Kicking off 2013 with a weekend of fun

This weekend just past saw our first events of the year.  Our dragon boat team had their first training session on Saturday at Colmslie on the Brisbane River with the Brisbane River Dragons in preparation for the Chinese New Year regatta at Southbank on the 9th February.  That will be Chinese New Year eve,  and some of our seasoned team members aren't available - also we have lost a few members who have returned to Malaysia or Singapore.  So we have a few experienced dragon boaters along with quite a few who are very new to the sport.

It was a very hot day, but luckily it was breezy on the river.  Training is hard work - much harder than race day. Getting the technique, maintaining the stamina, keeping in time with the other paddlers - it's exhausting but it's very rewarding when it all comes together.  During the regatta itself, each race is about 250 metres, and we get a breather in between races, so it's not as physically demanding overall.  But you really must focus so intently, otherwise it all falls apart!  

On Sunday a group of us got together to watch two Malaysian movies screening at the Asia Pacific Triennial at the Gallery of Modern Art.  "Mukhsin" and "Flower in the Pocket" screened one after the other making for a rare Malaysian movie marathon in Brisbane!  Both were very good movies - "Mukhsin" by the late Yasmin Ahmad was definitely the more audience friendly of the two, while "Flower in the Pocket" by Liew Seng Tat had a much edgier feel to it.  But they were both great representatives of modern Malaysian cinema.  It is unfortunate that, like all the other films screened through the almost four months of the Asia Pacific Triennial, they will only screen once.

"Mukhsin" is a very charming tale of love and friendship set in a kampung - it is in some ways a typical coming of age story, but it shuns some of the genre's narrative conventions. It has a gentle sense of humour typical of Malay movies, but also uses this humour to cut at some Malay kampung conventions.  It is a lovely experience with very good performances and beautiful cinematography. 

"Flower in the Pocket" opens with a little boy poking around in the dirt and rubbish with a stick - and this is the feel of the film, poking around at those dark and dirty places to expose the less glamourous aspects of life in Kuala Lumpur.  There are some troubling themes dealt with in this film, but again, by using humour and using the child like perspective of its two main protagonists, it softens the grittiness of the film and makes it more palatable.  I wasn't able to see the whole of this film (my baby became too restless), but I think it is well worth another look.   

Although they are both very different, they are very much Malaysian films - they do not try to be Hollywood, or Hong Kong, or arthouse, or anything they are not.  It's not easy for small national cinemas like Malaysia's, or even like our own, to produce strong assured films like this, so it was very pleasing to see.

Afterwards we met up at Blue Gulabi in Wooloongabba for a Malaysian Indian meal - dosai, idli and chutneys, along with payasam and teh tarik. We stayed til it was almost closing time - I guess it was good company.  Thanks to all those who helped make the weekend a great start to the year!