As Suanie Sees It

If you hail from Batu Pahat, there is no way you could escape Ah See’s Wantan Mee at Jalan Jenang. The fame! The legend! The shop is smack in the middle of town, some people (like me) ate it all the time while growing up so we’d know the difference between Ah See and everyone else’s wantan mee. When I was a kid, a regular order sold for RM1.20 — I have no idea how much it is now but I heard that while the price increased, the quality deteriorated. No matter. We are not here to dispute quality control or what not, we are here to learn about the history of Ah See and his Wantan Mee, for I know the story. Thank your very lucky stars that you, O honoured ones will soon know too.

Ah See Wantan Mee has a long standing history and tradition. Legend goes that once in China, there was no soy sauce at all. Then someone brilliantly invented this remarkable, highly versatile sauce and it became the hit of town. Hence people began taking soy sauce with their meals, regardless of whether they were eating roasted pig or salted fish or salted vege or rice or mooncakes or ang ku kueh.

One day Mr. See got tired of too much salt in his meals. He rightly figured that was the reason he had been having problems with his kidneys… kenot perform in… ahem… ok anyway he decided to make his own sauce, and ater 7 weeks, he came out with an orange-y kind of sauce. Excited with his discovery, he began putting the sauce on his dry mee. His wife however was not contented.. she thought, this Ah See, kenot make me satisfied oredi, want me to eat dry mee by itself… how stingy… So she bought some pork from the butcher and roasted them, then sliced them into pieces and ate it together with the mee. Mr. See was angry that his wife found something better than him, so he raided the pantry and found flour and shrimps and a bit of meat. So he pounded the shrimps and meat and put them into little balls into a small piece of flour, shaping it like a shape he saw in his dream the day before. then he boiled them and it turned out surprisingly good.

Soon his invention was the talk of town and Mr. See being the Chinese sensed a good opportunity to start business, rented a small stall to sell his mee. His wife put aside personal grudges and helped him with his thriving business. They became very very rich but Mr. See never recovered the use of his… organ. So it was lucky for them that they already had a son before all the soy sauce business.

Years later, Mr See’s great great great great great grandson arrived in Batu Pahat in a tiny boat to escape from the nasty Japs, to find that Malaysia was sadly faring no better. So he started a stall selling mee using his great great great great great grandfather’s secret recipe. The Japanese soldiers liked his mee so much that everytime they finished a bowl, they would shout in glee, WANTAN MEE, WANTAN MEE! And that was how wantan mee got its name.

Business was so good that he could hardly cope. A few years later he was blessed with a son, which he named Ah See in memory of his ancestor. Ah See Junior in turn named all his children Ah See, like Ah See Girl, Ah See Boy, Ah See Girl Girl, Ah See Boy Boy and so on. They were all Ah See and if my information is correct, they are still all Ah See. The Ah Sees continued the highly lucrative wantan mee business and their fame spread far and wide.

As we all know, success breeds jealousy. Some people got extremely jealous and decided to make their own wantan mee, mainly to cash in Ah See’s success. A mistake in the research lab produced black coloured wantan mee. Ah See Junior then warned the copycats that if they continued with their experiments to produce a replicaof his wantan mee, he would sue them till they have no money to take the bus home. The competitors thought, what the heck and began selling the black kaler wantan mee. Hence today we see so many stalls selling such a wantan mee and you know they are downright not nice to eat at all…

Get real wantan mee only at Ah See Wantan Mee. Tidak ditanggung halal.

(Very obviously, this is a work of ridiculous fiction)

Sri Delima once wrote, “We (Malaysians) have become hypersensitive, getting offended at merest hint of criticism. We are fast losing a most precious gift: the ability to laugh at ourselves.”

She went on to say, “There was a time not too long ago when it seemed we could never laugh again. But soon the jokes went round — a little bitter but deeply healing. They helped us to see our weaknesses and to start afresh.”

I couldn’t get these lines out of my head after watching GUBRA. If Sri Delima could have observed this in the 70s, by gawd nothing much has changed since. It’s scary and most discouraging, don’t you think? Sure, we have slapstick in forms of SENARIO but until SEPET, it felt like the things we want to talk about the most were unable to see the light of the day — in the Malaysia movie scene anyway. What do you mean, felt like? Okay… you know what I mean

In regards to Sri Delima’s observations, I felt that SEPET was a good healing start as any, and GUBRA took it further. Both stories are bold (for our regressive standards), the subtle swipes in the dialogues all too familiar, the unspoken words acknowledged. In Yasmin Ahmad’s movies, we celebrate our diversity and hope that our cultural differences make us stronger as a community, and maybe in the not so far future, as a nation. If more SEPETs and GUBRAs are made and allowed (not to mention allowed to be made for it is not cheap to make a movie — where are the promised loans?!?!?), no doubt we’d heal faster.

