Mogul Mowgli: Gelisah Hibriditas Budaya

Menyaksikan Mogul Mowgli seakan diingatkan pada rasa sakit yang melumpuhkan, hence it feels viscerally painful and personal. For years, I have had and still have two of what are considered the most excruciating illnesses, acute pancreatitis (which led to gallbladder removal) and endometriosis + adenomyosis combo which forced me to be homebound, bedridden, and being dependent on pain killers to get by for months. Just a little background.

Tidak pernah menyaksikan Riz Ahmed sebelumnya kuanggap sebagai sebuah keuntungan karena aku menyaksikan Zed yang utuh, bukan Riz Ahmed sebagai Zed/Zaheer. Ahmed mengaburkan batas antara dirinya dan Zed, bahkan mungkin menguliti dirinya sendiri demi melebur ke dalam Zed. Mungkin juga Mogul Mowgli merupakan semi otobiografi Ahmed secara dia juga terjun langsung sebagai co-writer. Whatever that is, he is electrifying & breathtaking.

Karir Zed (Riz Ahmed), rapper Inggris berdarah Pakistan yang tinggal di New York, kelihatannya menuju lepas landas seiring dengan tawaran menjadi penampil pembuka tur Eropa artis lainnya. Sebelum tur dimulai, Zed menyempatkan diri pulang kampung ke London setelah disindir sehingga cekcok dengan pacarnya, Bina (Aiysha Hart). Di sinilah mimpi buruk Zed dimulai. Tiba-tiba Zed mendapati dirinya menderita kondisi autoimun yang menyerang otot, yang artinya pergerakan fisik Zed menjadi sangat terbatas. Ketakutan mimpinya pupus, ia menyetujui tawaran untuk mengikuti program pengobatan eksperimen dengan resiko kemandulan, sebuah keputusan yang ditentang ayah Zed karena menurutnya apalah arti manusia tanpa keturunan.

Ayah Zed, Bashir (played brilliantly by Alyy Khan), meninggalkan Pakistan dan pindah ke Inggris setelah Pemisahan India tahun 1947. Puluhan tahun berlalu dan Bashir masih menutup mulut setiap topik ini mengemuka. Guneeta Singh Bhalla, pendiri Arsip Partisi 1947 (sebuah organisasi non-profit di Berkeley, California) mengatakan, “Because their experiences weren’t given importance for so many decades, they just learned to feel that what they experienced wasn’t really worth talking about.”

Setiap kali Zed berada dalam kondisi tertekan, ia bermimpi (atau itu mungkin manifestasi kenangan buruk ayahnya) berada dalam gerbong kereta hantu (karena membawa mayat orang-orang yang dibantai saat berusaha melintasi perbatasan India dan negara baru Pakistan) dan menyaksikan kebrutalan pembantaian pengungsi yang terjadi selama migrasi massal tahun 1947 tersebut. Migrasi massal terbesar dalam sejarah manusia. Dalam mimpi dan halusinasinya, Zed juga selalu menjumpai laki-laki dengan muka tertutup rangkaian bunga (mala) menggumamkan nyanyian “Toba Tek Singh” (nama sebuah kota di Punjab yang juga dijadikan judul cerita pendek berlatar belakang pemisahan India oleh Saadat Hasan Manto), namun Zed tidak pernah memahami penuh arti kehadiran sosok tersebut. Mimpi dan halusinasi Zed bagaikan luka masa lalu Bashir yang diwariskan menjadi kegelisahan identitas Zed. Lahir dan besar di Inggris namun selalu dipertanyakan asal-usulnya. Semua diterjemahkan Ahmed dalam lirik “Where You From”. A brilliant and heartbreaking poem.

