Monday 8 February 2016

A family story

Not doing much today except lazing around the house.

Everybody is having a bit of hangover from last night.

It was fun though.

I spent most of the morning watching an old movie recommended by my aunt.

It's the 1994 movie by  Zhang Yimou

To Live


My aunt gave me the DVD to watch.

It's actually available at YouTube too.

The movie is just nice for CNY viewing.

It's a story about the life of a family during the early days of communist rule in China.

The timeline spans through the Chinese civil war, "The Great Leap Forward" period and aftermath of "The Cultural Revolution".

It's a beautifully made movie - realistic, inspiring, tragic and funny, all moulded into one.

It reminds me of the early history of my mother's family coming to this country.

Those who are not very familiar with the Chinese should watch the movie.

If they are sincere, they will realise from the movie that Chinese individuals are the same as everyone else.

They want to survive, be happy, worry about their children, endure tragedies, overcome flaws, etc.

There's no real need to hate or fear them.

I wish we could have a movie like that to tell the honest story about the early days of Chinese in this country.

Then we can also have one about the Malays or Bumiputera too.

Not some propaganda stuff, but instead stories about the humanity of us all.

Maybe with better understanding from those movies, we could improve race relations in this country.

I think that's better than letting ignorance or someone else's personal agenda lead us into hating each other.

Anyway, here is the trailer of the movie,


13 comments:

  1. Sounds like an interesting film.

    Is he the one who did the red lantern movie years ago? It was beautiful cinematography.

    Not sure what Chinese believe about monkey year but for sure it it's going to be bad for us. Now they want to shut up whistle-blowers by jailing them for life??? The penyamun No 1 is getting desperate.

    And after all the lies, now this:

    http://darisungaiderhaka.blogspot.my/2016/02/dana-masuk-akaun-najib-bukan-derma-tapi.html

    So if not donation, then it's an offence under MACC Act. Ask any lawyer.

    How long will the rakyat suffer from these crooks?

    And still the pemakan dedak and the flip-flopping old Ah So want to defend those who lie to us and steal from us? They are not on the rakyat's side, that's for sure.


    ReplyDelete
    Replies

    1. Monkey is very cunning animals ,they are good in steeling.
      You will never catch them.

      Delete
    2. We have to catch them, bro. Makin lama makin teruk. Kalo OSA baru ni lulus, they will start stealing from everywhere - all glc at risk. But this barua a-g the problem now.

      Delete
    3. Man, dedak daddy and his wimps they gonna fry in monkey year! Otherwise we people gonna be hung up dry as the dunes...

      Delete
  2. Annie,

    Happy Chinese New Year.

    Gladiator

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy chinese new year.looking forward to read your comments on politics

    Prof Kangkung

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gong Xi Annie.

    I think people all over are basically decent unless they are instigated by malicious parties. Everyone just wants the best for their families and children.

    I'm not too fond of these type of "Third World immigrant porn" stories. Not this movie exactly but stories like Joyluck Club etc.
    It gets great reception in the West but all these depressing stories are so common to immigrant families.
    We all have heard the stories of hardship, famine, war etc; how our great grandparents suffered; a crooked uncle who cheated us of our inheritance, wicked mothers-in-law, favoured spoilt sons, frustrated spinster aunts (hmmmm), elopements, ghosts etc.
    So much so when I read all these books winning Booker Prize etc, no big deal lah. We've all experienced the same thing.

    I've far-flung relations from both sides all over the world. Some, after 2, 3 generations intermarry with Mat Salleh, only surname Asian but muka like Alexa Chung.

    Sometimes I wonder whether my ancestors, when struggling to survive in the motherland, ever imagined their descendents all over the world.

    Have fun.




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  5. Annie, write one. A made-in-Malaysia movie.

    ReplyDelete
  6. If one wanted to strike big, he cannot just relies on luck alone. Of coure when one take a guessing on a number there is always possibility of it being a correct selection. But that could only be true once in a lifetime.

    To improve his chances of winning one has to work hard and use the brain to achieve a positive change and a change of luck so that he can win more often than once in a lifetime.

    Same thing happened in around the great walls before the commy regimes took over where everyone's high reliance on luck failed to make a progressive and positive change.

    What Commies did was to improve their luck by working hard through unification and then using the unified brains to strike again and again. And it is proven to be the best methodology for the correct people, time and place.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What commie and wahhabi radicals love to hate ... Spiritual contemplations of Love (Ashiq) among the Chinese Uighurs.

      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8_hNLviXXkI

      Delete
  7. sorry Annie, movies don't do squat to inspire, its just a fleeting feel good moment felt within the confines of the cinema, once you walk out and it happens to be raining cats and jumbo, the feel good feelings immediately turns nasty, give me a well researched documentary or how its made series i find more inspirational but i do know where you're coming from especially now when our country is in the dumps, hopelessness engulfs all of us, when every institutions is geared to protect the chosen one, it makes a mockery and highlights the hypocrisy of those who shouts the loudest about untuk bangsa, agama dan negara, where the patriots are still twiddling their thumbs

    ReplyDelete
  8. I have a story like that for you; my father came to Malaya to escape the communists in the late 40s'. Worked his way up from Singapore following the British by sub-contracting their railway construction to Pahang, Kelantan.
    Ended up in Kuala Lipis. Developed a few hectares of rubber land, raised a family and was quite an industrious entrepreneur. Pity he died early when I was nine ... - never knew the man. Didn't know his life story and now age is catching up with me. Guess his life's struggle will die with me.
    But he still has a grandson to carry on his name and legacy.

    ReplyDelete
  9. In Islam Hijrah is a good things.
    We still see many people from different country hijrah into our country for a better living.
    Same as Malaysian many skill people hijrah to other country to earn a living with better lifestyle that they dream of.
    Sadly not many people understand the true word of 'hijrah' in acceptance.

    ReplyDelete