The Wilful Sunflower

Every other blog I read is talking about Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Do you know that I haven't watched ANY of the LOTR movies? Nor the Matrix ones?

Part of the reason is... I have a very "take it or leave it" attitude when it comes to television and movies. You can blame that on Mom. I can still hear her say, "You won't die if you don't watch that show!" *grin*

When Blink and I were growing up, Mom controlled our TV viewing with an iron fist. On weekdays, we got to watch the 5:30pm half-hour cartoons, and no night programmes except the 30-minute ones such as Hunter, MacGyver, Knight Rider, Matlock or The Cosby Show. Since satellite TV was unheard of back then, we only had three channels to choose from -- deprived nation that we were -- and I had the 5:30 cartoon line-ups all firmly stored up in my head. On any given day, I could have told you which cartoon was due to air, and on which station!

Since Saturdays were not schooling days, all three TV stations had a whole line-up of cartoons and kids' shows on Saturday mornings. Mom gave us a choice of three programmes -- and then it was time for house-chores and school homework.

If we wanted to watch a night show on TV, we had to ask permission. She'd check out the sypnosis provided in the TV guide, and if she were to say, "Stupid show! No need to watch!" you knew your hopes were doomed. That's also where the "You won't die if you don't watch that show!" comes in ;)

One of the staples on Malaysian TV is the 6pm Cantonese serials (much like soap operas, I expect, except they're in Cantonese). Mom said they were silly and addictive, so we were forbidden to watch them. Instead, we were encouraged to go out of the house; evenings were for sports, excercise or hanging out with friends. I remember being in the study room once when Dad came home at 6pm -- he marched in, turned off all the lights, and told me to to outside!

However, we had to be back home by 7pm. That was when dinner was served -- and it was served at the dinner table. My parents believed in "eating as a family". There was no such thing as eating in front of the TV, nossir. The TV remained off. So I always missed sitcoms like Family Ties and Cheers which were aired at 7:30pm. No wonder I never knew what the other kids in school were talking about! :D

We hardly went to the cinema, partly because there was only one big old rundown one in my sleepy little hometown, and the latest shows took ages to get there. It mostly played obscure Tamil/Hindi movies. Apart from going to see all the animated Disney movies (think Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King), the only other movies I watched in the cinema were Jurassic Park -- that was the only cinema outing we've ever had as a family -- and The Mask. I especially remember The Mask coz Dad gave me money for the tickets and said, "Bring your brother along." Remember, Blink is four years my junior and when you are 16, you will forever remember the humiliation of having your 12-year-old brother tag along with you to the cinema... just kidding!

The upshot of all this is that today I still don't watch much television and don't go to the movies very often, although I used to visit the cinema pretty regularly back when I was in college. (Oh, the joys of free time on weekday afternoons! You get to avoid the weekend crowd :P) I usually don't even turn on the TV first without checking the TV guide to see if there's anything I really want to watch. Channel surfing is an alien activity -- in fact, I watch so seldom watch TV that when I do, even the ads look interesting to me *rolls eyes*

When I go back home these days, the television is still more often off than on. Mom and Dad mostly use it to watch the 8pm news and National Geographic documentaries. Oh, and have I told you that we didn't own a VCR? Or at least, we did, but never used it, so that's almost the same as not having one. Earlier this year Mom called to tell me she bought a DVD player. I nearly fell off my seat. "You bought a DVD player?!!" I exclaimed. "Yes, all my friends have VCDs and they offered to lend me VCDs to watch!" I teased her about succumbing to peer pressure ;)

Although satellite TV is now available in Malaysia, Mom and Dad wouldn't dream of subscribing. "What's the point?" I can hear them saying right now. What's the point indeed... perhaps it's not so surprising that they don't have Internet access after all.