Metal Reviews

I'm sure many of you here at MR have lost a person very dear to yourselves and the experience is just painful. The lost itself is a blow and the effort to move on is like cancer, a real drag.

Yesterday, Leo Burnett Advertising Kuala Lumpur lost its Executive Creative Director, Yasmin Ahmad. Yasmin suffered a stroke on Thursday (23rd July) and went into a coma. She passed away on Sunday without regaining consciousness. She was only 51 years old.

I'm very sure all of you are wondering why the hell am I posting this, especially when none of you have heard of her. Well the truth is, I just wanted to tell you guys what a great person she was, that's all.

Yasmin was known for her openness in her commercials and movies. She was a caring person and her works revolved around love and unity as the main theme. She always touched the race and religion topic in sensitive ways, drawing a lot of criticism from many parties. Despite being a practicing Muslim, her openness often led to controversies with many Islamic institutions branding her an apostate/strayed Muslim. But against all odds, she continued with her work without letting anything stop her. Her movie Muallaf (The Convert) was even banned in Malaysia but received nothing but praises at international film festivals. She was just one of a kind.

When news got out that she was hospitalized on Thursday, everyone including me were confident that she will come out of it, being the strong woman she was. But it was to be the opposite.

I consider myself really lucky, having had the chance to work with her on a Deepavali TVC (Deepavali is a Hindu festival). Her thoughts and ideas were really amazing, something inspiring. I only had that one chance to work with her and I was looking forward for more. But now that she's gone and so are the chances, I'm just grateful I had at least one.

It's been really hard for us Burnetters in coming to terms with her death. Some of us are still crying even at this moment. I'm still hoping all this is just a dream. We Malaysians have lost a person so dear to us. A person whose efforts and ideas transcended racial and religious barriers to unite us as one. We're really missing her. I miss her a lot.


Here are some of her commercials that have touched the hearts of many Malaysians.

Race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgvbrL4x ... re=related


Tan Hong Ming in Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f36Mk24N ... re=related

When the clients (Petronas - Malaysian oil giants) asked Yasmin what she had in mind for the Independence Day commercial, she just said that she's taking a camera to a school and she's just gonna ask a few kids some questions. There weren't any scripts at all. What you see in those two commercials are non-scripted reactions/emotions. The second one (Tan Hong Ming in Love) bagged the gold at ALL the awards it participated in, including the mother of all advertising awards, the Cannes Gold Lion.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/she_ra/3760103515/
I was really touched by this mural, drawn just hours after the announcement of her death. It reads "We, the children of Malaysia will miss you dearly". Props to the people who drew this mural, as the wall is considered public property and if they had been caught in the act (of painting it), they would have been charged as vandals. Real bravehearts!

Very nice post, Hellraiser.

Either you've mentioned her before or I've read about her somewhere. From that I remember that she was quite an impressive character.

Sorry about your loss Hellraiser

Sorry to hear about this. She sounds like she was a pretty amazing woman.

It's a sad thing to happen. May her soul RIP.

Wow, touching post man.

She clearly left a strong impression,

Well it has been really hard for us to accept. All too sudden. But whatever it is, life goes on. Hopefully the people will remember her for her work. And yeah, she was an interesting and amazing person.

Quite recently the government proposed a 1Malaysia project whereby all Malaysians will be treated equally regardless of their race and religion. No racial quota whatsoever. It's quite shameful since we're in our 52nd year as an independent country and Yasmin had already been doing that for more than 2 decades (since she began her career as a copywriter). She was a true Malaysian. But it really sickens me to see all the people who once condemned her, are now singing praises of her. Fuckin hypocrites who are just after better ratings for the coming elections. Bastards.

I may be wrong or out of place by saying this, but that sounds a lot like Michael Jackson.

Haha, not out of place at all.