When you watch GUBRA, you can’t help thinking of SEPET. You can’t help comparing the two movies and so I’m giving it to you like that. The difference between SEPET and GUBRA is that SEPET mainly tells one story while GUBRA has two stories — one of the continuation of Orked’s life and the other of a lower class kampung style with the family of a Muslim cleric and his neighbours who were prostitutes. Yasmin did a clever job going back and forth the two stories as if it was the most natural thing in the world; it was like LOTR: The Two Towers — though the two storylines in GUBRA were not exactly connected, the struggles, hurt, pain, love and faith both sides felt were all too human, despite their different lives and being on the opposite sides of the economic scale.

And while SEPET is a little more lighthearted, GUBRA is a tad more serious and heavy with plenty of emotional hurdles not unfamiliar to a lot of Malaysians.

And if you do not want to read spoilers, feel free to skip the next few paragraphs and proceed to the one after the photo with Harith Iskander in it.

First of all, Jason died in SEPET. So sad. I know the last couple minutes of the movie left many people puzzled and going WTF; in GUBRA it was made absolutely sure that Jason did die in the motorbike accident so the story could continue as it was. Trust me, I spent 2 years wondering what the hell was with that last scene.

The movie opens with Mas (Norkhiriah) lovingly preparing bread and butter with kaya for her Muslim cleric husband (Nam Ron). Their affectionate interplay was amusing to see, though I doubt some conservative types would agree with the cleric’s behavior. On his way to ‘officiate’ the Subuh prayers, he meets his neighbours Temah (Rozie Rashid) and Kiah (Juliana Ibrahim) returning from their illegal night operation. But there was no disdain on the cleric’s side, only warm and playful jibes were exchanged. This the same cleric who patted a lame dog (I expect dissent from certain parties).

On the other side of town, Orked (Sharifah Amani) having returned from England, had married Arif (Adlin Aman Ramlie). Their chemistry is enjoyable to see, and the change of feelings when she discovered Arif’s infidelity only goes to show their superb acting ability. I realised something about Adlin — he can be as versatile as he wants to, but when it comes to moments of uncertainty, he has this habit of standing in a slouching manner with his hand on his hips, looking quite lost (in a very unnatural way). This I noticed in Puteri Gunung Ledang the movie; and that was why I thought he was crap in it. In PGL the musical however, he shone like a star. In GUBRA, he was a bit of both. Go figure.

Anyway before we see Arif cheating on Orked, we see Orked’s family in upheaval for her father (Harith Iskander) had collapsed, leaving her mother (Ida Nerina) devastated and unable to control her emotions. Kak Yam (Adibah Noor) took charge of the situation until they were in the hospital — you have to really appreciate Adibah Noor’s fabulous timing for comedy especially in her delivery of lines (”By the time your ambulance arrives, my child would be in Primary One.”)

In the hospital Orked unexpectedly meets Alan (Alan Lee), Jason’s elder brother. His father had been warded for a slight ‘accident’ and needless to say, you see the return of the Cantonese-speaking father (Thor Kah Hoong) and the Malay pasar-speaking mother (Tan Mei Ling). Orked and Alan becomes fast friends, though I felt that Jason’s chemistry with Orked in SEPET was easier to watch than Alan’s a bit ‘kaku’ performance with Orked in GUBRA. It was not very believable that Alan’s character had a 6 year old dotter too. But the pecs were nice

Orked’s story continues with how she coped with her husband’s infidelity. Meanwhile Temah discovered that she was HIV-positive, which made her resolve to be a better Muslim and eventually leave the flesh trade. Kiah, bound to being brutally used until she had enough money to return to her own village met with a tragic ending, thanks to Ki (Khir Rahman), who was either a gambler or a drug addict, I wasn’t sure.

/end revealing synopsis.

The storylines of GUBRA are quite simple and can be found in a lot of everyday lives. The script has a whole lot of mixed languages like how Malaysians are prone to converse — i.e. two or more languages in one sentence delivered flawlessly by the actors without so much as batting an eyelid. The stellar performances of Sharifah Amani, Adlin Aman Ramlie, Rozie Rashid, Norkhiriah, Tan Mei Ling, Juliana Ibrahim, Ida Nerina, Harith Iskander, Adibah Noor and (I never thought I’d say this, thanks to M! The Opera) Khir Rahman who portrayed humanity at its best and worst gave GUBRA certain emotionally-charged moments that are hard to forget. It makes you proud that this is a movie with real Malaysian content (Erna says that it is not really a Malaysian movie because the ‘Lain-lain’ races were not highlighted at all) and in an idealistic world we are not afraid to acknowledge our shortcomings. Welcome them with open arms, heal with patches of good ol’ cloth ‘plaster’ (band aid).