They ever ask you “Where you from?”
Like, “Where you really from?”
The question seems simple but the answer’s kinda long
I could tell ’em Wembley but I don’t think that’s what they want
But I don’t wanna tell ’em more ’cause anything I say is wrong

Britain’s where I’m born and I love a cup of tea and that
But tea ain’t from Britain, it’s from where my DNA is at
And where my genes are from
That’s where they make my jeans and that
Then send them over to NYC, that’s where they stack the P’s and that

Skinheads meant I never really liked the British flag
And I only got the shits when I went back to Pak
And my ancestors’ Indian but India was not for us
My people built the West, we even gave the skinheads swastikas

Now everybody everywhere want their country back
If you want me back to where I’m from then bruv I need a map
Or if everyone just gets their shit back then that’s bless for us
You only built a piece of this place bruv, the rest was us

Demi dapat kembali berdiri di atas kedua kakinya sendiri, Zed meruntuhkan idealismenya dan mencoba metode penyembuhan apapun yang ditawarkan; mulai dari metode medis (terapi eksperimen yang dapat berakibat kemandulan permanen) hingga tradisional (dari minum air yang didoakan, hingga menyerah untuk di-cupping secara diam-diam oleh keluarganya. Menurut mereka, “toh trennya sekarang semua atlit di-cupping dan semua orang beralih ke kunyit untuk pengobatan alamiah”. Insinuations for the white’s cultural appropriation of healthy and natural lifestyles craze). Menerima diobati secara tradisional seperti sebuah tamparan bagi ‘kemodernan’ Zed. Namun bagaimana mau mempertahankan prinsip dan memiliki otoritas penuh terhadap tubuh sendiri, ketika untuk bergerak pun masih membutuhkan bantuan orang lain? Tangisku meledak saat menyaksikan Zed bangun di rumah sakit dengan ayahnya membaca Al-Qur’an di samping tempat tidur. Juga di lain waktu saat ia bangun mendapati ibunya sedang mengelus kepalanya dan bapaknya sedang sholat di kursi. They are scenes that are too familiar with me. Sebagai anak yang sudah dewasa, sulit rasanya kembali bersandar (secara harfiah) pada orang tua yang notabene tidak lagi kuat.

Alyy Khan & Riz Ahmed

Bersandar pada orang tua juga ‘memaksa’ Zed kembali menghadapi pertentangan nilai dengan orang tua, terutama ayahnya. But at the end of the day, they are still family walaupun mereka acapkali bersitegang. Adalah Bashir yang menenangkan Zed yang frustasi, “Zaheer, sabaar. Insya Allah there’ll be more opportunities” (Lagi-lagi kubanjir air mata. Persis seperti mamakku kalau aku lagi frantic).

Façade Zed yang defensif, bahkan terkadang agresif, menjadi tameng atas kerapuhan Zaheed Anwar. Hibriditas budaya yang melahirkan konflik identitas berlapis Zed, walaupun di satu sisi menjadi inspirasi berkeseniannya, namun di sisi lain selalu membuatnya limbung dan gelisah. All of his insecurities and anxieties speak to me. Seperti misalnya, aku ingat ketegangan dan kegelisahanku di masa muda saat pertama kali menghadapi cupika cupiki, satu tradisi ‘anak gaul’ yang saat itu lumayan jauh dari nilai-nilai yang kupegang, coming from a rather conservative background aka si anak alim. Saat itu aku merasa seperti harus meminggirkan keislamanku demi dapat diterima lingkungan yang lebih ‘keren’? Mungkin sama seperti Zaheer yang memilih panggilan Zed. His cousin thinks he surrendered to the West, while he thinks he made a choice. Padahal sih inlander aja dia. So was I. Thanks to the wave of wokeness and intersectionality, we now realised that our insecurities and anxieties are valid. For a very long time, as people of colonised nations, we were made to believe that our cultural (and religious) values are backward or irrational than of the colonisers that a lot of times it makes us invalidated them.

This movie hits so close to home on so many aspects and dimensions; the cultural and value clashes, lost identity, illness and its effects, parents attending their adult-age child care, and taken away dream. I was so not prepared for the surge of emotions this movie brings. A wonderful feature debut by Bassam Tariq, who also co-wrote it with Riz Ahmed. Beberapa mungkin akan berpikir terlalu banyak yang ingin disampaikan film ini, tapi kalau kita pernah berada dalam persimpangan budaya seperti Zed, semuanya terasa sangat relevan.

