Month: March 2020

“I started playing instruments in Form 4 when I was 16. It actually started with me writing poetry in Form 1 which eventually became lyrics and eventually I was playing melodies in my head. Singing in my head wasn’t enough so I picked up the guitar.

I mainly play the guitar and a bit of keyboard, piano, drums and whatever people need me to play I’ll learn just for that purpose. I also like to write ballads, ambient music, and I am part of a post-rock band. I prefer very emotional stuff as the emotional ones are more touching.

Other than my day job, I’m a full-time staff here doing music for the production. Previously, I’ve worked with the sound designer who is also the music director. He decided to hire me for the Rashomon play as I have experience working with him and the director.

For the Rashomon play, all the music that the audience hears was all played live except for the Japanese flute – that was sourced online.

During the play, we played the Chinese drums which I think is called Tanggu, guitar, there’s an orchestra, bass drums and we also have smaller percussions.

I don’t really like saying that I have a natural musical ability cause compared to others, they are way more fluent than me. For me, my process is a lot of remembering and rehearsing.

Working with everyone in this play was fun. What we’ve experienced in our lives is very relatable to the play. We call it the ‘Rashomon’ effect. For example, there were a lot of forgetful moments like I almost lost my phone and another two people actually lost their phone during production. It was a very weird experience.

I first got to know the two Japanese actors. It was very refreshing to work with non-Malaysians. Their ethics are very different – they’re always way earlier. They come 2-3 hours earlier to warm up.

I definitely draw events from my personal life to help me feel the emotions of the characters. The play’s fakeness and ambiance is definitely reflected everywhere around us, quite aptly with the current political situation. Cause politicians always have that layer, a mask. Similar to the gatekeepers.

The most important ingredient to make a good musical piece for me is for it to be grounded, in the sense that it can’t be big like a musical theatre as that’s more for having fun. But this kind of play has to be grounded. Relatable.

I think for me the most important thing when making music for this kind of play is always to make something that is relatable for the actors and most importantly the audience.”

(In character) “ I’m one of the spirits that decided to call the Rashomon gates my home.
I am one of their gatekeepers and essentially an observer. I just observe what happens here and my friends and I mess with anyone who passes through our gates.
I’ve never actually interacted with any human beings that trespass the Rashomon gates because humans can’t see us but they can feel our presence. If we get too rowdy, they can feel our chaotic energy somewhere. We’ve never interacted but we poke fun of them through our energy.
My friends and I have known each other for hundreds of years. We call ourselves a family. We each have different characters and nuances that complement each other very well, that’s why we’ve been together here in Rashomon for the longest of time.
Killings here are not as common as you would think but when it does happen, we really enjoy it because we’re together and it gives us a lot of things to think about.
I would like to see more people arguing and fighting, more action is better at the Rashomon gates as otherwise, it gets really quiet here.
I’ll tell people who have never been to Rashomon gates to be careful, because anyone that sees us, hears us or feels our energy, will go through a hard time.”

– Gatekeeper played by Adam Hamizan

“I’m the person who witnessed the death of the samurai and found his body. I’m questioning all the different stories created by the wife and Tajomaru…it is all lies.

I’ve been here my whole life, this is my home. The problem is, they all lie, and I’ve never heard more mysterious stories than this.

One thing I can tell you is that everyone lies once in their life, it’s how you redeem yourself. How do you bear the consequences of lying? For me, maybe I lie, but I believe my story is true so what I can tell you is that as long as you think you’re right or you’re wrong, as long as you redeem yourself that’s all that matters.

I want my son to be able to tell me everything and I want him to be okay having me as his stepfather. I believe everything will be alright as my son will be a good man.

Don’t enter the Rashomon gates, don’t come to watch Rashomon. But if you do, just bear in mind that whatever we’re trying to tell you is the truth, each one of them is the truth, but can you bear the truth?”

– The WoodCutter Kazuki’s perspective played by Nabil Musawir

(In character) “Money was not everything, I also needed acceptance. The relationship with my husband was great, we love each other and we understand each other. Our life was also very rich as he is a samurai so we lived comfortably. However, it didn’t feel enough for me, I needed acceptance. I am very tough and aggressive and in many cases, I have different sides in me. I needed someone who can accept me for myself. For us Japanese women, we have to think about how to live and how to survive, it was very difficult in Japan at the time so a woman must decide on getting a husband first. If I had gotten raped, I cannot burden the shame to live anymore and I also could not be alone because I cannot earn money. So I have to decide, I have no choice. If I had the option to be free, I will most likely be with Tajomaru. I felt very fearful and in denial at first but little by little, I understand Tajomaru and I accepted him.”

– The Wife’s perspective played by Maiya Goshima

“I’m Tajomaru, a bandit, but I’m not a stereotypical bad man like people may think. I don’t know the meaning of love, especially from a mother. I was left behind by my mother because, at that time, it was very tough. It’s not easy to survive so my mother had to leave me in front of the gate. So I grew up alone, in a temple without any parents…I didn’t get any love from my parents. I ran away from the temple because I didn’t want to be there. I wanted to be free. But even if I was free, it’s difficult to survive in the mountains so there’s no choice but to steal from people to survive. I admit to raping the wife and killing her husband but in the end, I did not get her because she ran away. I also took her husband’s sword and sold it for alcohol but I was found by an officer as I wasn’t feeling well.”

– The Bandit Tajomaru’s perspective played by Doppo Narita

We eat a lot of prawns. We usually cook for one house. We have our own rice from the padi fields, and we eat monitor lizard (biawak). We capture it using a fishing line. We leave the trap in the river water, and 3, 4 hours later you’ll find a captured biawak there.

Don’t eat crocodiles, or else it will eat you or your relatives, children or family. It’s a traditional Iban belief. Here we don’t disturb the crocodile, or eat it, and we’ve seen it several times. They come here once in awhile but they don’t disturb us. We don’t disturb them, they don’t disturb us. It’s not like the ones in the other rivers where they are violent. 

We prefer to eat prawns, vegetables, fruits, chicken, kancil, anything else, but not crocodile. There has been a story at Sri Aman, deeper in the jungle where several men died. Perhaps their ancestors had eaten one of the crocodile’s back then. So we never disturb or eat them. We respect them, they respect us. 

Another time one guy caught a crocodile’s baby, and had a dream that night of someone telling him to return back the baby crocodile. He ignored it and didn’t care, and his son got eaten by the crocodile. They managed to catch the crocodile later on, split open his stomach, and found the boy’s body in it. Even if people give us to eat it, we refuse. There’s around one death a year. 

(They then brought a monitor lizard that was freshly cooked. The person next to me offered the ‘tail’ section…apparently, it was the tastiest part. I have to admit that yes, I tried it – with eyes closed. It tasted like meat but fishy and scaly with bones. It tastes like fishy chicken). 

We don’t have water at home, we shower here every single day.