fashizzlemanizzle

Lelaki Komunis Terakhir

I finally managed to catch the rather 'hot'movie of the moment (i'd say it ranks up there wif Da Vinci Code man at the current rate of publicity it's getting rite now) juz now. Thinking that it was the final screening by Cathay. But it almost did not materialise as I realised that, upon checking today's Life, it said the only screening is at 9.20pm. But I was pretty certain the last I checked online on Monday, the screening today was supposed to be at 5.20pm and true enough, online showed the screening time to be at 5.20pm and no sight of a 9.20pm screening. Hmmm. I went on a super-sleuth mood (in the midst of the Da Vinci hype) and rang up the good people of Cathay, and lo and behold, was assured that the movie was gonna be shown at 5.20pm and no 9.20pm showing watsoever. And she even mentioned that there's a screening later today at 10.55pm, which I was skeptical abt cause as far as I know, the extended screening began last Wednesday and supposed to end today. Upon checking Mister Amir's website, it is confirmed the extended screening has been extended yet again. Wowweeee. Cathay sure has issues on its showing times. I think the publishing side dont see eye-to-eye with the website dudes.

Sadly, due to my own procrastination, I missed maybe a good first 5minutes of it. But I managed to pick up the story soon enough. Simply put, it was a very simple linear story. Just stripped raw and nothing pretentious about it. As mentioned, there were no footage of Chin Peng or interviews of him as Amir has stated that 'whatever he wanted to say has already been said in his book'. The story was told thru words, juxtaposed onto scenes trying to very loosely relate to the words. For example, the words would be describing the beginning of the war, and at the same time we see the scene of an accident.

The song, dance and joget segments were parodies of Nationalistic Malaysian songs (rewind circa IT Song, which goes "oooooooo IT...gunnaaaa IT" and that Dadah durjana song when I was little and Kau Boleh at the height of Thomas Cup fever) were definitely done tongue firmly in cheekies. Funny even. I guess to a certain extent, poking fun at P. Ramlee classics where conveniently the scene cuts to a song and dance, no matter what the mood at that moment is. So makes me wonder, how the hell this movie got banned in Me'sia? There're no ideals promoting communism, just a side to their story (the communist side) and we even got a British point of view (he certainly didnt seem too impressed with Chin Peng, and came across as aloof). One of the communist interviewed even admitted some of the things they did were not right, and they stopped and changed their ways. Had people been given the chance to watch it, Im sure they'd have a clearer picture of why they did what they did, and perhaps even go to the extent of emphatise them for their efforts.

One thing I would like to have seen more of would be, if Amir had interviewed their Malay Communist comrades just ten miles down from Peace Village. Th impression I got was, the Malays had no spirit of communism and did not embrace its ideals. Rather, they were more willing to sell-out their comrades when lured with many many ringgits. Duit Duit, di mana kau duit?

But really, it's mind-boggling how a story without any tinge of sex (ok maybe those pomelo scenes sold by sexy vixens looked dodgy) and violence (maybe those petai boys looked menacing) or drugs (maybe those petais signified drugs), could have gotten banned. Pelik bonar. Maybe they are still afraid of the C-word (not c***b*e lah, Communist). I guess any publicity is good publicity. Im glad Cathay picked up the film and willing to run it, not for a day or 2, but maybe go for 2 weeks even. All the best Mr Amir. We always appreciate your movies from our neighbours up north (these include cilok movies too).

All done, this week's ratings will be tweaked slightly.

4 out of 5 petais. WOW! To put it simply, it was a brilliant movie done in a very simple way. Motivates me to just get my ass off the chair and shoot something.

If you've got the time, dont do the crime but try and part with 8 yusoffs and give support to, who knows, maybe the most contorversial film after Zoolander. Nyeheheheh.

Trivia : After eating petai, ur immediate first piss smells very toxic. Nastyy.