Menjelang akhir, setelah gagal mengeluarkan sperma untuk dibekukan, Zed meludah ke dalam tabung, lalu memanggil suster sambil berkata “I’m finished”. Mungkin Zaheer yang lelah dengan semuanya menyerah memiliki keturunan, seperti tergambar dalam lirik rapnya,

“I tried to stand up for my blood but my blood won’t let me stand up
Let there me no more after me at least we’ll be at peace
If there is no seed after me Zaheer would be at peace”

Foto diambil dari https://www.mogulmowgli.co.uk/

Pertama kali diterbitkan di Popteori

Parasite: Nafas Drama Korea dalam Kompilasi Filmografi Bong Joon Ho

Dulu saya pernah bertanya-tanya, mengapa saya bisa menonton Memories of Murder (2003)  berkali-kali, padahal film tersebut diangkat dari kisah nyata yang artinya tidak banyak ruang tersisa bagi sutradara untuk berimajinasi liar. Setelah menonton Parasite (2 kali!), sepertinya saya menemukan jawabannya.

Membaca filmografinya, Bong Joon Ho hampir selalu menawarkan premis sederhana yang disampaikan dengan narasi linear. Sinematografi dan musik yang dramatis tidak serta-merta menjadikan film-film Bong pretentious. Tapi saya curiga dua elemen tadi justru yang membuat banyak orang seringkali melihat film-film Bong Joon Ho sebagai karya yang avant garde dan gila, apalagi Bong juga suka dengan metafora-metafora kecil. Padahal buat saya kebalikannya. Bong juga suka menyelipkan bercandaan konyol segelap apapun filmnya. Tidak salah jika kemudian ada yang menyandingkan Parasite dengan film-film Warkop DKI yang juga kerap berisi satir sosial.

Menonton drama Korea mungkin bisa memberikan gambaran yang lebih jelas bagaimana kelas merupakan topik bahasan yang sangat lazim, nyaris selazim nasi dan kimchi bagi orang Korea, dalam tayangan yang distereotipkan sebagai tontonan kacangan atau alay. Dari drama harian atau akhir pekan (yang ceritanya kadang luar biasa tidak masuk akal), komedi romantis dengan fairy tale syndrome-nya, kriminal, sosial politik sampai horor; dari ribut-ribut ala orang kaya kompleks vs orang miskin kampung sebelah sampai kesenjangan struktural, kelas hadir baik sebagai subyek maupun latar belakang dalam drama Korea. Bisa jadi ini juga jadi salah satu alasan kenapa Bong bilang film ini mungkin terlalu Korea buat penonton internasional (terlebih bagi mereka yang tidak menonton drama Korea), di luar simbol-simbol lokal lain yang (tentunya sebagai bukan orang Korea) saya juga belum paham benar. Mungkin.

Keluarga Kim bekerja serabutan sebagai pelipat box pizza di apartemen semi-basement (banjiha/반지하) mereka

Namun tidak seperti drama yang punya keleluasaan episode untuk bereksplorasi membangun narasi, film harus mampu memadatkan argumen-argumennya dalam waktu yang terbatas. Bong melakukan ini dengan menciptakan penanda yang dihadirkan berulang kali untuk membangun intensitas pemicu konflik. Jika dalam Mother (2009) penanda itu adalah ejekan Bodoh kepada Do Joon (Won Bin), dalam Parasite (2019) Bong menggunakan Bau dan Batas.

Mr Park (Lee Sun Kyun), seperti layaknya kelas menengah atas pretensius lainnya, (seakan-akan) memberikan kebebasan dan menghargai pekerja-pekerjanya, selama mereka tidak “melewati batas”. Dalam kata Batas terkandung makna kesetaraan yang munafik. “I’m all for (insert cause/term), as long as…”. Bayangan melintasnya para pekerja rumah tangga ke dalam eksklusivitas teritori sosial imajiner pasangan Park membuat fake woke people ini gerah, segerah kelas menengah Jakarta yang terganggu dengan gegar budaya masyarakat kelas bawah terbelakang yang tidak pernah mencicipi kedisiplinan bermasyarakat ala negara dunia pertama atau kejijikan kaum borjuis mencium toilet Plaza Indonesia yang hilang kewangiannya tergantikan bau busuk hajat rakyat jelata di gegap gempitanya uji coba MRT. Kemunafikan Mr. Park sedikit banyak mengingatkan saya pada Han Jung Yo, kepala keluarga keluarga Han dalam Heard It Through the Grapevine (2015) (still, one of Korean drama’s masterpieces to date), drama Korea yang juga menguliti dan mengolok-olok pretensi basi kaum borjuasi.

