I can't Believe I Watched 'Sepi'

Oh sheesh.

You won’t believe this. I just deleted a really long post. And it took me nearly a whole day.

I won’t dwell on what has been done so this is going to be whole new one.

I was writing on a movie, Sepi. Starred by Afdlin Shauki, Vanida Imran, Eja, and Tony Eusoff. And many more (I can’t remember who). Yelah, semalam kan ponteng kerja. ;p

The movie is made of short anecdotes, though inter-connected with the characters. In a way, I could relate myself with the movie.

I love the part when Afdlin thinks he has something special going on with Vanida when suddenly she gives him an invitation to her wedding. He is totally devastated.

‘Maaflah, semasa kita bertemu, memang sudah terlambat.’

Vanida looks so forlorn and as if she wants to cry. Yeah, I know. When you have a whole wedding planned out, then it happens that you are not sure whether you want to go on or not. In our society, we would be thrown stones. We would be disowned. We would be the outcasts. The society won’t have anything to do with us. We would be ashamed to go on living. It’s better to get out of the country where nobody knows anything about you and starts anew.

Just like Vanida plans to do. Moving out to Australia. Again, it is soo cliché.

‘Tapi kalau kita bertemu untuk berpisah, buat apa kita diketemukan?’

Afdlin is blamimg fate. Another thing the society loves to do, forcing people into marriages. All his life, people keep pushing and asking him when he wants to get married. They don’t understand that he really wants to find someone that he could live for the rest of his life, but the problem is he hasn’t found one yet. We don’t want him to end up like Vanida, marrying someone she doesn’t love.

But eventually, he is engaged to Nasha (a bit mentally retarded), someone he doesn’t love because, well...

‘Orang yang dah sayang kita’

Maybe it is much easier for him to marry someone who will always love him. Maybe he doesn’t believe in love anymore. Maybe he doesn’t want to get hurt like he did with Vanida. Because he is a good man, he will take good care of Nasha, but without love. Of course. How noble. And the society approves that.

Anyways, he breaks off the engagement with Nasha when he finds out that Vanida didn’t get married after all. A brave thing to do, I must say. Goes against everything what the society has taught us.

‘Saya nak kahwin dengan orang yang saya cinta. Saya nak hidup dgn dia seumur hidup.’

So, they got married in the end. Cliché. But happy ending nevertheless.

Another life story in the movie is when Tony’s wife died in a car crash. A woman suddenly runs out to the road and Tony knocks her down. He goes out to look what happen, leaving his wife. At that time, they were arguing about how Tony is always busy and has no time for the family. So the wife was nagging on about a postponed holiday.

‘Bila kita nak pergi bercuti ni? Dah lama sangat bertangguh, setahun dah tau. Abang ni asyik sibuk memanjang.’

’Alah, awak ni. Cuti tuh bila-bila boleh pergi.’

Crash! A lorry comes by and crashes into his car. His wife dies on the spot. Suddenly she is gone. And he regrets that he couldn’t take his wife on a holiday. Didn’t spend more time with her when he could. The only way he nurses his grief is by running. Everday. Running away from his own guilt. He even neglects his only son, who is also trying to cope with the loss.

Until one day, he met Eja in the park on one of his running days. He believed second chance in love. Except that he didn’t get to be with her till his death since she is with another man. Imagine living all your live with your husband but your heart with someone else. I bet she was really tortured and as her punishment, she didn’t get to be with Tony in the end. Society’s punishment.

Oh. I’m too tired to type on the third one. In a nutshell, the lady that Tony knocked down was an arts student who was living in 2 worlds, a world of her deceased lover, Khalil and a real one. She is so caught up in the fake reality that she chased her own shadow and got knocked down, in deep coma. Ever since the death of Khalil, she has never let go of him. When a new guy comes approaching her, guilt kicks in. Her hallucinations became more out of the world, talking to herself most of the time. Everyone thought that she was nuts.

And yes, who could not resist a beautiful girl on the brink of insanity, right? Luck was on her side when she came out of coma, she decides to let go of her old flame and start fresh with the new guy (can’t remember the name). Young people. They have the chance to move on. New expectations. Because they have a whole long path awaits for them.

The moral of it all? Everyone deserves a chance of their own happiness and no one can be a judge at that. As long you know the thin line of between right and wrong. More or less, a different dimension of Malay movies. 3/5 I would rate it because I hate the fact of them putting singles’ tables at weddings. Come on lah, it is not a common practice in Malaysian community and has never been. People come to mingle around don’t care where they sit. Gila nak mengikut mat Salleh plak.

Okay lah. Penat la. This is the longest post ever.