When Brendan Met Trudy

I watched When Brendan Met Trudy, screened for the EU Film Festival at GSC Midvalley. It was an interesting movie. I liked it. But it was marred by this warning from the management that some parts of the movie may be blocked out to adhere to rules and they apologise for it.

Some parts of movie were blacked out, not snipped, but just plain pitch dark screen. What was the objective? To protect the morality of a group of men and women, adults mind you, from scenes with nudity? Gee, as if we've never seen nude people. Someone commented out loud "Know I know why we pay only 5 bucks".

And the movies was playing when blacked out, you can hear the sound. Maybe it is to encourage to use our imagination and come up with our own sex scenes using the sounds of copulation in the movie as stimulus. Or is there a contest for us to act out the scene in the cineplex ala that karaoke with movie thing?

And at least 2 of the sex scenes were vital I believe, for us to see. To understand the connectivity of some later scenes.

For goodness sake, people have sex. People have sex. What the bloody hell is wrong with these people? There are people having sex right now at this very moment when I'm typing this. And right now when you are reading this, someone is riding someone else. God grief. It's the damn reality of life. The people of the censorship board probably have sex or nay, I think they wank, after watching movies that we apparently, shouldn't be watching. Urgh, those bunch of deprived wankers. Please do not spread your misery to us. We want plenty of good sex, thank you and we get plenty of good sex whether or not we watch censored movies. We will have sex regardless. And wank all we want.

No kids were going to attend these EU Film Festival thing. Now I know why it was rated U, no nudity. But the sound was there! It shouldn't be rated U (suitable for all viewers) because I wouldn't my children to listen to such scenes. It is very misleading, the rating I tell you. It is gonna be very hard for parents to explain the sounds if they were any kids. It is definitely a better idea to rate it as a movie with some nudity. And let us decide if we want to watch it.

Other than the cheap prices of VCDs and DVDs, the other big reason and I believe this is the reason many of us subscribe to, the pirated goods thrive because of censorship. Because censorship insults our intelligence. And in the same vein, because of the proliferation of pirated VCDs and DVDs, parents lose control of what their children watch as the vendors have no legal obligation not to sell to children. See what irrational, holier than thou censoring does to society?

And I read somewhere, making movies in Malaysia is such a pain because of the many censorship rules that govern filmmaking. And these rules aren't only about nudity, but about politics, animism, 'misleading portrayal, et cetera. It is little wonder why our creativity is stifled. However, the rules are more lenient on foreign films.

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On another note, the writer A. Samad Said was there too. I have ran into him a few times, usually at Kinokuniya. The thing is, I have never read his work (I think). I've seen his son perform though, he is a guitarist. Pretty good.

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If you want a quiet place for a meal in Midvalley (other than San Francisco Steakhouse which cost a bomb for 'not that fabulous' steaks), try Mr Ho's Fine Foods on the lower ground floor. Quiet place, food is decent and affordable. But no dessert though. It's non-halal. Serves pork burger (didn't try that, yet) and BBQ ribs and sausages, among other things.

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Saw two really cute miniature schnauzer. Greyish black. A young couple were contemplating buying one. They looked like nice people. When the shopkeeper tried to take out one of them from the display cage, the other pup was holding on to his/her friend. The staff had a hard time extracting the puppy out of the cage. It looked as if he/she didn't want to let go of his/her companion, didn't want him/her taken away (sibling perhaps?). The same thing happened again when the second puppy was taken out, the first puppy was holding on to him/her for dear life.

It was heart-wrenching. It was as if they knew they were going to lose each other.

I wonder if they will remember their companion, doggy-years from now, reminiscing the companionship in that display cage.

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And about the movie, it was a nice romantic comedy, peppered with typical Irish wit. The transformation of Brendan (I shall not reveal too much, in case you want to watch it) looks realistic, well, the things we do for love. The ending was a bit outlandish but nevertheless fun. The message I believe, is, acceptance is the key to love. Anyway, good fun, a movie not to be taken seriously, at all

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I observed that I wasn't the only person trawling the mall alone. In fact, the person having lunch at the next table, a lady with gorgeous dark curls was lunching alone too. So were the four males on my left hand side in the cineplex. They came alone, arriving at their seat one by one. And many more were walking on their own, some shopping, some window shopping, some looking lost, some looking as if they were in deep contemplation. Has KL become a lonely city? Hmm, looks like I'm not the only one that enjoys solitude.