Yasmin Ahmad 1958 - 2009

It was in the evening while I was driving back from Penang when I heard the announcement on the radio, that Yasmin Ahmad, the director that brought us all those interesting TV commercial during the festive season had suffered a stroke and past away.

For that moment, I was reminded of this commercial about a boy expressing his love for this girl in the commercial (which actually, I found out later that day that it was the other way round, oops).

Besides that, she was also a great story teller and director by producing films that won awards all over the world. Though the only movie I have manage to watch produced by her was Sepet. I don’t quite remember what the film is about anymore, but I reckon it was one of the best, why? Because it actually caught my mother’s attention after she read the reviews and she waited till the original DVD is out so she could watch it at home. Mind you, to catch my mom’s attention on a movie and making her forked out extra to buy the original DVD, and not from the local ahbeng DVD seller is really really impressive.

Most story written by the late Yasmin Ahmad is all about a slice-of-life of the local Malaysian people. Every time I see her advertisement on the TV, this feeling of nostalgic and familiarity will come out within. In my mind will be thinking “Damn, that is just SO MALAYSIAN!” you just felt you can relate to this. She have this ability to capture small little things that we always took for granted and amplify in her short commercials. Just brilliant.

Here’s a short clip of what I’m talking about earlier.

You will be dearly miss by every single Malaysian out there.