It’s obviously a bit of a blast-from-the-past week for me. First pugly tags me with songs from when I was 18, then today the SPG sent me an email with a youtube link, and boy was I in for a surprise. I clicked on it, and up popped Ali Setan. Not a song from Ali Setan (I found that sayang-menyayang song ages ago!), but Ali Setan the movie.

Here’s the thing. I’m not generally a fan of Malay movies (too many soppy scenes and bad acting!). In fact, I remember a scene in one movie I saw as a child that had me cringing even then - a couple were having a lovey-dovey time in Lake Gardens, when the gf asked in this very manja voice: “Abang, bila kita nak k-a-h-w-i-n?” Euuuggghhhh! Too much sandiwara semasa and not enough storyline and characterisation, I thought. Oh, and have you ever noticed how far removed from reality Malay movies can be? People speaking as if they were reading from text books. Or the classic - how they’d depict all the mendekati maksiat youths boogie-ing away at discos, only to say “bagi oren jus satu” at the bar. Sheesh!

However, growing up there were a handful of Malay movies that I absolutely loved (and in fact continue to love) and would have no problem watching again and again - the P.Ramlee movies (although I have to say, I don’t like watching the tearjerkers as they always depressed me!), Mekanik, Adik Manja and yes, Ali Setan.

So imagine my excitement when I saw Ali Setan on youtube today. I could hardly contain myself - after all, I’ve not seen it in decades! (That said though, I can still remember some memorable lines from the movie: “Tipah tertipu bang!” and “Aku tak pernah jatuh cinta“.)

Having seen the beginning (I’ll be watching it over a few days!), I’ve re-discovered the following things.

1. Azmil Mustapha and Ogy looked old in that movie. No way did they look like university students! Why is that? Is it that, as I’ve now got older myself, everyone looks old to me? Or is it that, we prize youth so much these days that everyone strives to look young even if they’re tua kerepot? Whatever it is, actually everyone in that movie looks older than university students ought to be!

2. The extinction of honest-to-goodness Malay hair. Good god, that movie reminded me of what Malay hair traditionally look like. Thick. Wavy. Slightly unruly. Or, as we would say in Malay, berketak and kembang! Amazing. I remember having hair like Liza Abdullah’s. And I remember wanting a straight fringe, you know, bangs. The time I used to spend in front of the mirror, cutting the front of my hair in an effort to make a decent fringe, and all for nothing, because as soon as the wind blew, I would get a fringe like Liza Abdullah’s: thick and bushy. I know I don’t watch a lot of Malay TV/films these days, but whenever I see anything on TV when I go back to The Motherland, everyone has straight, glossy Pantene hair. Whatever happened to traditional Malay hair?

3. The comical or irritating flirt, as perfected by Malay guys. You know how it went: “Assalamualaikum, kalau tak jawab berdosa!“. Or you’d be speaking in English to your friend in a lift and some guy would start singing “gunakanlah bahasa kebangsaan kita” to get your attention. Or, in Ali Setan’s case, when Azmil said: “jatuh beg takpe, jangan jatuh hati“. Lines that made you want to giggle, but you never would - at least, not whilst the guy was in the vicinity because then he’d have won, and that would be irritating, wouldn’t it?

Anyway, enough blogging. I want to watch more Ali Setan. :-)

PS. If you want too want to watch, you can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpSNomn_UqU

PPS.  Oops, me bad.  In my excitement I forgot to put the link in properly.  It’s clickable now!