Mr Park (Lee Sun Kyun) & Yeon Kyo (Cho Yeo Jeong)

Jika Batas adalah penanda bagi Mr Park, Bau adalah penanda bagi Kim Ki Taek (Song Kang Ho). Isyarat Bau yang didemonstrasikan berulang kali menggoyahkan kepercayaan diri Ki Taek karena bau mengafirmasikan posisi marjinalnya. A quite Orwellian of Bong. Maka kemudian ledakan kemarahan Ki Taek melihat Mr Park menutup hidung memang seperti bom waktu, seperti Hye Ja (Kim Hye Ja) dalam Mother yang mengamuk mendengar putra kesayangannya dipanggil Bodoh.

But there was another and more serious difficulty. Here you come to the real secret of class distinctions in the West–the real reason why a European of bourgeois upbringing, even when he calls himself a Communist, cannot without a hard effort think of a working man as his equal. It is summed up in four frightful words which people nowadays are chary of uttering, but which were bandied about quite freely in my childhood. The words were: The lower classes smell.

– The Road to Wigan Pier, Chapter 8 – George Orwell –

Song Kang Ho sebagai Kim Ki Taek. Lewat Parasite dan The Host, akhirnya saya akhirnya paham kenapa Song Kang Ho jadi kesayangan banyak sutradara di Korea Selatan

Tidak hanya menghadirkan konflik vertikal (yang dalam film-film Bong sering disimbolisasikan secara harfiah dengan ruang-ruang vertikal), tapi Parasite juga menunjukkan bahwa peperangan sesungguhnya justru terjadi di lapisan bawah. Apapun masalahnya, kaum elit (di seluruh dunia) selalu jadi yang lebih dahulu lolos dari jeratan masalah, sedangkan rakyat jelata tetap gontok-gontokan untuk bertahan hidup. Apalagi ketika sudah menyangkut urusan perut.

Kakak beradik Kim Ki Jung (Park So Dam) & Kim Ki Joo (Choi Woo Shik)

Seperti dalam banyak drama Korea, Parasite juga menolak dikotomi perspektif hitam – putih, walaupun Bong tetap mengambil posisi dalam film ini. Tipu-tipu keluarga Kim ‘menginvasi’ ruang mewah keluarga Park berangkat dari kebutuhan mereka bertahan hidup. Untungnya si empunya rumah bukan ‘monster’. Dalam kepala Ki Taek, ini artinya “Mr Park adalah orang baik walaupun dia kaya”. Choong Sook (Jang Hye Jin), istri Ki Taek, kemudian mengoreksinya dengan “Mr Park bukan kaya tapi baik. Dia bisa baik karena kaya. Gue juga bisa baik kalau kaya”. Pahit memang melihat keluarga Kim harus menjustifikasi usahanya mencari pekerjaan (rendahan pula) karena merasa bersalah sudah menipu dan menjadi Parasit di rumah keluarga Park. Entah Bong mengutip atau terinspirasi, yang jelas kalimat ini adalah kalimat paling menohok & mengesankan dalam drama My Ahjussi (2018) (yang juga dibintangi Lee Sun Kyun).

Parasite kemudian menjadi salah satu karya Bong yang paling saya nikmati justru bukan karena “kebesaran” idenya. Kebrutalan Parasite bisa jadi tidak “segila” film-film Park Chan Wook dan kesedihannya bisa jadi tidak seperih film-film Hirokazu Koreeda (walaupun di kali kedua saya menonton, saya mewek menyaksikan tatapan sedih Pak Ki Taek setiap tuan dan nyonyanya tutup hidung atau melihat kesigapan Kim Ki Woo (Choi Woo Shik) mengambil setiap kesempatan walaupun dia tidak akan pernah living his dreams), namun saya menyukai keluwesan (dan kemauan) Bong menjembatani ranah film komersil dan the so-called film seni, bahkan memasukkan rasa drama dalam kasus Parasite. Kalau diibaratkan makanan, Parasite terasa seperti masakan dengan berbagai macam bumbu yang menyatu halus dengan rasa yang tidak tajam sehingga membuat penyantapnya ingin mencicipi kembali untuk meraba rasa apa yang tercampur dalam makanan tersebut, if that makes any sense. Ini nampaknya jawaban pertanyaan saya di awal tadi.

