was made to attend this screening on friday evening. arranged by my boss for the company and he made it compulsory for everyone in the department to attend. didn't like being "forced" to do things, especially when it is after office hours. and since i cannot not attend, i decided to bring my mum and maid along. i thought it would nice to show my mum my office colleagues and for them to see her. yet on the other hand, i was afraid she might not take too well to the show as it was set against her younger days, the times when she suffered badly. but i took a calculated risk. her memory is failing her and she'd likely forget everything. then again, if she didn't react well to the show, i was ready to walk out anytime.
on the whole, the show was ok. but i didn't really enjoy it, particularly how the story was paced. it was too draggy and the script was really bad. juxtaposing the story against famous historical scenes where someone played the role of lky came across as a little awkward, particularly when memories of such scenes and lky were still so raw. naturally, many would compare these scenes with real life. i for one googled the famous "moment of anguish" scene where lky spoke to the media to talk about separation. i found myself googling during the show to check out if the show had kept true to the scene - the attire, the seating arrangements, etc. haha... but the show certainly brought forth the moods of 1965. those were the days where race relations were tense and people were suspicious of one another. and all these tensions made worst by konfrontasi.
but despite the lousy script, it was rather heartwarming for me too. i particularly liked the efforts to make the show as authentic as it could be. other than the physical surrounding that reminded me of my younger days, i also liked the efforts put in in using a smorgasbord of languages used. you see, as it was set in pre-independence singapore, every character in the show spoke in their dialects. there were cantonese, chinese (mandarin), hokkien, teochew, hainanese, tamil, malay, english... all mixed up in the show. apart from tamil, i could understand all these languages, but i certainly do not know if any of the younger generations could understand. then again, i supposed this in itself is a reflection of how far we have gone to forge a country with a common language, not just between the different races, but also between the different dialect groups of the chinese people.
but despite the lousy script, it was rather heartwarming for me too. i particularly liked the efforts to make the show as authentic as it could be. other than the physical surrounding that reminded me of my younger days, i also liked the efforts put in in using a smorgasbord of languages used. you see, as it was set in pre-independence singapore, every character in the show spoke in their dialects. there were cantonese, chinese (mandarin), hokkien, teochew, hainanese, tamil, malay, english... all mixed up in the show. apart from tamil, i could understand all these languages, but i certainly do not know if any of the younger generations could understand. then again, i supposed this in itself is a reflection of how far we have gone to forge a country with a common language, not just between the different races, but also between the different dialect groups of the chinese people.
:-)
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