03

To this day, I’m still at Chapter 5 of the book, which helped form the basis of the film adaptation. I’m only starting to be engrossed in the book now, by the way. Having watched the film while I was still trying to get a feel of the writing, I can quite understand why the pace of the film version turned out the way it is. The description in the book is much more vivid, that’s for sure. So, when news broke that there’s going to be a film version, those behind the movie would have to be selective about what to portray on-screen (in a given timeframe).

Yet, the flashbacks were almost seamlessly done. Perhaps, some in the audience expected the visuals and portrayals of the garden to be even more beautiful and stunning.

On another note, to me, there were too many sub-plots in the film, combined with muffled dialogue at certain points that made the film seem longer than its duration of two hours.

Thankfully, my seat in the cinema hall I was in was quite comfortable (On a whim, I had paid a little more than usual for the seats/tickets). So, the experience was different.

All in all, it’s still a film you should watch – especially if you’re interested in (re-)learning the history of Malaysia.

You can expect audio to be mainly in English with some Cantonese as well as a bit of Malay. Subtitles are provided in English and Chinese.

Until next time, I’ll leave you with the film’s original theme song, which I took some time to locate due to my proficiency in Chinese. No worries, the audio and the lyrics are available in English as well.