Stories of Friendships

It was purely a coincident to watch two films based on almost the same theme, with only a one-word-title for each of the film, on the very same fateful day. It was more than two weeks ago. This one is completely way overdued but I am so compelled to include this in my blog. Two films - DORM (Thai film) and MUKHSIN (Malaysian film). The first one was at GSC Midvalley and the latter, my husband and I were graciously invited to a private screening by the director, Yasmin Ahmad herself. I have to thank her for that as we got to watch it even before the press does! DORM, directed by Songyos Sugmakanan, was very much grounded by the matured acting of this rising Thai young actor, Chalee Trairat. Even though it was marketed as a horror film, the main crux of the film was suprisingly nothing but haunting or scary, rather it was more about a deeply moving relationship between the character that he plays, Chatree and a ghost friend, Wichien (played by Sirarath Jianthavorn) whom he had come to befriend in the dorm, the boarding school that he was forced to attend by his father. I love the mood, the acting and the interesting use of music in the film. Of course, there were some spine chilling moments but the fact that the whole film was so much weighed down by emotions between the main characters that you feel for the "ghost" rather than being afraid by it. Excellent themes of coming of age, forgiveness, courage, honesty, redemption and more. MUKHSIN was very much an auteur piece, if one had seen her earlier works. I only saw RABUN, SEPET but not GUBRA. Though one could see what and why this film was made, I could only share some sentimental elements of it - the serene and simple life in the kampung (village) with kids running around, playing games in front of the house, riding bicycle down the padi fields, flying kites and such, but I personally found certain scenes contrived. Nonetheless I have to say that both lead actors, Orkid and Mukhsin hit it off pretty well. I especially like this tomboyish nature of young Orkid and Mukhsin is not a bad looking young lad himself to begin with. I especially appreciate the smaller details in life that Yasmin manages to capture on film, that most others would tend to deem them unimportant to the whole story to even care to include them in (for instances, a hole in the socks of a young school boy, the act of putting extra padding on the bicycle for the one he adores, etc.) My most favourite scene of all is the scene in the movie poster where Mukhsin dreams of himself floating away! Maybe I was already exhausted by the end of the day, or it could be just that two films were too much for me to handle, but somehow, I walked off feeling more satisfying watching the earlier film. But having said that, I would definitely watch Mukhsin again on big screen to see what I have actually missed out in my first viewing!