Class conflict in a classic Myanmar film (2)

This post presents a translation of the second of two pages (the image on right below) of a review of the classic Myanmar film Thingyan Moe taken from the Myanmar Times website.

Vocabulary:

ကွဲပြား ။ be distinct from, be different from
ပုံဖော် ။ make a rough model
ကြွ ။ to rise up
ပိုထိ ။
ကာယလုပ်သား ။ manual labourer
ဉာဏလုပ်သား ။ white-collar worker
ဓာတ်ပြား ။ record (album)
အရင်းရှင် ။ capitalist
အမြတ်အစွန်း ။ profit
ရှေးရှု၍ ။ to look
ခုတုံး ။
အက် ။ crack
သိမ်သိမ်မွေ့မွေ့ ။ delicately
နာကြည်း ။ pain
အငုံ့စိတ် ။ submission
ကိန်းအောင်း ။ to dwell in, exist within
ဖျော်ဖြေ ။ to entertain, amuse
ပစ္စည်းမဲ့လူတန်းစား ။ proletariat
အရွဲ့တိုက် ။ act or speak perversely
ငဲ့ ။ sympathise; be considerate
ဇာတ်သိမ်း ။ the finale; end, conclusion or denouement of a play or film
ညား ။ to become man and wife
အစဉ်အလာ ။ convention, tradition
မြစ်ပြင် ။ expanse of a river
ဆိုင်းထမ်း ။ wait; pause; keep pending; suspend, defer (work or business)
အဖတ်ဆယ် ။ salvage; redeem oneself
ခဲယဉ်း ။ to be difficult
ဘဝင်ကျ ။ be satisfied; be pleased
နှစ်သိမ့် ။ to console, comfort
စရိုက် ။ nature, trait of character, way of life
ညီမျှ ။ to be equal
တစ်ဖက်စောင်းနင်း ။ lopsidedly; unevenly
ဆင်နွှဲ ။ to participate in celebrations
ဆင်ယင် ။ to celebrate
သရုပ်သကန် ။ apparent nature; visible characteristics
နိယာမ ။ law of nature
ရောင်ပြန်ဟပ် ။ to reflect

Translation

[The film] presents the difficulty of accepting [the joining of the aforementioned two classes]. In the end, Nyein Maung and Khin Khin Hta get married with their peers (people of the same class). Therefore, it is a “Thingyan Moe” [rain at the time of the New Year’s Festival].

The producer-director of this film revealed the class discrimination and segregation of the characters Nyein Maung and Khin Khin Hta. In reality, [this class discrimination and segregation] is present while [the film] “Thingyan Moe” wants to show the Thingyan [festival]. The writer of this article thinks that [the director] wanted to present a problem that since ancient times has not been able to be resolved. Therefore, the film became famous. It struck people’s hearts. If [the two main characters] had split up because of a different reason, the film would not have been this famous.

In “Thingyan Moe”, the issue of exploiting the workers of the wealthy class as was presented by Karl Marx and such people can be seen in the room wherein there is a discussion between Nyein Maung and the people who produced his record. [Members of] the capitalist class who understand about producing art to get money or who understand the [financial] value of art look only to get profit and raise themselves up on the skill of poor artists. Here [we] can directly see Nyein Maung’s skill. Although the structure of the film is short, it delicately presents the [class] fissure, which is not simple and has prevented mending throughout the whole of human social history.

Karl Marx said that in the end the class of poor people would revolt against the capitalist class. This opinion can be thinly seen in “Thingyan Moe”. The pains of the middle class artist Nyein Maung in which he dwelt for his whole life, [which are] hatred and submission toward the wealthy class which has humiliated him and the sentiment of wanting to kick back against the upper class are shown when Nyein Maung and Khin Khin Hta re-encounter each other in their old age. By taking verbal success over Khin Khin Hta, and not giving his son permission to play music saying “art is not for entertainment,” Nyein Maung eradicates[?] the pains he received throughout his whole life. Although it is not at the level of class revolution, [the film shows] in this way the class (Nyein Maung) which values the wisdom of not possessing property resisting the class (Khin Khin Hta and her mother) which has property and does not understand the value of wisdom (which presumes to not understand). [The film] shows perverse behaviour. [The film] shows 'kicking' [class resistance?].

The director presents what he wants to present. The audience can still sympathise.
Does the Myanmar audience not want the male protagonist and female protagonist to separate? At the start [of the film, it can be] whatever, [but] in the final act [the audience] wants [the protagonists] to get married. Even if they must split up, there is a convention that they must come together again. This attitude can be seen in fables. For example, in the tale of Shin Mwe Non and King Nanda the two lovers who cannot be together die and later come together as smoke in the sky above the expanse of a river. In the story of "The Waiting Star Maung Shin", Khon Hsan Law and Nan Oo Byin come together as white stars in the sky.

The director [of Thingyan Moe] understands this attitude. [He] follows what the Myanmar audience likes. In the end​, [the director] redeems the separation of Nyein Maung and Khin Khin Hta with a final happy act. Although practically difficult, by showing their [respective] son and daughter, after becoming very close friends, becoming lovers, [the director] consoles the audience's dissatisfaction from the first part [of the film].

In this way, [the film] makes smiles on the faces of the Myanmar audience. [The director] understands that for the Myanmar audience he must follow [this] nature and the likes of Myanmar people.

In 'Thingyan Moe', other than class conflict, the inequality and biases between the love and generosity that Myanmar parents give their children and their personal selves
can be seen. The changing manner of participating in New Year's celebrations, in celebration attire, and in guitar skills, which are different for two generations can be studied.

Very many people like 'Thingyan Moe'. And writers like it. Although [the film] does not reflect and present human nature, the apparent characteristics of social organisation, and the law of nature as presented above, if [the film] just speaks of class stratification with the simple form of the New Year's festival, [would people] like it or like it this much?