Blades, Obsession, and What Didn’t Make the Cut
When Hobsessions: Blades of Passion aired on Sunday, 14 December 2025 at 8.30pm on Channel NewsAsia, I watched it with the same quiet mix of pride and curiosity as everyone else. Another media feature. Another moment where a very personal world became public.
What most viewers never see, though, is everything that happened long before the broadcast.
The filming took place much earlier in the year, sometime in May, stretched across two full days, starting as early as 8am and wrapping up around 6pm each day. Long hours. Repeated takes. Multiple angles. Careful setups. There were many shots taken, far more than what eventually appeared on screen, and several additional figures were interviewed to provide context, contrast, and depth.
That’s just how documentary work goes, I suppose.
Still, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a little conflicted watching the final cut. Some of the most nuanced moments, at least in my opinion, never made it through the edit. A few facts weren’t framed as accurately as I would have liked. Nothing malicious, just the inevitable consequence of compressing complex subjects into a tight runtime.
Television has its constraints. Heritage doesn’t always fit neatly inside them.
That said, the heart of the episode remains intact. The keris, the blades, the quiet obsession that pulls people into this world in the first place. What viewers saw was still real. Still sincere. Still rooted in years of collecting, studying, handling, and sometimes simply sitting in silence with these objects.
What many don’t realise is that keris are not just artefacts. They are conversations across time. Between makers and owners. Between belief and metallurgy. Between identity and responsibility. Trying to compress that into a few minutes of screen time is always going to leave something behind.
Maybe that’s alright.
If anything, this feature is an invitation rather than a conclusion. A glimpse, not the full story. The deeper conversations, the trimmed insights, the uncomfortable nuances, those live elsewhere. In long talks, in private viewings, in careful writing, and in communities willing to listen beyond soundbites.
I’m grateful for the opportunity, grateful for the exposure, and grateful that the keris were treated with respect on a national platform. But I’m also reminded why I continue to document, write, and speak on my own terms.
Some stories cannot be fully told in one edit.
They need time. And patience. And people who care enough to look closer.
TLDR
The CNA feature was filmed over two long days in May. Many scenes and interviews were trimmed, and a few details didn’t make the final edit. Still grateful for the platform, but the real story of keris, and why they matter, runs deeper than any single episode can capture.