In our ideal world, GUBRA escapes the National Censorship Board without so much as a scratch. Luckily in real life it did, so maybe idealism is something good to hold on to.

Yasmin Ahmad is a superb, optimistic and much honest story teller. You HAVE HAVE HAVE HAVE HAVE HAVE HAVE HAVE to watch GUBRA, feel free to make up your own mind about the movie but you HAVE HAVE HAVE HAVE to watch it in the first place.

GUBRA opens in Malaysian cinemas on the 6th of April. Must watch. Must watch. Must watch. Must watch. Must watch. My review is a bit n00b but I don’t care. Must watch GUBRA must watch GUBRA must watch GUBRA must watch GUBRA must watch GUBRA must watch GUBRA. Oh yah, when the credits roll, stay for a bit to see something wtf. If you do not want to see something wtf, you can leave. I don’t care either way, just go see go see go see go see go see go see go see go see!

Essential links:
Sepet (2004) on IMDB.
Gubra (2006) on IMDB.
Yasmin Ahmad’s blog

What did the chewing gum said to the shoe? I’m stuck on you. What is black and white and pink all over? An embarrassed zebra. What did one mountain say to the other mountain? Let’s meet in the valley. Why is Dracula so unpopular? He’s a pain in the neck. What do you call a mess of a show with good intentions? M! The Opera.

It is difficult to properly describe the show without tearing my hair out in frustration, mainly because there was too much confusion. The high and low points are too mingled — it’s like Nasi Kandar Kayu with the rice and vege and meat and mash of assorted curry all over.

Btw we made a mini video blog for this; it’s 5.50 mins, the sound has a ‘zingy’ quality to it but it’s my first vid so bleh. I used Microsoft Movie Maker, so if you have any idea on how the ‘zingy’ audio stuff could be done without (it’s not like that in the original vids) do let me know. PLEASE. You can skip the video if you want, it’s not that relevant. Yeah I know I have a round face, so bleh again.

So, M! The Opera… spoilers ahead.

The programme booklet costs RM15 so if you didn’t buy it and read a bit beforehand, you’d be quite stranded at the beginning. Like, 5 minutes into the show and you’d be going, wtf is going on?!? All I knew was that it had something to do with a designer in KL, there would be some fashion thing going on, there would be some love stuff in it and the poster says ‘murder’ so I guess that would happen as well.

So what happened was, the show actually started with our lead actor M (Khir Rahman, the dude from Iklim) in distress, distraught by the lack of inspiration for his next line bla bla la di la da. It would have been a good beginning for a movie, but for a live musical, it was quite confusing (ie, read prior paragraph). Then there was a bit of flashback of M’s past, how his mother Kak Ros (quite a superb performance by Maizurah Hamzah) was a darn good seamstress, who gave birth to an illegitimate son then died. The illegitimate son was born with a needle which was given to M, who gave it to his childhood friend Sepi (Doreen Tang) for safekeeping.

Then there was some dude who came out in Japanese clothing and began singing in Japanese. Later I realised from the programme booklet that it was a scene when M went to Tokyo and became an apprentice to a master designer.

M returned to KL and became a big hit in the fashion world. Everyone loved him. Everyone wanted a piece of him. Sepi was by his side all the way, until M publicly flirted with Dominique Soong (Paula Malai Ali), the IT fashion chick.

Sepi was of course, pissed off and went off with Kerabat (George Chan), an up and coming edgy designer. She gave him M’s needle. M then returned to Sepi and asked her to marry him. M also asked Kerabat to join him in a partnership. Both agreed.

Unknown to Sepi and M, Kerabat was full of jealousy and vengeance and decided to use the needle against M. He made a wedding suit for M, which the latter accepted gratefully and wore to his wedding. Somehow the suit was poisoned; as M was dying, Kerabat realised that M was his half-brother (Kerabat being the illegimate son who was given away at birth, and who was the true owner of the needle) and was overcome by grief. M then died in Sepi’s arms, who was desolate.

