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Reviews
Merah Putih (2009)
Nice array of characters, some questionable details
Merah Putih was set in 1947, the producer's homage to especially his relatives, a 21-year old lieutenant and a 16-year old cadet, who died defending the republic during the time. This film boasts of a crew that also comprises of experts who have been involved in blockbusters like The Dark Knight and Blackhawk Down.
Amir (played by perhaps the greatest Indonesian actor of the new generation, Lukman Sardi) was a teacher who at first refused to join the battles. But after one of his student died in the hands of the Japanese, now he decided to be up in arms against the returning Dutch forces. He joined Sekolah Perwira – a school for officers – and met an array of characters there.
There was also Surono (Zumi Zola) who had to leave his older sister, the only family he got left in this world, behind. He joined the school with his best friend during his university years, blueblooded, stuck-up Marius (Darius Sinathrya, who surprisingly pulled a convincing performance, although some say his Persian looks aren't too in line with his character as a Javanese nobleman, or priyayi). They both came late to their first day at school, having spent the night bingeing.
The school didn't only take in highly educated people – it also received a farmhand ("We keep chicken, not pigs, Marius") named Tomas (Donny Alamsyah). Being a Christian and a Manadonese ("Dutch dogs!" claimed Marius in disgust), Tomas became the target of bullying by the Javanese proud priyayi boy. Somehow Marius found Tomas a better object to ridicule than the Hindu Balinese, Dayan, a very polite and calm knife-wielder. (I heard the audience whispered, "How polite!" every time Dayan gave a greeting with his palms closed in one another, fingers extended touching.) The frictions of the characters – and how they try to settle them down – are one of the most interesting points of the film, especially when they found themselves beaten black and blue, surrounded by the Dutch forces, with the hesitant, newly-made Lieutenant Amir as their sole leader! I must give credits to all the actors and actresses here for showing us a top-class performance. Some viewers who watched the film with me even handclapped because they felt so excited! (And somebody shouted 'Amen' when Marius wondered on screen whether they could escape the Dutch – it was just one of the moments why watching films on theatres is so interesting!) For Indonesians, the film would feel so
cool. To see our heroes smashing the Dutch soldiers to pieces with so few men and arms really drew the outloud comments of 'Cooooool' from the audience. But this film lacked the humanity shown even by revolution-era writers like Nugroho Notosusanto or Idrus – the capability of showing that the enemies were human too.
But well, the story's still long – MP is the first part of a trilogy – and perhaps there will be more details about the Dutch characters later. In MP, they're shown as nothing but evil pigs trying to snatch the land from the Indonesians again. But then again perhaps that's what nationalist films should be
Remember Braveheart and The Patriot? And, oh, please, I don't believe anyone's clothes can be that squeaky clean when they've spent a day and a night in the woods. At least the butt of their trousers will show some signs, no?
Garuda di Dadaku (2009)
A nice holiday movie for the family
In Garuda di Dadaku, Bayu was a boy living with his widowed-mother and grandfather. Although talented in football, Bayu was under the strict regime of his granddad, who was deeply traumatized by the death of his footballer son in poverty. The tragedy left him an old grumpy who readily shouted a straight big No to football. Instead, granddad sent Bayu to different courses, from painting to maths, so that he could find and develop his potentials in fields other than just kicking the ball around.
Secretly, Bayu still played football – and he got a massive support from his friend Heri, confined to a wheelchair ever since he's born. Being unable to live his own football dreams, Heri put all his efforts and sources to ensure that Bayu could enter the U-13 Indonesian football team, including smoothing his way to be accepted in Arsenal's Sekolah Sepakbola Indonesia (Indonesian Football Academy). (It's a real, flesh-and-bone academy, situated in Ciputat, my homebase.) The premise is quite simple, granted, but I was entertained throughout the film by the astonishing performance of the actors and actresses, especially that of Ramzi, the comedian who played Bang Dulloh, Heri's chauffeur.
Some pointed out the weak point of this film: the reason why granddad hated football so much. His views seemed to be too outdated and peculiar, she said. I cannot fully agree; anyway, granddad was ancient and I've met people who earnestly hated things for reasons simpler than granddad's (and I won't go into details here). As much as I respect these people's views, I beg to differ.
Merantau (2009)
Long awaited, lasting too long.