Menggabungkan banyak elemen dari film-film terdahulunya, ditambah dengan kerapian semua aspek film, mulai dari cerita, alur, hingga akting para pemainnya, Parasite tak terelakkan terasa seperti kompilasi filmografi Bong Joon Ho. Ala-ala album Best Of lah kira-kiranya.

 

Tulisan ini pertama kali diterbitkan di sini.

What Makes A Mother? : Mother / Madeo (마더) (2018)

Mother puts women at the centre of its conversation and in the process, the choices they make liberate them from patriarchy construct of female identities without having to demonise men

I almost forgot how fantastic this drama is until I stumbled upon its rerun just recently. Mother is one of a very few dramas/movies that challenges primordial female identity. Based on Japanese drama of the same title, the drama also placed women at the centre of its grand narrative, detaching itself almost entirely from real-life dictating patriarchy.

When Soo Jin (Lee Bo Young), a temporary elementary school teacher, realises that one of her students Hye Na (Heo Yool) is being abused at home by her family, she makes an impulsive decision to rescue Hye Na and in doing so, she decides to become her “mother”.

Not until I explore the works of Hirokazu Koreeda, did I realise the dire situation of child abandonment in Japan. It is the third largest type of child abuse in the country. Police reported record-high 80,104 cases of suspected child abuse across Japan in 2018. While in South Korea, the number reached 10,647 in the first half of 2017.

Koreeda has repeatedly brought these issues to light in some of his works, most notably are Nobody Knows (2004), which is based on a real-life child abandonment known as the “Sugamo child abandonment case” and Shoplifters (2018).

 

 

Nobody Knows (2004)

Shoplifters (2018)

Hirokazu Koreeda’s Nobody Knows (2004) & Shoplifters (2008)

One of Koreeda’s signature themes is his constant questioning of society constructs. “What makes a family?” is a perennial theme that keeps on appearing in most of his works. Mother feels like a derivative or a fragment of that theme, challenging the notion of motherhood.

In unfair competitions of capitalistic society, those considered to be economically less valuable, hence weaker, are the first to be eliminated from the cutthroat competition. When this condition occurs in a patriarchal society, it is women who are likely being the first to be sacrificed, then children. Patriarchal society creates unrealistic demands towards women. Even when married women work in non-domestic workplace, they still are required not only to perform domestic and childcare duties, but also to care for aging relatives.

 

Shin Ja Young (Go Sung Hee) & Seol Ak (Son Seok Koo)

Shin Ja Young (Go Sung Hee), Hye Na‘s biological mother, is a product of this cruel condition. Unable to stand on her own, she thought she finally found liberation in a man, Seol Ak (Son Seok Koo). She creates an illusion of escaping misery only to find out later that it won’t happen. Trapped between desperation and illusion, Ja Young, along with her abusive boyfriend, abandons Hye Na. Ja Young seems to suffer from post-partum depression and she keeps blaming Hye Na for her miserable life until the end. Rather than creating monsters out of these damaged and deranged parents, Mother also reveals the intertwined social factors behind their abusive actions, though still not justifies them.

(Writer’s note: Though eight years apart since the original version aired, this case bears an eerie resemblance to Ja Young – Hye Na – Seol Ok’s part of the story.)

 

 

Soo Jin & Hye Na

Soo Jin & Hye Na

Soo Jin (Lee Bo Young) & Hye Na (Heo Yool)

Unlike many real-life child abuse and abandonment cases which end in tragedy, Hye Na was quite lucky to be found by Soo Jin, outside in the cold winter night, inside a black garbage bag. From then on, Soo Jin and Hye Na (and consequently people around them) embark on a journey to find a safe haven, and eventually the meaning of “mother” (and family). Soo Jin refuses to be a bystander despite her disinterest in marriage and forming a family of her own (initially), even if that makes her a criminal.

