The (Malaysian) Lady (playing Burmese)

The other morning, I was watching an interview with Michelle Yeoh (sorry, make that Datuk Michelle Yeoh) on Channel News Asia. It was close to 8.45am and I was running SUPER late for work but I decided to risk it on account of my fellow Malaysian being on TV and the fact that she was talking about her role as Aung San Suu Kyi in the movie, The Lady, directed by Luc Besson.

As you all know, Aung San Suu Kyi (or more affectionately known as “Daw Suu”, “Daw” being a local honorific reference to a madam) is one of the most inspiring women and political activist in the history of our time. I have always been fascinated by Daw Suu’s story, based on the snippets of news about her I come across from time to time, so I was very interested to hear about her from someone who has met her in person and played her in a movie.

Here are some interesting facts that I took away from that interview:

1. Datuk spent 6 months intensively learning Burmese so that she can deliver a 10-min speech in native language in the movie.
2. The aforementioned speech is a recreation of the famous pro-democracy rally where Daw Suu gave her first public speech in Myanmar in 1988.
3. During the shooting of this speech, Luc had to stop the shoot several times because one of Datuk’s co-actors couldn’t stop crying. Apparently, the co-actor (a Burmese) attended the same speech given by Daw Suu herself back in 1988 and he got very emotional.
4. Luc engaged several Burmese refugees to be extras in the movie. Apparently, when Datuk first appeared on the set in her Daw Suu’s get up, one of them fainted (out of shock) because she looked so much like Daw Suu.
5. When Datuk first met Daw Suu (who was still under house arrest then), the first thing Daw Suu did was to give her a big hug then started talking warmly to her like an Auntie, literally. They didn’t talk much about the movie, surprisingly, but Daw Suu was more interested to learn more about Datuk herself, given Datuk is from the ‘outside world’. Datuk described Daw Suu as someone who, despite her small stature, is physically and spiritually strong.
6. Datuk had to lose 8 kg for the role.
7. It is unlikely that Daw Suu will ever get to see the movie.

Anyway, I finally found the time to catch “The Lady” on big screen last night with The Man. I usually don’t like to catch movies, especially those that are more than 2 hours long, on weekdays (because it is school night) but I made an exception since I was curious. The Man agreed to watch it with me only because Luc Besson directed it - despite the fact that (and I quote The Man) “Joan of Arc is a complete flop but at least he cast a hot actress.”

So, full of anticipation, we went into the movie theatre at 9.40pm last night.

At around 11am, I was gnawing on Man’s ears to keep awake.

At around 11.45am, I was bleary-eyed from tears generated from my yawns.

The movie ended at 12.10am, which is about half an hour past my weekday bedtime.

Frou: ….
The Man: …….
Frou: …….
The Man: So, what do you think of the movie?
Frou: You know, I was actually expecting it to be a bit more…. rousing?
The Man: Huh?? How to be rousing during a house arrest?! Does it count that she painted calligraphy - very vigorously – in her house?

(-_______-)”

No lar, I was not expecting HER to be rousing. I meant, the general tone of the movie was not as dramatic and epic as I had imagined it would be. Some of the scenes seem disjointed. To be fair, according to the interview, as it was difficult to get facts on what actually happened so the storyline is based on bits and pieces of information they collected from various people who could have known what happened at that time. Also, the movie is meant to depict the life of Daw Suu – particularly her love life – to highlight the sacrifices she made for her country, and not about the junta and military regime - which was just ‘background’ to the story. That said, it was a little too slow for me. Stellar performance from Datuk, though.

Rating: Overall, 3 bags of popcorns (out of 5) for me. Catch it if you are a proud Malaysian and have 130 mins to spare!