Nostalgically Sepet

NTV7 broadcasted one of my all time favourite movies tonite.... Sepet.





I get somewhat nostalgic when i watch the movie because i can relate very strongly to the movie. The movie, being shot in my hometown of Ipoh and with some scenes set in my alma mater (St Michael's) gives me a feeling of familiarity.

But above all, it is the relationship among the characters that triggers me. I am not referring to the relationship between Orked and Jason. I mean the overall general atmosphere.

For one, just take the language spoken. Whether the character is Malay or Chinese, they speak mainly English, interspersed with Cantonese and Malay here and there. And that is the environment in which I was educated in St Michael's. Everyone is everyone's friend with English as the common language. There will be Cantonese and Malay words and phrases now and then, but everyone still understood what each other was saying.

What i really mean to say is... language and mindset did not define the race. Or put it another way, race did not define or play a part in how we interacted.

Of course, being from different background, there is diversity within us. Our culture is different. But when we were together, regardless of race, it did not show. The cohesiveness was already infused in us... For example, two Malay friends did not speak to each other exclusively in Malay, nor Chinese friends exclusively in Cantonese. There was just no such thing. We all spoke in English (Malaysian style of course), so everyone understood everyone and no one felt excluded.

Unfortunately, that atmosphere is no longer present in the current environment (or at least in my environment now). It all shattered when i went to Uni.
I guess that is why i feel so strongly about the movie Sepet.

I truly had a culture shock when i attended university. It was so racially polarized that i found it hard to adapt at first. Majority of Malays expects everyone to speak to them in Malay. And worse, the Chinese assumes and expects me to speak Mandarin just because i was Chinese. Plus there wasn't much inter racial interaction at all.

Conceitedly priding myself in being adaptable, I adjusted to the new environment. The plus point was that my Cantonese and to a certain extent, Mandarin improved tremendously. :)

As adaptive as i am, I guess it is only natural to miss and be most comfortable in the environment that one grew up in.

So i guess Sepet will always appeal to me. But as nostalgic as i get, don't expect to catch me all teary eyed. I'm stronger than that. ;P