Hotel Del Luna vs Gedung Kuning

This K-drama late bloomer was once a Twilight fan. But, after watching Korean movies/dramas, Hollywood films seem meh. The strength of K-dramas lie in the scripts and fantastic storytelling. The themes are universal that everyone can relate to. Of course, the high quality production, excellent casting, talented actors and killer original soundtracks gave K-dramas that global appeal that is truly deserving.

Anyway, I resisted against watching rom-coms but I was attracted to 'Hotel Del Luna' (HDL) because of the supernatural theme--hotel for ghosts. In fact, I'd like to write a book on 'Hantu: A Guide to the Ghosts and Spirits of the Malay World'. Anyway, back to HDL, every staff in HDL had a backstory. Unlike most K-drama, the ending is sad and I cried buckets during the last few episodes. Ok, enough spoilers.

One of the staff in HDL whose story reminded me of Haji Yusoff, my paternal great-grandfather, is Bartender Kim. He was the longest employee of the hotel. He was Scholar Kim Shi-ik  during the Joseon dynasty but he was stripped of the respected position for writing stories about the lives of commoners. His writings were regarded as "perverted" at that time. He was unable to move on to the Afterlife as he held on to this grudge for 500 years in HDL. With the help of Man-wol (the owner of HDL) and Gan-sung (HDL manager whom Man-wol cheekily called "you Harvard fraud"), Kim Shi-ik was able to clear his name. An author who had died from overwork had written a manuscript about Kim Shi-ik but it was not published. Man-wol then bought over the manuscript from the publisher for a fortune. Together with Bae Seong-hun (an aspiring author who had died before writing his first novel), Kim Shi-ik retold his story to Seong-hun. The first author of the manuscript served as mentor to Seong-hun. The novel was later published as 'A Song of a Crane'. Kim Shi-ik and Seong-hun were able to leave for the Afterlife peacefully.

Haji Yusoff was a successful entrepreneur and philanthropist who had lived in Singapore from 1855 to 1950. He bought Gedung Kuning (the Yellow Mansion), the house which was built for the Bendahara (Prime Minister) in 1912. Unlike HDL, Gedung Kuning (GK) was home to our (human) family of four generations. Unfortunately, there were wild rumours about GK being haunted and that my great-grandfather had indulged in the occult and supernatural to obtain immense wealth. When my grand-uncle was kidnapped during the Japanese Occupation, people accused Haji Yusoff of sacrificing his son in exchange for wealth. Even though Haji Yusoff had passed away 70 years ago, these rumours still persisted and are even recorded in an 'academic' book. 

Like Man-wol and Gan-sung, my uncle Abdullah (Wak Lah) and I tried to clear Haji Yusoff's good name. Some of those malicious rumours can be read here. In 2010, I published my first book, 'Gedung Kuning: Memories of a Malay Childhood' in the hope to tell the truth about one of Singapore's early pioneers and Kampong Gelam's finest sons. I published the revised edition in 2021, with postscripts and additions to rebut the allegations made in that 'academic' book. 

A few weeks after the publication of the revised edition of my book, Wak Lah had a dream. He interpreted the dream to mean that Haji Yusoff was happy that his reputation and good name have been restored. Although we would never know how Haji Yusoff felt, we could only hope that through the GK book, we have showed our love and respect to our beloved ancestor. Just like the love showed by HDL staff to Bartender Kim.