It’s the same, but not identical…

Wong Phui Nam’s Anike is parallel to the story of Antigone and to a large extents, it stand on its own as Phui Nam does set this story to a different background with difference choice of words and some differences in terms of the characters. Basically, out of the five assigned plays, Anike would be my less-preferred play based on its same conflict that emerges in Antigone. Anyhow, it is quite interesting to see the creativity of Phui Nam, writing Anike in the setting of the ancient Malay royal culture. The conflict between subject and king is told in Malay history by Phui Nam based on the famous writing of “Hikayat Hang Tuah” where Jebat has done usurpation in Melaka Sultan’s palace which drags him to injustice as the Sultan order Tuah to kill Jebat on mere suspicion that has an affair with a lady in the palace. Anike is invented as Jebat’s sister who upholds the right to bury her brother. So, basically, the storyline is the same. What make it not identical to Antigone is that the Malay words is used in Anike such as “taugeh, nenek-moyang, raja” etc. The other different is that Sirat and Wira(which resemble Polyneices and Eteocles) are not biological brothers. They are depicted as having ‘almost-brother’ relationship. This play is set up before the arrival of Islam as the element of suicide is in the play goes against the Islamic law. However, it is great to have such creative writer that can create same things in different view and contexts which brings out its own identity.

First film viewing—the entertaining comedy of Pygmalion.

I love watching movies, especially movies with some sense of humours. The viewing of Pygmalion’s movie (an adaptation of Shaw’s Pygmalion), assist me to have more lucid comprehension as opposed to only read the text. I actually some perplexity and vague impression of how does things develops especially for the first act, which takes place near Covent Garden where Eliza’s conversation was recorded by Higgins. The movie has actually helps me to comprehend and depicts a clear view of how it develops and plus, the movie helps me in knowing how to pronounce Eliza’s dialect since her dialect written in the text is so much difficult for me to utter. During reading the text in class, there are some humorous part that when Dr. Edwin read it, we seem to have no reaction at all until he ask us to laugh (~grin~). I would rather say that we have done the “laughing” part better while viewing the movies since movie provide with the visual and auditory aspects that lead us to see and hear things better than only read and leads us to have our own imagination which sometimes might not be correct with the actual meaning in the texts. What I like most about the movie is that the ending of the play which differs from the text. It seems that Higgins is so frustrated when Eliza left him for Freddy, however, at the end of the play Higgins’ sadness and despair comes to an end when Eliza comes back to him, suggesting that she is also in love with Higgins. In my opinion, this movie has actually underscores some similarity in my favourite movie, “Princess Diaries” where Mia Thermopolis has been transformed from a weird-looking country girl to a very beautiful princess. Anyhow, Pygmalion has its own distinct specialties though that it is a classical movie.

Pygmalion, amiable Shaw’s masterpiece

Pygmalion. Well, the word seems to be very peculiar to me as I first read and pronounce it. At first, I have this sort of idea that the story is related to a lady since the front cover of the text (from 2 versions that I had seen from Dover’s and Enrich Classic publisher) illustrating a girl, holding a basket of flower. Anyhow, when I surf the internet, searching the information to get the real idea of what Pygmalion is, I was impressed to discover that Pygmalion is actually a name of a sculptor in Roman’s narrative poem, Ovid's Metamorphoses and he was depicted as a legendary figure. As I read further about it, it revolves around a sculptor(by the name of Pygmalion) who fall in love with his own sculpture which he had carved beautifully it. The best part for me would be the ending, where he got married to his beautiful sculpture since the figurine was brought to life as he keep on praying for the God to change the statue to a real woman. As compared to Pygmalion in Ovid's Metamorphoses, Shaw’s Pygmalion does underscore some similarity and also brings out some differences. From what can I see, Professor Higgins was the representation of Pygmalion while Eliza is portrayed as Pygmalion’s sculpture. As an idealistic professor, Higgins transforms Eliza, an unsophisticated Cockney into a refined young lady which set up in turn-of-the-century London as opposed to Greek in Ovid's Metamorphoses. The most distinct difference would be the ending of the play. In Ovid’s metamorphoses, Pygmalion was enjoying a happy life by getting married with the sculptor. As opposed to that, Shaw’s Pygmalion ends differently. Higgins and Eliza don’t fall in love with each other and both of them do not end with marriage (it is quite frustrating though…). I still confuse, why Shaw refuses to have Eliza and Higgins fall in love or should both of them fall in love? Hurm…points to ponder…