Be With Me turned out to be an interesting movie, well worth my anticipation.

For one thing, it received a standing ovation at Cannes- so I read with enthusiasm in the Straits Times.

Another point- it was distributed by Warner Bros. How many local films have you seen being distributed by Warner Bros? NONE. Of course, Be With Me was a pioneer. Impressive, I thought.

It definitely didn't fail to live up to expectations.

I thought it was really an eye-opener, the way Ms Theresa Chan described how it felt to be blind and deaf- "like a dark and silent prison"; "as though a wall had been built between me and the living, that could not be broken no matter how much I tried".

I guess its true when she says nobody can really know what it feels like to be blind and deaf. Who can truly understand her suffering? Yet its amazing how she managed to learn English, learnt how to speak, was even a teacher, and even wrote an autobiography. And I thought it was especially touching when she said how she discovered about the poverty-stricken families and children in Bombay, and she realised that "these children were struggling to survive, and here I was, even though i was disabled, I had everything", and then vowed to make a donation to help out these people. A truly extraordinary person.

As for the three tales that were woven into the storyline, they were extremely tragic. The scene at the hospital when the ah pek was visiting his terminally ill wife was really disturbing. The fact that he actually performed assisted euthanasia. The fact that when the wife took his hand, and placed it over her nose, in a gesture as if to smother her- the old man obliged calmly and therefore murdered her- was truly scary. The suicide scene is even more gripping. Its like, what are the odds of these two characters who are so vastly different in their lifestyle, crossing paths in such a situation? And I was wondering, when Jackie dropped the phone, and it landed in front of the fat guy, did the fat guy look up and realize that there was a girl about to commit suicide? And therefore he decided to sacrifice his life to save her? Or was it really by chance that she fell right on top of him, crushing him to death, and surviving the fall? Such a tragedy.. poor guy. To think that he finally wrote a letter to the woman he'd been admiring for weeks, and on the way to mailing the letter, meets with death.

And the ending, when Theresa comforts the ah pek.. what a sad sad ending. I was all bleary-eyed by the end of the movie man, all ready to bawl.

Utterly sad movie. Minimal dialogue, but a masterpiece in its own league.