Still Thinking…

Now it must have been the most painful, yet hilarious movie to watch. Of all films, Chinta Kaseh Sayang – the 1965 movie by Hussain Sanif made the mark to open this year’s Screen Singapore Festival. It was a simple film about a lonely wife of a painter who seeks attention from other men – a stalking car salesman and a smooth-talker who offers peanuts as an opening line to be exact. It didnt help that I subtitled the film, and therefore knew what riveting scene will come next. Not.

Anyway, I came with GA – a girlfriend of 20 years who have seen my slimmer days. We were seated with SO, an upcoming director (who is still working on a 3 year old documentary and wore a Burmese skirt on my wedding day,and yes, he is MALE) and with whom I have worked with and had many, and I do mean MANY, arguments with. Oh, let me correct that, they are artistic arguments. We still sing songs about each other’s work though. And beside SO, there was also AM – the very talented and illustrious playwright. Combine all 4 of us in a row watching an old Malay film with scenes of tight-fitting kebaya, and “Would you like some peanuts?” as pick-up lines – it was plain RIOT. Half the time, we were squealing. SO was busy muttering, ‘Oh My God! Oh My God! Can’t make it! Can’t make it!’ even though I warned him about criticising how the film was shot. There was a close-up of a man taking off his socks, so hey, I dont blame his complaints. I think he nearly shouted “CUT!” many times.

I realised very quickly that me, GA and AM make good, symphonic squeals. Initially we had guffaws, then they broke into loud laughters, and as the movie dragged on – our hilarity-reactions turned into squeals. Yikes. Scary eh.

But, the killer scene was when the actors did the twist. Boy, did I feel like getting up from my seat and just ‘do it’. See, I always thought my hijab did me good – cos in my disco days, I would have just stand up and twist my fat butt within a 1 metere radius. Never mind that SO would probably turn to me and repeat the same complaint – “Oh My God! Can’t make it!”.

How anyone can do the twist with such immaculate bodies, I dont know. It is a strange form of dance, because for me – a dance is always, always a free form of movement. But the twist is the antithesis of that, your body is allowed to wiggle only within a certain radius, your knees have to be bent within a precise of angle of 45 degrees and your hands, correction your wrists, have to flap itself as if they are wiping windows. Hmmph. Oh My God. I can’t make it.

There will be a string of movies made in Singapore that will showing at the Screen Singapore (www.screensingapore.com) for the festival. Catch it, and yes…beat our squeals!