I have just 3 words to say to opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar: I respect you.

Today my friend and I headed to Midvalley to watch The Lady; a film by French filmmaker, Luc Besson staring Malaysia's very own Datuk Michelle Yeoh as Aung San Suu Kyi and David Thewlis as Dr. Michael Aris.

It was quite heartbreaking because I never knew of the issue with Aung San Suu Kyi although I've seen her pictures countless times in the papers with reports of her house arrest and the immense amounts of people who supported her but it never occurred to me that she may have such an influence in such a way that she could have possibly had hundreds of thousands if not millions of followers to her seeking for a democratic ruling. It was heartbreaking to have watched The Lady to see the way people in Myanmar lived with military ruling without a say, without the rights to question what they have to live in and without a way to express their own ways of what they believe in. Such a wreck that they live in, such poverty they suffer and such agony they encounter. It was heartbreaking to see how much Aung San Suu Kyi must have suffered in real life. To be away from her husband, her children and the society all around her. To have not been with her mother as she passed, to have not been by the side of Dr. Aris when he battled cancer and to have been so far from her children as they watch their father slip away. It must have been difficult; all these lives of the people in Myanmar in her hands, all these pressure by her shoulders and all she was, was a mere lady with a heart, a wife in Oxford, a mother of two and a daughter to two amazing people.


The movie overall has been a great piece by Luc Besson with the way he has told Aung San Suu Kyi's story in such a way with depth to create tear jerking moments when needed and a light piece of humor whenever possible. I may add that possible the best scene would be...EVERYTHING. There was never a moment that I wanted to keep my eyes shut or run to the washroom for the 2 and a half hours I was in the cinema. It was great, a true story simply unfolding piece by piece. Though the ending was a slight bit of a rush, there has possibly been no proper way to tell a story of a woman who has fought the military for 15 years in the seeking of democracy for the people of Myanmar. Every scene was captured in such a way that you could just try to imagine being in Aung San Suu Kyi's shoes. Overall, this has been one of the best biopics I could picture myself watching. Definitely worth re-watching it all over again.