Merantau is a long-waited fighting film, featuring Indonesian traditional martial art, silat. We haven't had any film of this genre since
since years ago, and our fighting hero Barry Prima has abandoned the ship and taken a magnificent role as a transgender father in a family drama. So when British director and writer Gary Evans said he has found a potential young hero in a true silat 'fighter', Iko Uwais, we were all excited.
Now a word or so about 'merantau'. The Minangkabau people, famous for their silat and their business instinct, are matrilineal, unlike the strictly patrilineal Bataks, the loosely patrilineal the Manadonese, or the Javanese that don't care about any of that. This means money and properties are inherited by the girls, and men won't get any; they must first show their worth by 'merantau' – leaving their family behind, finding their fortune and building themselves a name in other lands. Before returning and marrying an heiress, of course.
And so the main character, Yuda, decided to leave his family's peaceful tomato farm and try his luck in Jakarta as a silat teacher – and ended up proving to us once again that 'rural is good, urban is bad, but evil is foreign'. In short, Yuda got himself involved with two Caucasian human traffickers, when he tried to help a badmouthed erotic dancer from a pimp wanting to sell her to the foreigners. (Why, exactly, Yuda wanted to help her when she's so vile towards him for interfering with her life?) Ha.
Frankly speaking, apart from the interesting view on Minangkabau traditions and landscape and a rather shocking ending, I cannot say much about the plot. (Is the homoeroticism between the two antagonists a subplot, I wonder?) And this film is almost torturingly long: perhaps it's because Evans wrote, directed, and edited the film himself. The duration is a sign left by his ego, when a sane-headed other person could help him editing parts that needn't be there so that the pace could be increased a bit.
I also wish they had chosen a better child actor to play Adit; their choice was annoying. They could have also smoothed up the dialogs a bit, the words having been translated from Evans' script in English. Some of the sentences felt so unnatural, coming from the mouth of someone in distress or someone of a particular social class. And I don't think anyone in Indonesia would try to have an interlocal from a phonebooth; they would try a wartel (telecommunication shop) instead. And it would be more logical for Yuda, a good Muslim boy from West Sumatra, to go to a mosque to find a place to sleep (where he knew he would have access to water for bathing and taking ablution for praying) than spending the nights secretly in an unfinished building project. Just some, you know, natural details. Strange that they forgot such details, when the life in West Sumatra was portrayed with a great touch of realism, like Yuda eating with one knee folded on the chair, looking so naturally at home.
But all in all, this film is very much welcome, a beginning of a series of action films to be starred by Iko (Evans wanted to make him some kind of our Bruce Lee). The martial arts choreography deserves a thumbs up, with the cameras seemingly know very well which angles can show the best of silat movements.
King (2009)
Another poor boy's dream come true
'King', I think, is a good material for film festivals. We know those festival crowds like films with nice panoramic views of 'exotic' places and the story of a poor third-worldian clawing his way to the top. But I put myself in the place of a child—which is, if I'm not mistaken, the main target of this film—and I feel rather bored by it. Don't misunderstand me. It's a good film, with a heart-wrenching story of a poor boy named after Lim Swie King's Indonesian name, Guntur; if Bayu in 'Garuda' was prevented from playing football, Guntur carried the burden of his namesake and his father's dreams of having a famous badminton-player son. But poverty came in the way: Guntur was defeated time and again because his dad couldn't even afford a proper racket that would not come away when he smashed the shuttlecock with all his might. And then came the news: PB Djarum, again not a made-up institution, the most successful badminton club in Indonesia (unfortunately supported by a tobacco company), would give scholarships to talented young players. But they must come from badminton academies
Comedian Mamiek Prakoso showed a jaw-dropping performance as the main character's father, and Ariyo Wahab was truly an eyecandy for us girls. And like I said, the story's good, but if we just erase the character played by Jeremy Thomas's daughter—that little girl who couldn't even speak Indonesian well because her mother chose to send her to an 'international' school and speaks in English to her even at home—and Wulan Guritno (who played the girl's mother), it wouldn't do anything much to the plot. In short, an excess of 'rich, urban' ladies just to sweeten the village setting a bit (which is fine without them, actually). If they disappear in smoke, the film would be more interestingly shorter and not so dragging.