Ratapan Anak Tiri

I remember watching this movie in Taiping, though I can't remember whether it was at the Lido or Cathay.

Most likely it was the Odeon, I think.

Whatever. It is not important.

With such a sad theme song, this movie was a blockbuster in Malaysia as far as I can remember. With this movie depicting the cruelty of the step mother, all children in Malaysia would be secretly praying that they would not have to undergo such life.

God forbids, that if it was fated that the mum would pass away, the father should not even think of remarrying.

But I remember the movie more than just the song and the tear jerker scenes. I am sure tonnes of tears were cried that year. I remember the movie due to the wonderful performance by the two sisters. I thought they would have won an Oscar themselves for the performance. Better still, even better than actually winning them, their performances were so real that you would be taken by them.

Cop, the more I think about it, that it was one particular little actress that would make the movie etched in my mind, so much so when I mentioned this to a friend Tjipto from Jakarta, he would blurted me of her name. That was more than a decade ago.

Faradilla Sandy.

A name I have not heard for nearly than 3 decades until in the late 90s.

I have since gotten VCD copies of the Ratapan Anak Tiri, RAT 2 and RAT 3, and the kids and I had watched and I am sure even today they would never fail to bring you to tears, especially the first movie.

I remember in the aftermath of the movie, while visiting someone from Lenggong doing an operation in Taiping hospital - I cant recall her name, but I believe that she was there doing an eye surgery, there it was this URTV magazine with lotsa of pix from the movie.

At that impressionable age (11 years old), I was in awe of Faradilla Sandy and of Jakarta.

She was so....well, never mind. Watch the movie yourself. I think I have VCD, if you want to borrow.

Enjoy the song by Emillia Contessa and Grace Simon

EPILOGUE

Sometimes I do wonder about the way some people would treat their mothers. I mean many of them are mothers themselves or would want to become one soon. But their actions are not reflective of this philosophy.

How would they like it when their daughters treat them the way they had treated their mothers? Have they not heard of the phrase "What goes around comes around?"

Ah well, I am lost for words, and I am seldom that way, if only on paper.

Submarines should have been made by software companies

You know many years ago when I was working for what I would consider to be the best small company in the world, I was 'bashed' by a client down South in Pasir Gudang. This was circa 1995.

He was adamant on giving me a piece of his mind on the software that I was peddling to him.

"You know, I don't understand on how you software company can get away with this. It's like someone getting away with murder. I mean your software has so many bugs and you guys tried to deceive your clients by coming up with workarounds. Just imagine if Toyota or Honda were to sell their cars and they were to tell the consumer that 'by the way, you can't make a right turn as the steering wheel can only make a left'."

"Or you were trying to tell them that the car could not brake."

"Do you think you would have sold a single car?"

This Mat Salleh manager working at this American company was not mincing his words. I have no choice but to listen to his blabbering, and at the same time stay polite and continue smiling. In this line of work, we have to stay cool, calm and calculated. Basically that day, I got kicked out literally from that company and lost the contract.

He and his twisted logic, and with a mind that would see the dark side of everything.

I think you have heard similar jokes about how our world would be different if cars were made by software companies. I guess I would not have to repeat here and insult myself in the process! ;-)

But with the spate of recall of Toyota and Honda cars recently, one would wonder if cars should have been made by software companies like ours.

Then again, how would you explain about the submarine which cannot dive.

Would you buy a car which cannot drive? Just for show in the garage or porch? I think I remember a story when I was a kid of a Mat Salleh who brought a car to Tanah Melayu when there was no road - or at least the road as we knew them today. Every morning he would be in the driver's seat and pretended to be driving.

He must be imagining driving on the streets of London, I guess.

In his case, his car would drive. But there was no road for him to drive on.

If however your submarine was made by a software company and it cannot dive, you should just pressed the reset button.

Or better still just do a Control-Alt-Delete.

After doing that, I am sure the kapal selam can selam one, I promise you.

The Paul Hogan Show

As I have said before, in between studies, during the 80s, I love to browse the Humanity LIbrary as it has a rare book collections and of course music. (Cop, to be honest, it was in between usrah too may be.)

But I did study at home, like when I was too tired to go to the library (the Monash campus is about 10-15 mins walk from my house). Well, tired would be an excuse I guess; it's more likely that there was this TV show I would not want to miss during those days.

I used to have a small cassette recorder cum radio on the left of my table and an old 20 inch Black-and-white telly on the right that would be my companion during those days. When you were bored with the Bernoulli's Equation, my eyes would turn to the telly to refresh my mind.

One show that was very popular during those days was the Paul Hogan Show, obviously of the Crocodile Dundee fame to many. But The Paul Hogan Show was the reason Paul Hogan was a star in Australia in those days; long before Hollywood could not resist the charms of Paul Hogan, and so Crocodile Dundee was born.

To me he was more successful than Mr Bean, who can be quite gross actually. ;-)

Paul Hogan was never gross.

One thing I love this show in the old days is the parodies of well known shows or series (ala Naked Gun 2 1/2 starring Leslie Nielsen, but do note that Naked Gun was in the 90s!). After all, what else in term of entertainment did we have in the 80s? He would never failed to light up the small screen with his antics, and I would almost always sporting a smile.

And you would never got bored with the show as it had many sketches that would keep up glued and would at least bring a smile.

Some would compare him with the Benny Hill show as both would feature attractive ladies in revealing attire, but I think the Paul Hogan show is a bit more decent and would only use the ladies sparingly. Well, sort of!

To me it was the parodies that got me hooked long before Crocodile Dundee. Apparently it got LInda Kozlowski hooked up too!

According to the Wiki, the show ran from 1973 to 1984.

He would never failed to at least to light up those dreary days.

Here is the SWAT comedy sketch. You can always trust your SWAT Team. You think they have any resemblance to the local you know who?

I would prefer to have Capt Leo Wanker patrolling my neighbourhood anytime actually.

How this one? Starring one Clunk Eastwood as Dirty Giusseppe. I love (or should I say shock with) the Sound of Music scene and then with him cooly blabbering "I asked for Sophia Loren."

Ala Clint Eastwood - "Go ahead. Make my day!"

Pure classic!

But the last scene when he starts to shoot at the audience - it was exactly what happened during a 3D cowboy movie that I saw in 1981/85. As I have said before, I thought that that 3D cowboy movie was the best 3D movie that I had ever seen as you were part of the scene.

Much like the scene during this sketch, and it was more real as the bullets would be flying by you.

If you didn't find the clip funny, I would attribute it to either than you are so sophisticated and hard to please or that life was very simply then, so jokes were a bit stale. And I am very sure the term politically correct would be foreign to us then.

And this one from Crocodile Dundee.

Obviously Paul Hogan is an Ozzie legend.