When Soo Jin was asked why she did not turn to the police or the authorities for help, she replied “Hye Na needed immediate protection. And I didn’t want Hye Na to have to explain what happened to her multiple times, to strangers.” This indicates a criticism towards governmental and children related (such as school and welfare centre) institutions’ failure to notice signs of child abuse and negligence in handling child abuse reports which often times lead to horrifying consequences.

 

 

Mother

Mother

Mother

Mother

Mother

Mother

Mother

 

Mother puts women at the centre of its conversation and in the process, the choices they make liberate them from patriarchy construct of female identities without having to demonise men. From Soo Jin and Hye Na, to Young Sin (Lee Hye Young) and Nam Hong-Hee (Nam Gi Ae), both are Soo Jin’s mothers, to Hyun Jin (Go Byo Geol), Soo Jin’s sister; each and every one of them takes ownership of their own lives. While men around them; Jae Beom (Lee Jung Yeol), Young Sin’s personal (and family) assistant and Jin Hong (Lee Jae Yoon), a doctor who was initially introduced to Soo Jin as a potential partner; serve as part of the Kang family support system. They are around, help when needed, but never intervened. It is a utopian idea indeed, but probably needed to keep the hope and dream alive.

 

 

Hye Na (Heo Yool)

Hye Na (Heo Yool) & Young Sin (Lee Hye Young)

Young Sin (Lee Hye Young)

Hye Na (Heo Yool) & Young Sin (Lee Hye Young)

The show is graced with strong performances from all of its actors, but it is undoubtedly Heo Yool, who was selected among 400 other audition participants, who steals the spotlight as a resilient child fighting life’s cruelty. She displays the psychological impact of a child-abuse victim in an impressive array of emotions.

TV shows sees patriarch in power all the time, but rarely a matriarch in power. Young Sin (Lee Hye Young) is one those very few. She is divorced, then she adopted and raised children on her own. As a star actress who gained fame and fortune on her own, she can afford not to care about society’s opinion and social stigma. Lee Hye Young and Heo Yool show a beautiful and heartwarming relationship between two strangers who decided to become a family.

 

In a nation where blood ties are presumed to be the base of every nuclear family, much like Kore-eda’s movie, Mother also demonstrates that there are many alternatives to a family (or in this case, mother) and none of them is abnormal as long as there is love and care.

 

Waking Up to Nothing

Exploring Young Female Adult’s Life – A Work In Progress : Age Of Youth Season 2 / Chungchoonshidae 2 (청춘시대 2) (2017)

 

Age of Youth is back, but sadly Kang Yi Na (Ryu Hwa Young) has left the house, which is quite a shame because her character stood out the most and she had the most complex problems in the previous installment. She still makes several appearances in the show, but her story is no longer as significant as before.

With Kang Yi Na’s departure, Belle Epoque welcomes a new member of the share house, Jo Eun (Choi A Ra), a tall and quiet girl, the complete opposite of Kang Yi Na. Almost mistaken for a boy, Jo Eun’s presence brings in pseudo-homosexuality topic into the drama, though like most of its Korean drama predecessors, the subject never really came to maturity. The only difference is if in other dramas, most characters are mistakenly perceived as other genders or to have different sexual orientations, thus making the others questioned their own sexual orientations when they found themselves falling for the misunderstood person, in Age Of Youth 2, Jo Eun and her friend, Ahn Ye Ji (Shin Se Hwi) are depicted as having an ambiguous same-sex relationship where the line between romance and friendship was rather blurred. At least at first.

Faithful to exploring the lives of female young adults, writer Park Yeon Sun is consistent with her stand on feminism, gender equality and sexuality. All subjects are still conveyed in light and heartwarming everyday life stories, blending young adult’s banalities with the more serious issues, from first loves, break ups, family problems, friendships, platonic relationships to overcoming post sexual harassment trauma. A transition from teenage life to adulthood.

The show is definitely not impeccable. There are flaws and illogical plots here and there, but even so, the show still manages to deliver its solid standpoints without losing the fun, warmth and sincerity.