Cultural realization

If you ask the people from a certain country in Southeast Asia about their movies, they might not be able to answer you if you want to know what films from their neighbours are like.

I only have an opportunities to watch quite a number from Southeast Asian films, especially form Indonesia.

Khun Phra Chuai [good lord], I've just realized that I have no idea about Indonesian films before.

I appreciated Truffaut, Rosellini, Woody Allen, Hitchcock, and the list can go on. But I don't have a clue what are the big names of Southeast Asian filmmakers (well, maybe Apichatpong but that's not an excuse).

Recently I've watched Opera Jawa (2006) by Garin Nugroho, which is a reinterpretation of Ramayana into the modern style. The film is a part of the event arranged partly by the National Film and Sound Archive in Canberra. I've also met Garin in flesh.

The movie is almost exactly what I wanted to do in my writing! What's good about a reinterpretation of classic texts is that you not only see how this age is like, but also to see how something can prevail through time...

Now I've seen all three movies commissioned by the New Crowned Hope Festival in 2006. Others are: Apichatpong's Syndrome of a Century and Tsai Ming-Liang's I don't want to sleep alone (both watched in London in 2008)

I recommend you to watch this movie. It is based on a classic text that connects Southeast Asia together, and it gives us a voice in this world.

Sita was gorgeous in this movie, I tell you.