simon Pegg as Benji, Jeremy Renner as Brant and agent Jane, Paula Patton; the film directed by Brad Bird.

It opens in Budapest, to the well-known and exciting tune invoking the thrilling ‘Mission Impossibles’ of before. A handsome agent code-named “Cobalt” is assassinated by an attractive lady agent who disappears with documents containing nuclear codes.

A mayhem prison break is arranged allowing Ethan, an iron-man body and a focused mind, escape from his cell. He makes his way through various cell-blocks and opening-grill doors but not before he goes in search of a Russian prisoner whom he wants to save.

A seemingly impossible task for the mission team led by Ethan Hunt is to retrieve the nuclear codes before they fall into the hands of a crazy terrorist bent world-annihilation. But the documents do pass on and fall into wrong hands.

We see great aerial scenes of a Kremlin that is later bombed. When blame falls on Ethan and his team discrediting them they are disowned by the US government. The team has to conduct the operation of retrieving the codes on its own, hence the name ‘Ghost Protocol’. We move with the agents to the Dubai’s Burj Khalifa and are in the midst of hair-raising scenes: Ethan breaking through the glass window of the hotel, climbing up a sheer glass curtain wall over a 100 floors and later hurtling down it. From the finger biting scenes we go on a blinding, choking chase in a sandstorm.

Following the disappearance of the codes from Dubai the team moves to Mumbai or maybe not, looks like Mumbai. The aerial view seems genuine enough. We are set at a party in a palace of Maharaja splendour. We meet another villain, a tycoon playboy Brij Nath (Bollywood’s Anil Kapoor). The MI team’s sexy agent Jane arrives to unearth the satellite codes from the tycoon who is unable to resist Jane. But the terrorist manages to run off with the codes.

More taut scenes follow. The hero chases the terrorist with the briefcase codes, now a fully-fledged nuclear activation device, through an automated multi story car park of moving steel platforms that raise and lower cars. The two men swing and fall from floor to floor, fighting each other and are much mangled. The briefcase moves from the clutches of the terrorist to the hero and back again.

Finally Ethan Hunt and his team do manage to save the world for us. Adrenaline rush is constant throughout the film and so is humour. Many a tense moment is relieved by much wit and funny comments.

Gadgets are exciting too – gloves that stick to the sheer glass wall allowing one to climb, showing blue when they work and red when they don’t:
Blue is glue and Red is dead.
Bionic contact lenses that can take photos and decipher codes.
And a BMW concept car with a touch screen windshield that allows onscreen interface (GPS) to bring up locations and objects.
An illusion wall that can be moved to change the look of indoor locations.

Cruise loves running and we love watching him run: the tight coiled, lightning run, and we get not only scenes of his run on the ground but also up and down sheer walls.

Mission accomplished the team meets in Seattle where they part accepting new ‘missions’. We get a touching glimpse of Cruise and his wife, who now having assumed a new identity from a previous problem, exchange glances across a wide separating distance. They disappear in two different ways.

I give 5 stars.

Slumdog Millionaire

Film: Slumdog Millionaire

Director: Danny Boyle
Co-director (India): Loveleen Tandan
Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy
Novel: Vikas Swarup
Music: A. R. Rahaman
Child actors: vivacious and natural and endearing

A tragi-comedy of three orphaned children, Salim, (Madhur Mittal), Jamal, (Dev Patel) and Latika (Freida Pinto), growing up in the slums of Mumbai. A tale of human capacity to seek every measure of survival through hardship and endurance. The older brother Salim, driven by desire for power and money, chooses the wrong path. Jamal seeks love, his destiny, his Latika and it is love that endures.

The film begins with a teenage Jamal, a tea-boy – a chai-walla, from the slums, answering questions on a TV programme: Indian version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. He is on a winning streak. Is he a Cheat, is he Lucky, is he a Genius or is it Destiny. Jamal thinks it’s destiny but the host assumes Jamal is a cheat, and before the end of the game the man gets police to kidnap him. He is taken into custody and questioned. When Jamal has no satisfactory answer for the authorities he is tortured. Finally the officer sits him down and questions him again.

Jamal relates how he came about the answers to questions in the quiz. It unfolds the answer to each question came from his life experience and the story is told in flashes of question in the studio and flash-back of his life in the slums.

The street-smart innocence of the children is touching and vibrant. It is an incredibly inspiring tale of survival, children coping and dealing with unscrupulous adults many of whom were slum children themselves.

Scenes of torture and beatings, of violence, of setting the Muslim quarter on fire, of blinding a child are not graphic but drawn with subtlety and quite clearly portray the cruelty and evil of human beings.

The film is very funny and vivacious in spite of misery and filth. It is also awash with energy, colour and fast paced music.

In one scene the two teenage brothers are on a high floor of an unfinished building and Salim points out to his brother where their shantytown home once was, and now in its place is a complex of multi-storey high-rise towers.

The film is also a small and touching glimpse of a large and complicated real India treated with sensibility. A glimpse of an incredible Mumbai, an Indian city of today.

Before the start of the Oscars Dev Patel, the teenage Jamal, said to an interviewer: “It is a small film with a big heart.” But it has evolved into a big film with a big heart.

P.S.
Kowloon Walled City

The start of the film panning through the slums and shots of milling humans toiling reminded me of Kowloon Walled City of Hong Kong before it was torn down in 1993. My scary trip into this vast tangle of energy where very human was engaged in doing something to earn a living, and miles of snarled electric cables and dark dank lanes, and narrow alley sewers and large rats was not only eye-opening but left me quite enlightened and breathless.