Ah Boys to Men 3: Frogmen - Some Thoughts

*Note: Minor spoilers may follow for the movie Ah Boys to Men 3: Frogmen (2015). 

Having watched and enjoyed the third instalment of Ah Boys to Men, one scene struck a chord in me. In case you don't know, the movie is about a bunch of young Singaporean men who are enlisted to be elite naval divers. The movie details them going through their training phase and the scene I want to talk about involves 2 of the trainees.

Trainee 1 is a Hong Kong gangster (nicknamed Black Dragon after his very conspicuous tattoos) who constantly bullies Trainee 2, a smart alec called Aloysius Jin Sia Lan (vulgarity not intended, so he says) who just can't help rubbing Black Dragon the wrong way with alarming regularity with his unsolicited advice on how to do things the right way. 

Aloysius the peacelover

You don't mess with the Black Dragon

Black Dragon is a bad boy with badass shades and gang connections and a bunch of gang cronies who follow him around (when he is out of the camp), who likes to throw his weight around, intimidate people and treat his parents with disrespect (not all at the same time). Aloysius, for all his irritating traits is really a peace loving, God-fearing boy whose hobby appears to be reading books like Mixed Martial Arts for Dummies and lives by the philosophy "make love, not war". 

Throughout the movie, Black Dragon is constantly scolding and pushing Aloysius or knocking him on the head when they are in the bunkcabin. Aloysius plays peacenik and never retaliates at any provocation from Black Dragon, opting to retreat every time things get physical. Things never get too serious.. until one night where things got a bit more heated. Black Dragon starts giving Aloysius hefty shoves and begins punching Aloysius. Out of self defence, Aloysius starts retaliating which only has the effect of angering Black Dragon further. Before we know it, we have a full blown duel on our hands (with the rest of their platoon mates watching them from a safe distance), and after an robust exchange of blows and kicks and arm locks, Aloysius bests Black Dragon with his superior strength and swiftness of movement. Black Dragon slumps to the floor somewhat dazed and humbled.

Aloysius then reveals that he is actually proficient in all sorts of martial arts imaginable - taekwando, muay thai, karate, jiujitsu, MMA, and some more I think I missed. And he tells Black Dragon that despite the fact that he was obviously more powerful than Black Dragon in a physical confrontation, he never retaliated because he pitied Black Dragon for being such a flawed person who has no real friends or love. Aloysius says this in between sobs because it is not in his peacenik nature to use physical force. Things had escalated to such an extent that force was required. 

Power, in a book.

Somehow this scene hit me because it shows great strength on the part of Aloysius, and I'm not talking about just physical strength, but more of emotional strength. In life, there will be people who will do things that irritate us in our daily lives (whether intentionally or unintentionally). But if we can look at what others are doing from their perspective (perhaps they are operating at a lower level of consciousness like Black Dragon was), we can look at their actions with compassion and opt not to retaliate. After all what good would that do? Instead, is there anything we can do to help them? To be able to see things in such a perspective, is strength.

At the same time, I wonder if what Aloysius did was an act of the highest consciousness. Is there any way he could have acted that would have been even more appropriate?