Oscar-winning film ‘Another Round’ with its star Mads Mikkelsen.
THIS year’s Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts Awards (more popularly known as ‘the Oscars’) had selected a Danish film by Thomas Vinterberg as its winner for ‘Best International Feature Film’ (previously known as ‘Best Foreign Film’). It was ‘Another Round’, and on first glance, one could be led to believe that it somehow glorified the culture of drinking and alcoholism as seen through Danish eyes.
It is not.
It delves deeper into the subject and in my opinion, is a most worthy win and one that has hit many close to home – especially those of us who have had, at one time or another, struggled with a drinking problem, or even alcoholism.
The plot of the story is rather straightforward – four Danish high-school teachers endeavour to consume alcohol on a daily basis to see how it will affect their social and professional lives. There is a theory that alcohol in the blood opens up the mind and increases creativity – drinkers know it well; after the first glass, conversation lifts up and after a couple, the endless possibilities open up.
Slowly but surely, the imbibing of alcohol makes the four friends loosen up, they actually witness progress in their work in school and the potential seem limitless.
But as we know well, soon the experiment goes off track for some and dire consequences set in. The film is a revelation, it’s touching and thought provoking and it dwells heavily on freedom and friendship – and obviously alcohol.
‘Another Round’, the Oscar-winning film is not only about alcohol consumption as much as midlife crisis, isolation, repetitive mundane daily living, loneliness and hopelessness.
At its best, it’s a film that would resonate with many of us, especially those who’ve ever had a drink in their life and seen life through a beer or whisky glass – its’ about everyone in the world who struggles with serious problems in their life and somehow sees the solution in drinking on a regular basis.
For me, it’s a fitting Oscar win in an era of Covid-19 isolation and lockdown and the various stages of loneliness, wariness and desolation as well as the many self-imposed isolations faced by many in our world of 2021.
It’s a dire cautionary tale that turning to alcohol is only but temporary relief.
I had my first alcoholic drink when I was only nine. It was just a mouthful of BGA (brandy and ginger ale on ice) mixed by my grandfather’s bartender Salim at a banquet in his house for the third British Governor of Colonial Sarawak, Sir Anthony Abell, at his farewell party towards the end of 1959. In my mind, I can still savour that first taste on my palate today – you can never forget your first ever drink!
But it was to last me for at least 10 years as my first ever real drink came sometime in March 1970 when I joined the Borneo Company and my first assignment was to the ‘Guinness Department’. In those days Guinness had yet to launch its beer – ‘Gold Harp’, and later came ‘Eagle Beer’ and ‘Goldie’. So we all had to drink Guinness stout during our entertaining and promotions everywhere we went. It took me a while to get used to the bitterness of the hops in the dark stout, but once you acquired a taste for it, nothing’s as good as a Guinness – whether at room temperature or well chilled; but never with ice – that’s sacrilegious!
After 50 years of drinking Guinness in every way possible (with a raw egg in, it is really great!) as well as cooking with it (makes a lovely beef stew!), today I prefer it at room temperature; although truth be told the Guinness that we used to sell, the ‘Foreign Extra Stout’ (FES for short) used to be 7.5 ABV (alcohol by volume) and has been reduced in recent years to 6.8, and is now at a low 5.5. Nowadays, it’s closer to dark beer and rather ‘blah’ to me.
Over the years after the beers and the stouts, I had gradually moved on to wines; for a short period in the mid-1970s, we tried to import for the first time selected wines from Australia, ‘Orlando’ from South Australia and ‘Seppelt’ from the Barossa Valley.
It was an uphill struggle as most drinkers here were still into their ‘Anchor’, ‘Carlsberg’ and ‘Hennessy’ and ‘Martel’ and most of the time, we had to sell off our wine stocks after a while at cost price.
It was a great many years later before wines became popular, and eventually, clear spirits like rum, gin, vodka and tequila followed, especially among the younger crowd. Eventually, stout became a very niche market drink due to mainly taste and price; and a total change in prestige among the ‘in crowd’. Many attempts to attract them back, from changing the label, to more youthful advertising, to reducing the strength and even smoothing off the rugged edgy bite in the flavour were not able to alter its well established and deep-rooted image as a ‘working man’s brew’ – apparently the lumberjack commercials in the 1970s had worked too well!
Beginning in the 1990s, there was a gradual change away from the #1 spirit, which was brandy or cognac; and in that area there were three leaders – ‘Hennessy’, ‘Martel’ and ‘Courvosier’. First the change was gradual towards scotch, blended whisky from Scotland and ‘Johnny Walker’ and ‘Chivas Regal’ had enjoyed market leads for many years.
In recent times, from around 2010, single-malt whiskies began a swift ascend as drinkers’ taste favoured a more subtle, refined and ‘smooth nectar of the Gods’, coupled with a somewhat snobbish appeal and superb marketing strategies that eventually converted blended drinkers to single-malts.
Today the market is in flux once again; it is greatly segmented, into groups of hardcore wine connoisseurs, single-malt whisky lovers, and youthful white spirits cliques of botanical gins, extra strength tequilas, obscure vodkas and varietal rums. The traditional and aging groups continue with their happy hours on beers, Guinness and the usual mix of other spirits, usually gin, whisky or cognac. The range of imported beers today staggers the mind – they come from nearby Asian lands like Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Singapore; as well as from Japan, the Philippines, USA, Spain, France, Germany and any beer-producing country you can think of.
A party at the Ong’s residence in the 1950s era, with Salim and his trusty bottle of Hennessy.
In the old days, the man in the local ‘kopitiam’ in town only had a choice of either ‘Anchor’, ‘Tiger’, ‘Heineken’, ‘Carlsberg’ and one or two others.
I couldn’t source reliable statistics on our local alcoholic consumption in recent times versus, say, 50 years ago, so it’s not possible to compare then and now; but even if there are records available, they would be totally unreliable as a lot of the booze we get here today have either been imported duty unpaid, smuggled in, or simply have come in from other dubious sources.
It is believed that only a third of what’s in the market is legit.
As for me, I believe that after more than 50 years of having enjoyed my drinks (most of the time responsibly), it’s also about time to hang up my mug, wine glass and my ‘Waterford Crystal’ whisky glass and to ‘bid a fond fare thee well to my drinking days’.
I can only pray that I will be successful at it.
Amen.