Kam Raslan's right. In the preface for his new book, Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato' Hamid Adventures he writes that we've known Dato' Hamid all our lives. Seeing as my own dad is an old boy of MCKK, the people I get to meet when he drags me to an Old Boy function and the people he tells me of, reflect the characters found in Kam's book. It really does feel like I've known Dato' Hamid all my life. Dato' Hamid is a civil servant of the Tunku Abdul Rahman generation. He is the sort of person you rarely see nowadays, a fine example of the anachronistic Malay. This generation, groomed in the ways of the colonial British would be out of place not just in 21st century Malaysia, but in Britain too. And yet, Dato' Hamid, in all his snobbishness and patronising ways, is essentially a Malaysian. Without people like him, our country would probably never exist at all. At least not like we know it now. I'm glad that Kam Raslan decided to capture this ...
Thanks for the vid - a Scottish setting, who knew. 100% Perfect Girl is one of my favorites, but there are far too many of his short stories that I love to just choose one.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to agree. I've got a lot of favourites myself: Hanalei Bay, Chance Traveller, Second Bakery Attack, Super-Frog Saves Tokyo... I could go on and on and on...
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked the vid!
The short film is well done, and of course, being a fan of the original source, what could be better than to see it in another medium?
ReplyDeleteInteresting how universal the love theme of the story is, such that it could be transported into another geography effortlessly.
Hallmark of great story, yes?
Indeed! Also, perhaps Murakami's oft-touted "Westernised" persona helped in bringing over the story. There really isn't much in the way of Japaneseness in the original story.
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