"Be with me, my beloved love, that my smile may not fade."

I had always wanted to watch Be With Me by Eric Khoo (2005) since I got to know about it, but the year when the film premiered, the M18 barred my viewership and it is only till now that I’m of the legal age to be finally able to watch this movie.

“Is true love truly there, my love? Yes, if your warm heart is.”

After the introductory credits rolled in, the movie started off with a close up shot of two hands slowly typing away on a typewriter, churning out the quote above. My attention was immediately fully captured. To me, there is a charm to understated words that speak of philosophical wisdom, I believe in the beauty of simple words that bring out the many emotions, feelings and facets of life.


Using a question on love to kick-start the movie, the underlying theme of the movie revolves around the different faces of love – puppy love, unrequited love, and lost love. Four stories run in the movie, with only the blind and deaf Theresa Chang that is of non-fiction. This incredible lady is also the inspiration for the film, the movie steers away from the fictitious stories at times and seems more to be like her auto-biography, yet I was barely bothered by it, I really loved her story.

Out of the four stories, I liked the Theresa Chang’s autobiography and the story of elderly Chiew Yung Ching the most.

The director paralleled Theresa Chang’s autobiography with her daily routine, using subtitles that recount her amazing life experiences while she goes about carrying out household chores. Her extraordinariness is brought out from her ordinary routines, and the use of subtitles is alike to her world, void of sounds and visuals.

Chiew Yung Ching portrayed a lonely character grieving over the loss of his wife, slowly regaining his vigour in life and letting go of the hurt after reading Theresa Chang’s story. It is close to heart to see how food is used as the means of connection – his son telling him “Pa, your food is the best”, and eventually him cooking dishes for Theresa, which aided him in letting go of the pain of losing a loved one. Food fills up the soul while filling up our tummies, isn’t it? My mother used to tell me that she would always beam with pride when I told her I really loved her cooking (which is still so, until now) and how my relatives would exchange food and dishes occasionally, to show the concern they had for each other.

It was heart-wrenching when the old storekeeper silently wept at Theresa Chang’s house, but certainly heart-warming when Theresa hugged the old man to provide some solace, my eyes moisten a little when I watched that. In life, we might not be able to deal with losses of love and dwell in pain for long, but getting over the pain is sometimes easier when we are taught life’s lessons by others, and in this case, Chiew Yung Ching letting go of pain after being inspired by Theresa.

Every movie is a takeaway of something, be it thoughts, emotions, knowledge, epiphanies, the list runs on and on. Be With Me warmed up my soul, and I shall end off this response of mine with a quote from Theresa Chang, a personal favourite of mine:

"Love does not die although bodies may perish from all sorts of hurt. Love only disappears when you do not understand what it means."

References:
Zhao Wei Films – Be With Me
Movie Exclusive . Com – Be With Me (Singapore)
Filmcritic . Com – Be With Me
A Nutshell Review – Be With Me