Yasmin Ahmad - hit by stroke

LATEST 8.30PM FRIDAY
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Her brother said Yasmin remains unconscious but stable.
She is on oxygen support, NOT life support, which is good.
He said it is not true that she had a stroke before - as reported by some media.

It also means that my earlier headline 'Yasmin Ahmad - hit by second stroke' was wrong (I based it on those media reports).
So I have now changed my headline, by taking out the word 'second'.



EARLIER POSTING
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Don't lie.
We have all cried, or at least shed a few quiet tears, after seeing one of Yasmin Ahmad's ads over the joy of multi-racial living or the feel-good ads ahead of Hari Raya, Chinese New Year or Deepavali.

And of course there are also those great down-to-earth movies.

Yasmin was downed by a second stroke today.
She is only 51. Let's hope she will recover fast.
Malaysia needs more Glokals like her.

Click below her TV ad made for Singapore's Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, which perhaps not many Malaysians are aware of (Thanks MIA for telling me about it).
And see if your eyes can stay dry at the end.





Type 'Yasmin Ahmad' on Youtube and find lots more to ponder over.



LATEST 10AM FRIDAY
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This was how the Life! section of my paper in Temasek played the story - note the two Singapore commercials. And upcoming movie.

The Straits Times, 24 July 2009.

Critically-acclaimed writer-director Yasmin Ahmad, 51, collapsed and went into a coma during a presentation she was giving at TV3's studio in Sri Pentas, Kuala Lumpur, yesterday, the Malaysian press reported.

When reached, her producer Fendi Harjoh told Life!: 'This is not the right time for an interview. But she is fine and stable and in the ICU.'

It was reported that the Malaysian film-maker was taken to the Intensive Care Unit at the Damansara Specialist Hospital. She is believed to have suffered a stroke and was in a coma for a short while before doctors there successfully revived her.

She has won awards for her sensitively observant dramas such as Sepet (Chinese Eye, 2004) and Gubra (Anxiety, 2006).

But Singaporeans know her through the successful pro-family commercials she created for the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports. Last year, she got people talking with an ad featuring a girl growing up with a single father and this year, an ad which depicted a widow reminiscing fondly about her late husband at his funeral.

She is currently in pre-production for her first movie to be shot in Singapore titled Go, Thaddeus!. She has been holding casting calls here for it, which is based on the true story of 17-year-old Singaporean triathlete Thaddeus Cheong, who died after finishing a SEA Games selection race in 2007.