Malaysians Are Still Talking About 'Sepet' 16 Years After Yasmin Ahmad's Award Winning Film First Screened In The Cinemas

16 years after Yasmin Ahmad's award winning film 'Sepet' first screened in the cinemas, the film is still fondly remembered by a wide multi-racial Malaysian audience who had watched it.

Even those who have only watched it for the first time now, find Sepet such a welcome change to the standard, boring and predictable local fare you find in Malaysian cinemas.

This can be gathered from the many fond and positive Youtube comments following the limited period free online screening of the film


Sepet is basically the story of innocent love across race and culture between a teenage Malay girl and a Chinese VCD seller in the fraught Bolehland milieu of race relations


My own response to a comment from viewer/commenter gloomyaisuki and the follow-up conversations, I would like to think, encapsulate what Sepet stood for us

gloomyaisuki

I saw this movie when I was 17. I was dating a Penangite Chinese Banana at the time. I remember when he came to KL to see me for the first time and he got in the taxi and the Chinese uncle asked him where he wanted to go in Cantonese but he could only reply in Malay because the uncle didn't understand English or Hokkien. And then I met him. He told me this story. And I called him sayang because he spoke Malay better than he did any Chinese dialect. Sampai sekarang, 15 years later, we're both affected when we repeat Sepet. The part where Jason said, "I love it when you call me sayang". Thank you Yasmin for pushing all of us out of our little bubble.

Om Ni

I think this movie has a deep impact on many of us Bolehlanders, including yours truly who is also a Banana whose Mandarin, however, is something I am getting more and more proud of because I can now read and write it somewhat to my satisfaction. Sepet is perhaps one of the magical things that happened, thanks to Kak Yasmin who we all do miss. It will be hard for another Malaysian movie to come along that will do just what Sepet did to many of us hoping for a better Bolehland. Are you still with the Chinese friend? Or are you married? Congrats if so!

gloomyaisuki

Om Ni we're both happily in a relationship.. with someone else now :') I was talking to him the whole night before I posted my comment above; reminiscing on the old times where we would get lots of RM1 coin to talk to each other on the public phone, staying up for him to get back from work or for me to wake up before I go to school just to talk for a minute and wish each other well. The night Sepet came out on Youtube was the first time I've talked to him in 5 years. Somehow Sepet still brought us back together

Om Ni

 Omg! This is truly magical that you are still in touch with each other although each of you are with someone else now. And still able to talk to each other like old friends over long hours. My! The magic of Sepet ! hehehe......Wished I had a friend like that from the past with whom we are still chatting like old friends. Memories never die, though the heart might pine. Ah, what is there in life but memories that last. For all things pass away, even life. But sweet memories and love eternal. More so, if it is one across race and culture!


Acknowledgement


Thank you gloomyaisuki for consenting to the inclusion of our conversations here in this blog post