娘家 Home Town

*Picture courtesy of douban.com

This is another Korean movie which made me cry my lungs out.

It is also a movie which reminded me that 'must pay full attention when watching a movie, especially touching one', because I have this habit of doing something else eg. cross stitching while watching movie/drama.

This movie tells the story of the special bonding between a mother and daughter, and has a strong '子欲养而亲不在’ 的道理, but in this case, the daughter who is the one 'leaving'. 白头人送黑头人, 不孝啊~~~

Well, this time I don't want to talk about the movie, but about my own story instead, because there's one sentence of dialog that the mother in this movie said, which my mom told me few years ago.

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My mom is a teacher, teaching in a Malay secondary school in KB. Dad was an air traffic controller, once worked in KB airport.

His working shift was much different from our daily routine. We already slept when he came back from work. He went to work already when we woke up.

The best moment was when he was not working, and he would bring us to the town by motorbike, carrying two children, for a nice food or a walk or something. I remembered clearly of the delicious koay teow soup at Jalan Kebun Sultan, but not other thing else. Sigh~

When I was about 10, my parents gathered us together to talk about dad's transfer to KL. Again, I remembered we all said no, thus dad went alone to KL for work.

Anyway, we didn't feel his absence in the house that much as he came home quite frequently, even my auntie said:"He traveled from KL to KB (7-8 hours journey) as if from Tanah Merah to KB (about an hour distance)." He usually took bus back home except some occasional time he flew back. Only recently that I knew he doesn't have any flight discount as he was under JPA (Jabatan Penerbangan Awam) but not MAS airline or any other flight company.

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Along his service years, I received a lot of questions when people knew that dad was working in KL and we all stay in KB, questions like:

- "Are your parents separated?" The word 'separated' bears the hidden meaning of 'divorced'. OMG, what kind of question and thinking is that!? But, it is at top of the FAQ.
-"So you hardly meet your dad then?" No, absolutely not.
-"... ... ...hmmmm... interesting." -_____-

Once, I got so annoyed with the response, I asked mom the real reason of us not following dad to KL last time. Her answer is:

"All of you are small last time, school transfer and other stuffs would be so complicated and troublesome. Plus, all your grandparents are aged, in case anything happen, there will be someone to standby at KB. Lastly, here will always be your hometown, and your 娘家 after you got married. :))"

This is what the mother said in the movie to the daughter after the father passed away and the daughter asked her mom to stay with her in Seoul:


(The way of saying is different but they carry the same meaning)

I was tremendously 感动 loh~~ And yes, I am proud of being KB kia.

One thing the most important of all:

Mom is the best!! :))