Of Yasmin Ahmad, life, death and beyond.

'Farah, Yasmin Ahmad is in hospital right now.'

I texted my friend who I have known since primary school,Farah, who worked with Yasmin Ahmad in the movie Mukhsin.

She replied, ' Yeah, I know. I just hope that she's going to be ok.'

That was weeks ago. Unfortunately, Yasmin didnt get better and succumbed to the illness.

I have always been a fan of Yasmin. If you have read from my earlier entries, you could see that I wrote few things about her. I didnt care that people say that she's actually a man or practises pluralism. She's not perfect. No one is. For me, we learn the good things that we can from someone and not to follow the bad things that people do. Like I said in previous entries, if we keep on looking at the bad things rather than focusing the good things, then we will go nowhere. I intentionally didnt write anything the days after she died. I waited until everything is calm down as I dont want to write something emotionally. But last night's event prompted me to write this now.

Yasmin got the award as the Best Director at the 22nd Festival Filem Malaysia. She deserves to get the award though some may argue that the juries only gave it to her out of sympathy. As her name was called out, her sister came on stage and took the award. I watched as she went on giving her acceptance speech. I could sense that she was very strong to be on stage and not to break down as my teary eyes last night showed that she is even stronger than I was. Before the award, there was a tribute for Yasmin and shows some snippets of her movie. I dont know whether to be happy or sad with the recognitions that she got now. The same industry that bashed her with cruel criticisms are trying to give their sympathy now. How hypocrite could they be? People never appreciate something when they are here but instead choose to adores something when they are never around. Just like the Michael Jackson case who coincidentally was the same age as Yasmin when he died. So I wondered, what would people remember about me when I'm gone? I asked my friends at Facebook and here are their answers.





I just want to say thanks to all my friend there. Yesterday was also the day that I watched The Departures. It is a Japan movie that tells about an encoffineer and how he deals with his job and his life. Actually, I got to know this movie from Yasmin's blog which recommended readers to watch it. I must say that she really had a good recommendation as this story really makes you think about how we deal with life and death, whether we are ready to accept and embrace them as they are. Other people keep on saying that the encoffineer must find a normal job like other people but he keeps on doing what he loves the most as the job is his passion. For him, normality is too overrated that death itself is normal,everyone lives and dies so for him dealing with corpse is something that is actually normal. The character and Yasmin have the same characteristics, eventhough people say that they are doing something that is absurd and abnormal, they keep on believing in themselves and continue doing their job.

So, what is normal actually?