Tag: Indonesian Film

Categories
Action & Thriller Foreign Movie Reviews

The Raid: Redemption – The Sensational Bone Cracking Blood Spilling Indonesian Film That Is Popular At Home And In US

My Indonesian born now a Singaporean wife Cynthia has been asking me out for a movie date for the past three weeks.  She wants to watch the new Indonesian movie The Raid: Redemption that is very popular back home and in US.  Yet, five minutes into the show when a line of captives were brutally executed by the gangsters, I was not sure if she would stay till the end.  It is bloody.  The execution is so in-your-face such that at one point, even I had the urge to look away.  The opening scene has set the bar.  The audience is warned.  This is no child play.  Blood will be shed, in a big and realistic way.  Bone will be cracked.  People will die.  When it comes to urban warfare and close quarter combat, the key to survival is to eliminate your opponents.  The Raid: Redeemption is a 100 minutes movie that guarantees to entertain from the beginning to the end, if you have the stomach for it that is.  Surprisingly, Cynthia stayed till end.  And our friend TK did not fall asleep.

Here are a few interesting points to share, courtesy of my wife who understands the language and has been reading all the news on this movie.  I have added a few based on my research too.

  • The main actor Iko Uwais has won a National Silat Championship.  Silat is a traditional Indonesian martial art.  Iko is one of the two choreographers of this movie.  The other one is Yayan Ruhian who plays the deadly Mad Dog character in The Raid.
  • The Raid or Serbuan Maut as locally known was hugely popular in Indonesia during Cynthia’s recent visit to her birth town.  It has also gained popularity in US.
  • The translator has apparently taken the artistic liberty to spice up the violence of the movie by adding a lot more vulgarity than what is spoken in its original Bahasa Indonesia language.  I suppose that is to cater for the Western audience because violence is not really violence with a lot of swearing?
  • It is common to see a praying scene in an Indonesia movie.  After all, Indonesia is a Islamic country.  It should come as no surprise that those who pray will prevail.
  • The Raid is likely to have a sequel.

At the end of the movie, I felt utterly confused by the story line.  Maybe it is lost in translation.  So I asked Cynthia and TK for their understandings.  Looks like the three of us have a different version of what we think the story is.  Cynthia insisted that this is an Indonesian action movie.  There is no story.  We pay to watch the action instead.

True.  There are tons of action.  Twenty cops raid a 30-story building heavily guarded by a notorious crime lord and his gang.  The show starts with an urban warfare stealth mission that turns horribly wrong.  I suppose sooner or later, the characters would be out of ammunition.  Hence, I was not that surprised when halfway through the movie, it turns into close quarter combat with knives and fists and a rare usage of pistols.  The fight choreography flows beautifully (again, beauty in the context of violence).  The filmmakers must have involved quite a number of professionals for this show because the fight looks authentic and there are many different faces that appear for that few second of glory.  There is one old guy who cannot fight – as demanded by the plot I guess – and he stands out like a sore thumb.  It is through contrast like this do we realize how professional the rest of the actors are.

The Raid: Redemption is intense.  It is an entertaining, eye-opening movie provided that your heart can take the violence, blood, and more.

Categories
Foreign Horror Movie Reviews

Darah – Made In Indonesia

Blood, a lot of blood!

Last Monday was significant in a few ways.  I have decided to be a vegetarian if the circumstances allow.  Something like a social meat eater.  Let’s see how long it will last.  F1 has one more race to go but the driver and constructor’s champion titles have already been concluded.  Cynthia was out-of-town and with my new found freedom, I picked a horror movie to watch.

Strictly speaking, this Indonesian production “Darah” (means blood in Malay) is not a horror film.  More like a thriller with lots and lots of blood.  I can imagine my buddy Mark would faint halfway through the show.  While some friends of mine have rightfully pointed out that there are better horror films than this (and many others would not want to watch this genre), my motivation of watching “Darah” was as follows:

  1. I love watching a horror film in a theater.  I am often entertained by the atmosphere of pockets of audience screaming-out-loud.
  2. I always enjoy watching an Indonesian production that makes it to the International market.  I have studied the language before and it is fun trying to understand the dialogs natively.

First half an hour of “Darah” is devoted to the character development of six friends – guys and girls and I was thinking: where is the blood?  Second half an hour sees the introduction of the scary family of Dara the mother, Adam and Maya – her scary son and her hot daughter in red, and a rather fat butcher who reminds me of a pedophile or a pervert.  OK, I began to see blood.  The last half an hour is filled with accentuated chopping and dismemberment, blood, more blood, and extremely more blood in a chaotic mindless way.  Oh my.  There was only one color I saw: red.

