its a rare event nowadays that i get to watch tv until 4am. yesterday the honour went to swimming upstream, a little known aussie movie i'd heard of since my uni days in sydney. yeah poverty prevented me from enjoying a lot of movies at the cinemas back then (heck, even now), but i guess a good thing is never too late for anyone to enjoy.
i was talking to a fren the other day abt how parents, in actual fact, do have differential preferences when it comes to their children. hence some kids are more favoured then the rest, and i retorted, saying that my parents arent like that. simply because i could not find a motive for ppl to do so, eventhough i suspected they wld probably do not need any reason at all to be so biased. and this is the theme of the film. harold (g. rush) seemed to have a peculiar hatred for his second child, and the film didnt even attempt to explain why he hated the boy in particular. he went on great lengths to turn his children against one another, creating vicious factions in the family that persisted till adulthood. he's a troubled man with a troubled life and childhood, and he seemed to be jealous of his own children. the kids were juz children, who crave for adult attention, and played along the sick game of being each other's enemy to win the old man's approval.
it has a happy ending, but i dun think a happy ending matters in such a freaky situation. ppl get too damaged beyond repair.
and g. rush is one hell of an actor. i love the old man's brand of method acting. he was excellent in the life and death of peter sellers, another fucked up individual who doesnt grow up and treats ppl closest to him like rubbish. he was so good that ppl hated him for being too real in exposing the ugly side of peter sellers. i loved that piece, for the man and his job is exclusive of one another.
i dun understand why ppl keep harping on using petronas' profits to finance the country's oil subsidy. its a national company, meaning that it belongs to the govt, meaning whatever profits it makes ultimately belong to the govt...i read pak lah's explanation on utusan regarding the matter, i think alot of ppl here have no idea how the oil business works at all.
