When Aaron Kwok and Gouw Ian Iskandar won themselves a trophy for their role in this film, I told myself that I have to watch this piece. It's not just the matter of Aaron always gives great performance in every single role in his movie, but the fact that After This Our Exile has been filmed in Ipoh seduces me. I wonder what it is gonna be looked like. Does it sounds and looks like a Malaysian movie? Or maybe it just look similar to other Hong Kong movie?
Good piece does not come cheap. And not that easy too. What really piss me off was, why this so-called great movie (it won many awards I guess, so I refer it as a 'great movie'), and been filmed in Ipoh (which apparently is part of Malaysia), is only screened in one cinema in Klang Valley?! I have been to KLCC, Midvalley and 1Utama (major cinema centre in Klang Valley, I think everybody around this area watch their movie in the same venue), but up to my frustration, After This Our Exile can only be watched in Cathay Cineplex Damansara. And bloody hell, Cathay just screened it twice a day, one show at 1100 (for early birds) and the other one in the evening (of course I don't want to miss my favourite TV series just to watch this movie).
But finally, I've got the chance to watch it today (last day, because they finally made an afternoon show).
So how does it feel? Hmmm, a bit like Sepet (Yasmin Ahmad's second movie) because it has an 'Ipoh' feel to it. But believe me, After This Our Exile is more MALAYSIAN than ours! Why? It's not because any Malaysian stars like Amber Chia innit, but it feels so Malaysian (somehow Aaron Kwok presented himself like a real men from Ipoh!).Imagine this, an Indian guy get wasted in a kopitiam, yellow bus written with big 'BAS SEKOLAH', 'Pontianak Harum Sundal Malam 2' movie poster and soundtrack comprises of Sudirman, Siti Nurhaliza and Shima songs! What more Malaysian can you asked in a movie?
Apart from the Malaysiana feel, this movie consists of great, in fact very great casts. Aaron Kwok, as always, is terrific. He plays Ah Shing, a compulsive gambler who try his best to be a good dad, good husband and good cooker in a local restaurant. His unstoppable gambling habit makes her wife can't stand him anymore, and run to Johor Bharu with another guy, get married and have another baby. His son, Ah Boy, as other normal kids, always wants a happy family. Represent himself as a good son, Ah Boy tries as best as he could to please his father, even when his father teaches him to steal.
What makes this film so good is that, at the first quarter of this film, the audience will feel that the mom ruins the happy family. But as the story goes, somehow, it seems that nobody is to be blamed. What tear their family apart is fate. And that is why this movie is so ironic, you feel that every single roles responsible to what happened in Ah Shing's family, but at the same time, nobody is to be blamed for it because shit happens in our life and that is sucks.
In a nutshell, if this movie comes in VCD or DVD version, grab it. Not just because it is the only Hong Kong movie with Shima/Sudirman/Siti Nurhaliza songs innit, but because the fact that this movie is worth to watch.
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1 comments:
Haha. You haven't heard the most ironic thing.
This award winning movie that was filmed in Ipoh was not screened in any cinema in Ipoh. Yeap, not even one because there's currently no Cathay Cineplex in Ipoh.
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