While one may argue that “Darah” lacks the storyline quality, I do find a story built with a hint of folklore better than just another ghost story in a refreshing way.  At the beginning of the movie, there is an argument of a sister blaming her brother over the death of their parents.  Something to do with an unfortunate decision that the brother has made.  That ties in nicely to the ending of the show, in my opinion, when the sister has realized what a terrible mistake she has made.  Also, there was an opening scene of pieces of steak cooked over charcoal fire somewhere in the city of Bandung.  That metaphor has morphed into something pretty gruesome as the story unfolds.  And what I really appreciate is how artistic this film is created.  I am intrigued by the quality of work too.

My only complain is the censorship.  Even with a M18 rating, there are quite a few scenes being cut and without those, some parts of the movie seem a bit flat.  What a pity.  Having said that, there are still a lot of blood and gore scenes that may make your stomach churns.  Those scenes didn’t seem to affect me though.  I had minestrone soup and vegetarian pasta in tomato sauce for dinner.

Horror movies, I want more!

Categories
Drama Foreign Movie Reviews

Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love) – More Than Just A Romance Drama

With close to a quarter of a billion population, you would have thought the filmmaker would pick a better looking Indonesian actor who is worthy of having four girls falling head over heels in love with and ends up marrying two.  Well, at least the filmmaker picks the right pair of drop dead gorgeous actresses for “Ayat-Ayat Cinta” – officially translated as “Signs of Love” and literally means “Verses of Love”.

I have such a high anticipation for “Ayat-Ayat Cinta” because an Indonesian film worthy of the International market is rare and I do have a certain affection towards Indonesia.  Besides, I thought Cynthia would love to watch a film in her mother tongue.  On top of that, I did take language lessons back in Indonesia donkey years ago so I am not 100% clueless on the dialogues like other foreign films.

Let’s put things in perspective here.  According to Cynthia, majority of the Indonesia productions are either in the genres of horror or slapstick comedy or teen comedy.  To take on a romance drama that explores such a wide range of topics even with a budget that well exceeds the average cost of an Indonesian film (I read it’s double) is an admirable effort.  I can certainly imagine that if I was an Indonesian, I too would feel proud watching this movie.  With a script of “Long Live Indonesia” in the foreign land of Egypt, who wouldn’t?

A few feel good factors and a few really good eye candies aside, “Ayat-Ayat Cinta” has attempted to shine a more balanced light on Islamic as a religion of patience and sincerity.  This 126 minutes film, I believe, is a timely answer to the 16 minutes controversial short film “Fitna” by Geert Wilders that portrays Islam as a religion of terrorism (shocking images, avoid if you have a weak stomach).  It is a balanced view because while the traditions are observed – such as the prayers, Islamic teaching, and how men and women should not touch each other unless they are related – it does tackle the social issues such as domestic violence, rape as well as the challenge of a polygamy marriage.

There are parts of the movie that move me a great deal.  It portrays the emotional aspect really well, certainly believable.  As someone who is a non-Indonesian, I found myself talking to Cynthia a lot during the show to seek clarification.  For instance, I did not know that during an Islamic wedding, the bride’s father holds the hand of the groom over the Quran with the bride sitting on the side and that signifies a transfer of “responsibility”.  I was quite shocked to see that as an equivalent to the Western “exchange of wedding vow”.  Also, because the dialogues have a mix of Arabic and Bahasa Indonesia and the characters who are supposed to be Arabians speak in Bahasa Indonesia, it could be quite confusing for those who does more than reading the subtitles.

An extremely slow moving movie (I think this one is even slower than “Dance of the Dragon”), what it lacks is the quality of production and a tighter and more realistic storyline.  However, for those who are into foreign movies that expose human emotions and are original – in the sense of an Indonesian student in Egypt and eventually marries a Muslim and a Christian – “Ayat-Ayat Cinta” may satisfy a different taste bud of yours.

On a lighter note, I don’t think any guy on earth would mind the headache of having Carissa Putri and Rianti Cartwright as wives.  I personally …

OK, I have watched the Fann Wong’s “Dance of the Dragon” follows by “Ayat-Ayat Cinta”.  Can you guess which one I am going to watch next?  It’s so obvious!

PS. For those who are interested to read more on Islam, check out my book review of “Islam By Karen Armstrong – A Short History”.