Yasmin Ahmad, the Barrier-Breaking Director

.

This is The Keongomaniac's tribute to the film works of Yasmin Ahmad, the critically-acclaimed Malaysian director, who passed away a few days ago on the 25 July 2009. Known for her ability (and nerve) in breaking cultural barriers albeit at times controversial, her enlightened vision inspire many on the art of film-making and its ways in portraying one's perspective on especially contentious and unchallenged social norms.

.

YASMIN AHMAD

1958 - 2009

The Director who Broke Barriers

.
Well-known film works of Yasmin Ahmad:
.
The "Orked Trilogy" - Sepet, Gubra, and Mukhsin
.
SEPET (Chinese Eyes) - 2004
"One Chinese boy, one Malay girl, one unforgetable love story"
.
Starring Sharifah Amani as Orked, and Ng Choo Seong as Jason
.

The premise of this movie is very simple, a love story between a Malay girl and a Chinese boy amidst the diverse Malaysian cultural fabric, which is steeped with social and racial pressures.

.

What stands out for me in this film is the way Yasmin Ahmad was able to portray the realities of how social expectations tend to govern even the young. In doing so, the characters break such norms, with bitter-sweet repercussions.

.

AWARDS:

.

Best Asian Film Award (18th Tokyo International Film Festival 2005)

Best Film (27th Creteil International Women's Film Festival, France)

Best Film (18th Malaysian Film Festival)

Best Film (Global Chinese Golden Arts Awards)

.

.
GUBRA (Anxiety) - 2006
"Why do we hurt the most, the ones we love the most?"
.
Starring Sharifah Amani as Orked, Adlin Ahmad Ramli as Ariff
.
This sequel, fast-forwarded a few years, sees Orked married to a much older Malay men named Ariff. Orked's father fell ill, and therein at the hospital Orked meets Jason's brother. There is also a separate side story about a prostitute in the village side.

.

In this film, Yasmin Ahmad bravely included controversial scenes not typically seen in a conservative Malay film, such as the depiction of husband-and-wife bathing together, and a religious man touching a dog.

.

AWARDS:
.
Best Film (Malaysian Film Festival 2006)
Best Actress - Sharifah Amani (Malaysian Film Festival, 2006)
.

.
MUKHSIN - 2007
"Everyone has a first love story to tell"
.

Starring Sharifah Aryana as young Orked, and Mohd Syafie Naswip as Mukhsin

This third installment to the "Orked Trilogy" takes the audience back to the 10-year-old Orked, where she has her first childhood romance with a boy name Mukhsin.

.

While it is unclear how this love story could have impacted Orked's later inclinations toward out-of-the-norm guys, but in a way Mukhsin was already one of them. The adult Orked also made an appearance as part of a 'alternate reality', where she meets her 10-year-old self.

.
AWARDS:
.
Best Feature Film - Generation Kplus (Berlin International Film Festival 2006)
Crystal Bear - Special Mention (Berlin International Film Festival 2006)
Best ASEAN Film (Cinemanila International Film Festival 2007)
Best Child Actor - Mohd Syafie Naswip (Malaysian Film Festival 2007)
.

.
MUALLAF (The Convert) - 2008
"It is in forgiving that we are forgiven"
.
Starring Sharifah Amani as Rohani, and Brian Yap as Brian Goh
.

Clearly the most controversial of Yasmin Ahmad's films, Muallaf dives heads-on in the role of socio-religious dynamics in everyday society. The question of love, forgiveness and faith plays a central theme in this movie.

.

Muallaf was first screened in Singapore in 2008, via The Cathay's The Picturehouse. The movie however has yet to be screened in Malaysia due to its highly controversial elements such as the shaving bald of a Muslim female. It is slated for a 2010 release, that is if it passes the censorship authorities by then.

.
AWARDS:
.
Special Mention Best Asian-Middle Eastern Film (21st Tokyo International Film Festival)
.

.
May God bless the artful soul of the barrier-breaking film-maker that was Yasmin Ahmad. Amin.
.

"Old Friendster blog" relaunched as Heritage Archives Link

Known unofficially as the "old Friendster blog", the predecessor to the Keongomaniac Khronicles blog has since been renamed Keongomania Blog Original. It has now been refurbished as a Heritage Archives link.

