A Digestion of Chocolate

A film project is currently running in Malaysia called 15Malaysia. It is a project that will release 15 short films, over a span of 1 month, that are the works of Malaysian writers and directors. The second short film released was a work done by the late Yasmin Ahmad. She is truly a great Malaysian director, at times very bold and arguably controversial, but none the less brilliant. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but if Shahrukh Khan is conferred the title of Datuk, then surely Yasmin would be a Tun. But that is another dispute for another post. Today I’d like to contribute some thoughts to the short clip by Yasmin called Chocolate.





The film maybe very short, a mere 3 minute and 15 seconds, but in it I saw many underlying themes and implications. The main message I got from the clip was the Malay and Chinese issue, an issue that is commonly touched on by Yasmin. The clip started off with the mother criticising her son’s decision not to accept a full scholarship to study overseas. She was of the opinion that Malaysia has no space for any other races (other than the race of the majority) and that he has no opportunities if he stays here. This whole situation of the Chinese mother complaining that they don’t have any opportunities in Malaysia is critically contrasted by the young Malay girl who walks in and can only afford to buy some batteries and not a chocolate that was worth a mere 20 cents.

I interpret this parallel as the writer trying to tell its audience something very important, and that is: Things just aren’t always they way they seem. Here the Chinese is portrayed as complaining of missed opportunities, but through her hard work, the mom that took care of the shop after her husband’s death, ultimately still manage to have an average lifestyle and can own a store. Contrast this to the Malay girl, that supposedly is from a more beneficial race in the country, yet she cannot even afford to buy some chocolate that she wanted.

From the Malay’s point of view, the Chinese have so much more than them but yet are so calculative. The Chinese boy, being the acting owner of the shop couldn’t even forgo 5 cents and let the Malay girl buy the chocolate for 15 cents. But what the Malay girl doesn’t see is the fact that the mother has gone through so much hard work to manage the store and still bring up her son as a single parent. So I guess sometimes its easy to look on the surface and question why the Chinese are more wealthy, but all the hard work put in to earning that money is unobserved.

The chocolate that the Malay girl wants to buy is very significant in the clip. Because chocolate is a symbolism of luxury, it’s not a basic necessity to survive. The Malay girl could only afford to buy the batteries, which is a symbol of energy, a fundamental necessity in modern-life, but can’t afford to purchase the small luxury of a chocolate. The Chinese always feel that the Malays are better off because of certain rulings or policies, but they fail to see that the majority of the Malays do not benefit from it. Only certain well connected elites are privy to the exclusive benefits of contracts, most of the others aren’t. Many of them can only afford basic necessities, and not anything of luxury.

Maybe Yasmin is trying to tell us not to be too quick to past judgement just by looking at the surface of things. We should be more understanding of each other. The rich Chinese did not get to where they are without a lot of hard work(the single mom), and the rich Malays that are in Malaysia only represent a small percentage of the population, many others are still exploited and can only afford basic necessities(the battery but not the chocolate). Hence we should all be more understanding and tolerant of each other in the process of making Malaysia a better place to live in.



Well, that is my 2 cents of the clip… Many of you will surely suggest that I think too much and that the clip doesn’t mean any of the crap I just wrote. I can already picture some of you saying, “ the girl is a student mah… maybe she just ran out of pocket money, or left her money at home… why you go and think so much?? Why you go an complicate something sooo simple?” Yes you maybe right, but this is just my interpretation and thoughts on the clip. You may disagree with my comparison of the characters and objects in the clips to resemblances of real life situations, but I guess this is just my point of view. Once again, I’d like to give credit to Yasmin for directing such a reflective short clip.

Signing out.