Love Conquers All

I finally saw it. Thought I would missed it. But yes, my very first art movie in the cinema. Not my first art movie I've seen. I could still recollect the first art movie I saw back in MMU when James Lee came over to screen his short movie (can't recollect the title).

What is art movie? Very arty if you ask me. Not your usual blockbuster movie that contain character, a storyline, soundtrack and great cinematography. Art movies at times do not contained may only contain a few of this movie elements. Shorts are taken at a longer period of time, camera are static whereby people move around the same short, shaky camera and little character development. It is up to an individual to interpret what the movie is all about. The openess of the movies explains why only a handful can sit through an art movie. There was only five people in the cinema whereby Terry, Kelvin and myself were part of the cosy crowd.

Movie began. Instead of the curtain drawing away from the screen, the screen apparently became smaller after the advertisement and trailers. A first I've seen thus far. The initial scene started out with a view view of the bus seats where both Ah Ping (the girl in the movie) and an Indian man set. The sound of the bus could be heard loudly from the back. Long shots indicated that it would be a long scene although the shot was static, probably being place at the seat diagonally across. Well, what a start.

Overall, the movie was alright. Thanks to the fact that there was a story to begin with. Its about a girl who came into the suburbs of the city to help her relative sell "chap fan". Back home, she have a boyfriend which she would go to the telephone booth near her house to call him every night. In came a guy who apparently wanted to use the phone but ended up having interest in her. He follows her everywhere trying to get her attention. Her response seem irresponsive yet he persevere through, each time getting to know her better. She soon give in to his persistance yet still remain in touch with her boyfriend back home. We see her calling her boyfriend while the guy stands around her. A retrospective view of having a relationship and yet not having one.

She soon begin to have affection over him and then one day, he goes away for business. He absence makes her ponder if he would come back. Her desperation causes her to get in touch with one of his friend who apparently was a pimp. It seems the guy needed money to pay up some people and could not return because of that. She soon goes to her family to get the money and handed it to the pimp. It's not enough and she soon find herself selling herself in hopes of obtaining the remaining balance. She is it and soon find herself being discarded like a piece of rubbish. The guy never return and the pimp gets the money.

"The prettier a girl is, the more easily she is trick." This was the warning given by the guy who had told her of what his pimp friend does in the beginning. As the movie describe, love conquers all. When you love someone, you do anything for that person even to the point of selling oneself. That is when guys like the pimp and the guy take advantage of a girl naive nature. A story of innocent being taken advantage of.

A parallel story follows through as her cousin gets involve with a guy as well through pen pal letters. She appears hopeful on wanting to know this guy and gets her mom to bring her to the house which she usually writes. She hides behind the car while her mum goes to the front door to acknowledge. No idea who the guy is but it soon went to the ending scene showing the mom and daughter riding through the backlane of KL. I was like, "Huh!". Thats what you call an art movie. It never have a conclusion.

Rate : 3.5/5

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