-Human Observations Report…-

Been slightly free-er lately and thus manage to steal some time to start babbling agian here…

Yeap lets see. Today no stories about world peace and all. Oh, yes there is. Heard about the heartbreaking news of a 13 year-old girl in Eygypt dead of female circumcision, the second recently thus prompting the Eygyptian government to ban the practice. Good step forward dudes… One more victim is simply one too many. Its probably better that the poor girl is dead than living an life of suffering and terror. Never heard of whats this all about? Go read some but be prepared, its not for the faint hearted. Might cause slight mental disturbance but please don’t blame me. Well, just hope they are showing the good example for other north-African countries.

Moving on…

Managed to watch Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam before I started working. Well, to be honest, I like it, and it kinda reminds me of Spinning Gasing  as both feature some traditional Malays dance that I really loved since in was really young, the kind that kinda touches my soul everytime I see or hear it (the music).

Essentially, the movie starts in the setting of 1940s Malay village and a beautiful Gamelan dancer was awarded the title of Prima Donna by the palace followed by her marriage and her fall - death in a mysterious murder and her most precious personal belongings taken away.

*Spoilers ahead*

Her friends later arrived to find her dying and she asked them to save her baby which shes very pregnant with. one of them then took the baby away, presumably to indonesia to be raised while the other one was killed as well. The story then continues with the haunting of the village by her unrested spirit turning into a pontinak - vampire/banshee, prompting her villagers to burn down her house and destroy all thats left of her. It was also said that the boat her husband took to Surabaya have sunken. It is then revealed that the person behind this was a friend who is jealously attracted to her.

The scene then cuts to the present time where the village has developed into a modern town. But the presence of a girl who mysteriously resemble the late Prima Donna, Mariam have shaken the hearts of a few. Soon, it became apparent that the pontianak is back for a revenge, by possessing this girl called Maria.

*Spoilers end*

First of all, I am very enchanted by the beauty of Maya Karin playing Mariam and I have no disappointment whatsoever when she dances as the Prima Donna. I love the 1940’s setting and  its the part which I enjoyed most which unfortunately only lasted for the first one-third of the movie. It is a sad but beautiful story which i expect to watch as a melodramatic ghost story rather than a scary one. I would say Maya Karin is perfect as the prima donna as she seem to be able to carry herself as the proud, beautiful and admired by all, plus theres a certain age in her eyes which somehow makes her fit perfectly into the olden era.

The present however, was slightly boring as it is slow paced with not much happening and with a few somewhat misplaced characters and roles. Even Maya herself appear abit stiff and out of place during her performance as Maria. The pontianak parts were slightly irritating with too much repetition of sounds and visuals. Make up and sound effects are actually quite crappy. But Maya was quite natural as pontianak though.

The scenes didnt flow very smoothly especially in the present era. But I assume its was all the fault of the Malaysian censorship board for forcing the pontianak to appear like its only a few nut-dude’s hallucination. I was aware that many changes have been made to the cinematography to accommodate this nuisance so I decided to not judge on those, and try to imagine the movie as it would without all these nonsense censorship thing going on.

The ending is certianly very touching, I wish they would show it as it is a "real" thing rather than a hallucination - sadly disappointing.

Other than that, I would prefer the ghost to be more of a spirit rather than an embodiment - although yeah, the traditional pontianak is more to an embodiment - and emphasize more on the emotions of the ghost rather than trying to be scary, which turns out kinda lame.

Lastly, I fell in love with its theme song, Pulangkan, by Misha Omar, something which I didn’t understand why people were so obsessed with 3-4 years ago. Lol…I’m so outdated. But its a hauntingly beautiful with quite a nice music video.

All in all, I think its a not bad job from our local director, Suhaimi Baba, its better than the multimillioin ringgit Puteri Gunung Ledang which deliberately dwindles towards the second half due to… I dunno, mismanagement of time and funds I presume. Its a beautiful story told, and yeap, good photogrqaphy and art direction, and it makes me want to see more of old-time Malaya. Ahh, and as a plus, its fun to see the girl, Yuli doing traditional massage with her feet and singing Bengawan Solo.

For me, I’ve tried to ignore the setbacks and technical weaknesses to truly enjoy this movie. Well, way to go for the local film industry.

Does it? Just do the regular stuffs and be done. If you got a little extra time and a little extra energy, then go do a little more. Maybe thats really how it goes.

…in life.

Life…has taken me to a point where important decisions are being made. The first steps to the rest of my life.

