The late Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana is often quoted, and misquoted, as saying “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The 13 May Incident may very well be one of those times in the past that too many people have forgotten about if they even knew about it at all. I certainly didn’t. Very briefly, sectarian violence that followed Malaysia’s general elections in 1969 left hundreds dead or missing. To this day, there has been no official examination into what happened and, adding insult to injury, the Malaysian government has bulldozed into oblivion at least one of the mass graves that was hastily created in the aftermath of the violence. Malaysian-Chinese writer-director Chong Keat Aun/張吉安 (THE STORY OF SOUTHERN ISLET/南巫) looks back at this stain in Malaysia’s young history with a story that combines both historical background and Cantonese opera.

SNOW IN MIDSUMMER begins just after the elections in May 1969. Ah Eng and her mother go to the ethnically Chinese Kuala Lumpur district of Pudu to watch her father and brother perform in the Cantonese opera, “Snow in June”. When the show ends, her father and brother head off to the Majestic Theatre to watch a movie. While Ah Eng and her mother are still at the open-air theatre, gunfire and screams can be heard in the distance so the women to hide in place along with some of the opera’s actors. The next morning, when they go to the Majestic to look for their loved ones, they see they are too late. Forty-nine years later, Ah Eng (Taiwanese actress Lin Wanfang/萬芳) is married and living in Penang. On the anniversary of that fateful day, she decides to return to KL and search for the graves of her missing father and brother.

Chong’s story builds slowly as he introduces seemingly inconsequential events and conversations that only make sense at the end of the film. As I was watching the film, I kept thinking that the story needs more context for those of us who don’t live in Malaysia but it all comes together in the film’s closing scene and postscript. He makes a not-too-subtle connection between Malaysia’s leaders at that time with that country’s disgraced prime minister, Najib Razak, who left office in 2018 and is now sitting in prison for his part in a huge corruption scandal. Razak’s father, Abdul Razak, became the country’s prime minister in the aftermath of the 13 May Incident.

Though it led the field for nominations at last year’s 60^th Golden Horse Awards, SNOW IN MIDSUMMER took home only one award and that was for Best Sound Effects. One has to wonder if some politics were at play. It did, however, win the Best Film (Chinese Language) in the Young Cinema Competition at the 48th Hong Kong International Film Festival.

SNOW IN MIDSUMMER opens in Hong Kong today (May 9^th). The closing scenes make it a worthwhile watch but you would be well advised to read up on the 13 May Incident before going into the film.

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