The storyline, when you come to think of it later, was really quite beautiful. Jit Murad concocted an artistic high-pace drama in a scene he would be familiar with; the fast-moving fashion world and its bitchiness and the old ‘everybody has to come from somewhere’ premise. The execution of the storyline however, was draggy and I’m sorry to say, a bit of a mess. Not everyone would be quick to catch on the what who when how. Myself, of course me being bestowed with superior understanding quickly glanced through the booklet during the intermission.

Since it is a half musical half opera, it would be all sing-song. Therein lies the problem. As this was my second time at the Istana Budaya (the first time was for PGL The Musical) I realised that there was a problem with sound. Oh not the arranging and all that, more like the execution and delivery of sound was a tad muffled and… well you may have difficulty in trying to understand what they were singing about, and the translation board isn’t going to be of any help since it is often out of time and not really accurate. It’s a pity for some of the performers have really good and powerful voices, but something just drowned them out. Unless of course you do a Stephen Rahman-Hughes solo — that would be impossible to drown out.

Speaking of singers, Doreen Tang has an exceptionally powerful soprano voice. George Chan stood out — with pecs like those, I’d eat sheep’s brains if he’d dance for me like he did in the show. I felt that M was miscasted as Khir Rahman seemed out of place (luckily not so much out of tune but nothing to shout about), and there was more chemistry between Sepi and Kerabat than Sepi and M. Maybe it was intended to be that way, who knows?

And the rest of the cast and ensemble — they were actually very very good, singing and dancing and all. The problem was that there was always too many of them at one time. Individually or in a small group of three or four, they were very good. However there was two or three groups in too many scenes and it was difficult to focus especially if the lead performer didn’t really have stage presence.

And as mentioned, the whole thing just dragged on for a bit. The good news is, the second half of the show was better the first half. The bad news is, you have to get through the first half to enjoy the second half. I noticed some people in the audience didn’t return after the intermission.

What else to watch out for? Hmmm.. the costumes, definitely. Some of Malaysia’s famed designers such as Bernard Chandran, Bill Keith and Tom Abang Saufi contributed to the costumes and they were very interesting to see. Especially the use of batik in one of M’s show — apparently M! The Opera was dedicated to Allahyarham Datin Paduka Seri Endon Mahmood (Pak Lah’s late wife) and if she were here today, I bet she’d be really pleased with all the batik used. I like.

Overall M! The Opera was a tad too ambitious and didn’t quite deliver. Nevertheless you’d appreciate the individuals who shine through and through, and maybe overlook the almost-disastrous group effort when it all comes together in one big mash. Like any live shows, it’d improve in time and I have no doubt it’d be better. You can get ticket and show info here.

Thanks to Janet Lee for the invites — you were brilliant!

More:
TV Smith
Fireangel
Lainie
Midnite Lily

From KY:

What is your favourite activities while conducting business in the toilet? I used to read books, but these days I just want to get the business done.

Your favourite toilet? The one back home.

Worst toilet? The ones at Tiesto’s gig pretty much did it.

Most interesting toilets you’ve used. Jogoya’s.

Any no toilet experience? Probably by the roadside when I was a kid, don’t really remember.

Do you prefer the old school (squat) or the modern (sit) toilet? Old school.

Wash or wipe? Both.

I tag: Richard Gere.

From Dabs:

One song from your early childhood: ‘Mambo Rock’ from my mom’s cassettes.

One song you are associating with your first big love: Paul Van Dyk’s Crush

One song which reminds you of one of your holidays: none

One song you like, but you have got problems confessing to: Spice Girls’ Spice World

One song which accompanied you, while you where lovesick: Whitney Houston’s I Have Nothing

One song you listened to most often in your life: Verve Pipe’s The Freshmen

One song which is your most favoured instrumental: Violin… add a short piece in any track and it’d become gr8

One song which represents one of your most favoured bands: Blur’s Country House

One song in which you recognize yourself or through which you feel somehow understood: Boy Meets Girl’s Waiting For A Star… heh

One song which reminds you to a certain occasion (and the occasion): Dusty Springfield’s Spooky, I was happy.

One song you like and which belongs to the Hip Hop / Rap genre: Generally I don’t like hip hop. So, nay.

One song which is the best for you to relax: Ibrahim Ferrer’s Boliviana

One song which symbolizes a great time in your life: Gin Blossoms’ Till I Hear It From You

One song which is your most favourite song at the moment: Antonio Banderas’ Beautiful Maria of My Soul

One song which you would dedicate to your best friend: Christina Aguilera’s Fighter

One song where you have got the feeling that no one besides you likes it: Reef’s Consideration

One song you like because of its lyrics: Roxette’s Fading Like A Flower; simple and timeless.