CY@CY Says Welcome to my dreamscape. Where a Lim is also a Ling.
Influenced by the accolades that have been heaped on ‘Ola Bola’, my family and I decided to check out the movie at the TGV Cinema in Permaisuri Imperial City Mall this afternoon.
The movie, directed by Chiu Keng Guan whose last movie The Journey raked in RM17 million and set a Malaysian box office record in 2014, is based on the true story of how the national football team were able to overcome the odds and defeat South Korea in a pre-Olympic qualifying match in 1980.
Ola Bola
Set in the 1970’s, Ola Bola showcases the pride and passion of a multicultural football team and their struggles to overcome personal and collective hardships, a tribute to the indomitable spirit that perseveres through tribulations.
The multilingual film (Malay, Mandarin, Cantonese, English and Tamil) is an adaptation of the true story of Malaysia’s football team winning a spot for the 1980 Moscow Olympics that they did not finally attend due to Malaysia boycotting the games in protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The characters are fictional though inspired by real life ones like Soh Chin Aun, Mokhtar Dahari and R. Arumugam.
Ola Bola, with the tagline ‘You Will Believe Again,’ has struck a chord among Malaysians from all walks of life, people who are facing tough economic challenges amidst harsh political landscape. The movie is timely in its reminder of the spirit of racial unity and togetherness that is lacking in many Malaysians in the discordant times we now live in, with so much negative news reports coming out of the country.
The movie tugs at my heartstrings in so many ways. With a great script and good chemistry among actors, it is a movie whose time has come. As Malaysia continues its roller-coaster nightmares, the movie offers some respite from all the gloom that seems to be enveloping the country.
Go watch Ola Bola!