Bloggers can now access the website to see the origins of Haz Wayne's World, and the Keongomania Blogs humble beginnings. The blog was active from January 2006 - April 2007, and was definitive in The Keongomaniac's (originally "KingKeong") time in Millennia Institute (2005-2006). It moved to this current Blogger location on July 2007.

The original Keongomania Blog was known for its sometimes controversial metaphorical expressions, self-penned poems and the infamous homoerotic Haz Wayne's Hottest Males charts.

The Keongomania Awards is held annually in January to commemorate the Keongomania Blog's anniversary (first entry in Keongomania Blog Original was on 15 January 2006), and to create a sense of continuity between the original and the current blog now existing as Keongomaniac Khronicles.

Keongomania Blog Original: http://kingkeong.blog.friendster.com/

Long Live the King

This Is It

Before his untimely death, the late Michael Jackson, the Greatest Entertainer of All Time, was planning a series of concert at London as his grand comeback after battling years of unjust and cruel persecutions by lobbyists. While seen as having fallen from grace in his own country, Michael was still very much loved in Europe, hence the choice of London.

This is the video of Michael Jackson announcing his "This Is It" concerts and its promotional clips.

It seems eerily ominous from the tone of his own voice of how he described this as his "curtain call" and a hint that this may be the last time we the world would ever see him in action. To name the concerts "This Is It" seems prophetic now, with his untimely death. They say people often knew when their twilight is upon them. May God bless his beautiful soul.

The King's Last Dance:

Seeing him giving off so much effort for his professed last concert is truly heartbreaking. This clip was taken a mere 2 days before the King passed away.

So befittingly, the Michael Jackson Public Memorial Service was held at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, the very stage where he had his last dance, and where the King spent most of his last days rehearsing for the This Is It concerts.

.

A visibly saddened Mariah Carey opens the performance with the Jackson 5's I'll Be There.

Usher choked up in singing the tribute Gone Too Soon.

Gone Too Soon

"Gone Too Soon" is actually song written by Michael Jackson which is in dedication to Ryan White, an AIDS victim he befriended before the young boy died in 1990. In 1997, the song was also included in tribute to Princess Diana in her death.

Usher in turn sang Gone Too Soon as a dedication to the undisputed King of Pop, ironically a title he was no longer referred to at the end of his days, but an epithet duly returned to him only after his demise.

The following video montage was shown at his memorial in recognition of his many great achievements as a revolutionary entertainer, a global popular and cultural phenomenon, and reputable artiste worthy of a King.

Jennifer Hudson, who lost her mother, brother and nephew last year, performed Michael's Will You Be There in his honour.

"In our darkest hour, in my deepest despair.

Will you still care? Will you be there?

In my trials, and my tribulations. Through our doubts, and frustrations.

In my violence, in my turbulence. Through my fear, and my confessions.

In my anguish and my pains. Through my joy and my sorrow.

In the promise of another tomorrow.

I'll never let you part. For you're always in my heart."

- Michael Jackson

It was mentioned that Charlie Chaplin's Smile was Michael's favourite. It was beautifully sung by his Muslim brother Jermaine Jackson, who too had difficulty holding back his tears.

Today's TODAY newspaper (9 July 2009) writes that "the essence of Michael Jackson's memorial cane down to 20 poignant, powerful seconds" referring to Michael's daughter Paris Jackson's farewell words to her father as she concludes the event when she took the microphone with her own eulogy, in addition to Jermaine Jackson and Marlon Jackson, the latter who said that only with Michael's death, will "they leave you alone", in reference to Michael's constant persecutions and a title of one of his songs.

TODAY also concluded that:

"It was a remarkably humanising moment. Then again, it was remarkable just to see Jackson's three children in public to begin with. A fiercely protective father, Jackson rarely brought his brood out into public, covering their faces in veils to protect their identity when he did.

All at once, Jackson wasn't the larger-than-life King of Pop or Wacko Jacko the tabloid freak. He was a doting father who had left three young children behind.

He was "Daddy".

Michael Jackson is survived by his three children, the first two being the result of Michael's second marriage with Debbie Row. The youngest was conceived through artificial insemination.

• Prince Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr (born 1997)
• Paris Michale Katherine Jackson (born 1998)
• Prince Michael Jackson II "Blanket" (born 2002)

Farewell the world's King of Pop. And long live your great legacy.