Humility and Glamour

Yesterday afternoon, at a café in Botanical Garden, I had the last meeting with the folks. This time, for an interview with New Paper. Rather unbelievably it was my first time to step into there, though I had been thinking about visiting there especially since the meeting of last November with people of a Japanese film production company. I brought the two volumes of the man’s autobiographical work and three DVDs of the director, which I got a few hours earlier to ask for their autographs, embarrassingly.

And in the afternoon today, I went up to a high floor of Republic Plaza, again, for two successive media interviews. All luxurious and glamorous.

What a difference between yesterday (and Sunday and Tuesday) and today. Humility to others and honesty to himself on the one hand, and big and rich business catering to other big and rich businesses on the other.

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I watched “Mee Pok Man” last night and “12 Storeys” tonight. No doubt, they are quintessentially Singaporean. A real Singapore behind Orchard and Raffles Place hidden from the eyes of happy tourists, especially from Japan. These films involve deep emotions mixed with a set of caricatures, which, in the case of “12 Storeys,” go from an extreme and almost absurd LKY-style correctness to rather benign selfishness of teenagers and impudence of beer-loving folks. Having been here for more than nine years, I myself can see and have experienced at least some elements captured in the movies.