Job, I’ve got one now, starting to get a hang of it and its probably not as nightmarish as the first weeks, except for the super cold air conditioning. So I wouldn’t wanna think too much of it right now. But might wanna request for a change of place soon, if they aren’t going to do so.

I have a DSLR now - Very happy - A graduation gift from my mom. Thanks mom, you’re the greatest… But I have yet to learn its functions and use it for some serious shooting.

But well, overall, I’m afraid that I still do not know what I want to do with my life. Gonna marry and have children just like everyone else?? Or leave my comfort zone and go do some crazy stuffs I dream of? Then grow old and die alone? That sounds abit sad. I used to want to do everything, I still want to do many things. But as I grow older, it becomes clearer that we can sometimes only do so much. Like we can only learn so many subjects in Uni, we can only choose one path… stuffs like that.

That I kinda end up becoming a jack of all trades, master of none - or a master of jacks… hahaha. I prefer to be a balanced individual, to explore all that I could, to enjoy life to its fullest, to explore all possible tracks. I tend to do this when I play games, and I play it over and over again, trying to find the perfect pathway. But in life, there is a time limit, and I can only play it once. And thats it. Perhaps, in the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. All things end the same way… and then forgotten. Its a sad fact that I have come to live with. But as long as I’m living, thinking, feeling, my life still matters to me.
Most people probably already have an idea of how they want their life to be. I used to have an idea, but I doubted it, and now I no longer know. Some people live with a burning passion. Some drown in greed. Some just floats around aimlessly. Some fight so hard just to survive. I do not wish to become any of these. But I do not know what is it like. I fear… and fear has once again crippled me like that… I do not understand the meaning of survival, neither have I found the meaning of life.

How do I want my life to be? Perhaps I’m thinking too much. My mind has taken me too far. I need to learn to live in the present. Should I just let the currents of time sweep me through? Will I end up in the right place? My inner voice has been quiet lately. I need its wisdoms. Perhaps I’ve been ignoring it alot lately. I just want to be happy, but what does it take for me to be happy? I do not know. Why am I in this tunnel again? Wheres the light now?….

I’ve wanted to make this update for a while, but haven’t found the time. Been so busy lately, that I feel the last post has become so stale, it started growing mosses and mushrooms, probably trees and shrubs…

Anyway, updates… I finally graudated MMU!!! yay…thats big news. Its been so tough, I struggled all the way throughout my final sem, given my all, and gladly rewarded with the best GPA and the best result in a subject. Unfortunately, the GPA boost wasn’t enough to pull up the slack in the past 3 years. Funny thing is, I get the best results from lecturers that I’m most afriad of, heh… Slightly disappointed with my Design Project 2 results too, my majoring subject though. Thought I’ve done quite some. Maybe they missed out something, which is still my mistake. Long story. Just glad that its over. Finally…phew.

Anyway, happy that its the end. Felt abit wierd that I’m not so sad leaving MMU. Not that I hate that place. Kinda like it too. So its just…wierd.

Stupid convo stuff took so long to settle.

Well, took a little break, went for 2 interviews and fortunately (or unfortunately) got an offer and started working exactly after 4 weeks. Haven’t even had enough time to finish clearning up my room, still a mess. Haven’t put up my last post for my FYP blog, halfway through setting up my enhancefilm.com page, currently still consisting of my totally outdated portfolio site and a new, beta blog page.

Job is… well, job. Quite tiring, learning 3dmax all over again, not that I knew much about it before, and learning all the new, crazy, texturing techniques. Been 5-6 weeks now I think, and I’ve been pulling OTs cos, sad to admit, I’m quite a slow learner sometimes. And stayed back to catch up. Gets tiring… In fact, I’m typing this in the office. This job seem to be quite a good offer, but I’m going to need more time to get used to the job here. Interesting new people I meet here though.

But sometimes, I really miss working in Vectorworks, and having the kind of uber-nice boss I had for my intern, not the kind of boss u get anywhere, which unfortunately at the same time also come with a  co-boss whos … strict to say the least.

Anyhow, I’m still not sure if this is the place for me to be. Though I may not want to get rejected either…

Lotsa things I wanna say, like how I feel ashamed of humanity, that I’m actually a part of this horrible race called human beings, and the fact that we’re not as civilised as we’d like to think we are, but perhaps some other time. The office is getting deserted. Gotta go. Till the next time I steal a couple of minutes… take care you guys, and to those who are still looking for jobs, best of luck. Hope to see some of you on convo. And oh, don’t forget our gathering in Alamanda ya? 12 August.

Ciao~…

This woman said it all…

http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?ai=214&ar=1050wmv&ak=nul >> nuff said.