Ever since I heard about the show “The Savages”, I had been eagerly waiting for the DVD release. Not that I’m one of those who complains on the costly movies in the theatres now, but I know I will be with bucket of tears and didn’t want to embarrased myself in the theatre. A box of Kleenex in my PJ on my sofa sounded more like a winner.
While my “Ang” was browsing at VideoEzy, I was having a diarrhea at Cold Storage. And when I returned, my “Ang” told me The Savages is out. To my surprise actually……I only briefly mentioned this show to him and he remembered!!!! I am so touched….and what a sucker I am.
The show turn out to be a “thought-provoker”, as it is as close as it can get to my mother’s illness. My father who passed away 22 years ago, leaving behind my younger brother and I ……… and mum, whom we’ve not been very close to since my father wasn’t around.
The show reminded me of the times when mother could not control her voice. The sudden yelling. Her insistence in getting the things she wanted.
It reminded me of how unprepared we were of her illness, thinking that she was capable of being independent, but exposing her to the biggest embarrassment on the tiniest daily chore she couldn’t handle.
It reminded me of how we thought “things” were arranged for her sake, but instead, it was for ours – our convenience, our pretence, our upkeep.
The movie touches on a question that no one ever ask……. “How would you like your funeral to be?” Have you ever ask this question? This is the most basic question. Everyone will go through one. Yet everyone is ill prepared for one. This is like a taboo question in our society. Everyones tries to avoid it. Or rather, most people thinks that it will happen much later, it will somehow be arranged.
Perhaps its because we approach death with fear and denial. We are uncomfortable dealing with death because we think it is a terrible, painful and depressing one. But death is a fact of life, a reality. Why don’t we approach it with openness and acceptance?
The Savages brought a different perspective on death. It can be a time of learning and growth, a time of deepening our love:
(1) of brotherly and sisterly love
(2) of fatherly love
(3) of loving ourselves. Death can enable us to gain insights into the true nature of ourselves and all things.
It was even a bigger thought provoker since the show was shot partly in Arizona, USA, where I spent some time living there. In a desert, where cactus with the height of 2 storeys sits in rows along the road, where I hardly see a cloud in the clear blue sky, where golf buggies were a mode of transport on the roads, where I first stepped onto the soil of United States!
And I must comment on Philip Seymour Hoffman. I like him so much. He had made a deep impression in me since “Scent of a Woman”. His aloof mannerism, his voice, his acting……I is liikee him.
1 Comment
April 10, 2009 at 11:59 am
Your Ang is so sweet. You’re not a sucker. He’s a good husband.