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Reviews
De Oost (2020)
A Dutch colonial war movie, through the eyes of the Dutch
I was watching this movie as an Indonesian living in The Netherlands, several days before dodenherdenking and bevrijdingsdag. Because the truth is after the Dutch liberation from nazi Germany, the Dutch still tried to re-establish their colonies after Indonesia declared independence (the Dutch call them "politionele acties" (police action) while Indonesians call them "military aggression")
That brief scene where a Japanese commander beat up an Indonesian man for stealing and the main character tried to calm the Japanese commander while the Indonesian man hurried away beaten up? That's practically Indonesia's history there 😂 shameful political transfer between colonizing forces without the regards of the life of indigenous population.
This movie is, in an essence, a tragic drama. We had the intro with sailors calling the fleet returning home "terrorists" and the fleet appaled, confused and bowing their head in shame, thus setting the moral premise that the main character is constantly battling with.
So the main character Johan, resents his dad for being a nazi collaborator and this movie is about him trying to redeem himself from carrying over that shame of helping the invader. Like other soldiers, he has been told that they are doing the right thing to be stationed in Indonesia, under the reason of "liberating the nation from terrorists". As a character, this is supposedly to understand the rationale of the invading forces, that people are humans regardless, that the Dutch does not recognize Indonesia's independence and in this time period, still considers the country their country. It's quite difficult to watch the casual racism depicted on screen.
We are then introduced to a character called "the turk", Westerling (he's historically Greek though?). My heart sank when I heard his name and my Dutch partner curious of my reaction. The moment he was introduced, because of history I learned about the massacres he was responsible for, I thought I was ready to watch what was going on. The last minutes were still very hard to watch for me. It's even harder to watch when one of the character is jewish-dutch and took part in the Indonesian locals massacre because the fact that he's Dutch means more than he was Jewish escaping the period for nazi administration of the netherlands. And these were actual people, young boys drafted to fight thinking to liberate their fellow, (very different looking) countrymen. You can tell that they are still young by the immature racist and sexist jokes they make, the situation is all in all very tragic.
Johan, as a character, I believe, is a Dutch audience's substitute. He's imperfect, often means well but systematically the odds are against him. His conscience constantly challenged by the things he sees and the orders he was given, trying to make peace with the fact that they took part as an offensive force. Like when he thought he has something going on with Gita, he was confronted by the fact that she already has a life with her fiance and child, and that pleasing men is just her job, nothing more. Johan failed to consider her poverty and the war situation at the time, this his "lover's possessiveness" suddenly confronted by the huge power imbalances between Gita and him. Some intersectional feminist may interpret their relationship as the white male's entitlement over female brown bodies- that one who holds the most power cannot be genuine enough to love before they can deconstruct their power privilege. And Johan failed to do this because it was not clear for him, because to deconstruct this means admitting that he has more power than her, which means that what he has been doing is exploitative and therefore morally wrong. But you cannot expect such turn from a man trying so hard to redeem himself and you can't help but feel empathetic to him.
It's important to keep in mind that movie is made for the Dutch and is within the Dutch's perspective. It's about a nation that is trying to cope with their dark history and Johan's portrayal follows that pattern. He enjoys his stay in Java, fascinated by the culture, food, people and the language, but have to keep convincing himself that what everyone is doing is the right thing. He shrugged off the discomfort Indonesian locals in the village they visited (being polite and smiling often is the customs and says nothing about one's discomfort), noticed but looked powerless with the locals wariness of the Dutch soldiers presence, the locals confused by what he means by terrorists but never questions it knowing the little power he has as a soldier. The Indonesian locals are not really their own characters, they serve a purpose in the narrative as a piece for a moral conflict. Like the Indonesian soldier that works for Westerling, he justifies fighting by Westerling's side by saying "this is not my people, they don't like christians like me" which is a real conflict in Indonesia, where minority christians are discriminated against and often killed first during political riots. Because of this answer, Johan then re-establish his position as the "right one", 'because even this Indonesian guy says this is the right thing to do'.
And when he finally stood up to the given orders, he got shot by his mentor.
Overall, as a colonial war movie, this is not very strong add to the list. I still prefer Max Havelaar (1976) and Oeroeg (1993). The constant switch between the war era and post war era is quite confusing without a title card. I'm not a fan of the sudden tonal shift from Johan's frequent moral conflict to a straight up revenge fantasy towards the end. But it ends correctly though, with men bleeding and dying, hitting the audience with cold truth that eventhough Westerling is somewhat of a villain and that Johan killing him gives some sort of justified satisfaction, Johan still killed himself at the end because he cannot deal with the things he has done. But I must say it's a bit too in the face for me. And the way it is presented, it seems more like Johan killed himself because he got betrayed by his squad, be personally blamed for the politieactie by the society he thought was defending, and could not find a job post war. It's a tragic cycle of not being able to redeem himself despite how the movie started and it's not a very positive light considering he is supposedly the Dutch audience's substitute- as a character it might work but as what he represents, it doesn't.
Could be better.
Asrama Dara (1958)
Humble, proto-feminist portrait of dormitary women
This is a humble movie that always brings smile to my face. The script is quite theatrical, I can notice that they put the budget into a good use. The songs are gorgeous and I was taken back to 1950s Jakarta with the production design. This movie surprisingly deals with real-world themes that might still be relevant for today's women, such as children of a divorced parent, mental illness, and culturally based gender prejudices such as the obstacles of women in workforce, women that received high education, 'modern' dating culture, daily subtle discomfort of being a woman (like attracting unwanted attention in a tram). These themes have a potential to open a frank discussion within Indonesian women, it's a shame that movies like this is very hard to access. However, there are still elements that worth criticizing. I will update this review as soon as I can
Negeri Van Oranje (2015)
Unrealistic expectations of studying abroad, mediocre love story with some twists **SPOILERS**
I disagree with the review before me, this movie is the reason why you should not trust "studying abroad" movies if you ever have a plan to study abroad. Everything being shown here is a romanticisation of what it is like to study in the Netherlands. Seriously, no student drives unless you're a damn millionaire. And most students are on scholarship, as mentioned in the movie. This is contradictory. Lintang is a plain and boring character, her character fell under the shadows of the other four great main actors who truly showed their talents in playing their characters. Unlike the premise, they rarely talked about the dreams of each of the character, well, because it's a romance movie. Everything just had to revolve around Lintang being courted by (SPOILERS) three of her friends. Everything revolves around breakups and courting in between these five students and surprise, they don't even study at all. Although I am a bit surprised by this movie's mature approach to the sensitive subject matters such as sexual orientation and religion, the cheesy romantic scenes and the cliche narrative-story telling unfortunately override its potential as most of the character's life stories are not being explored in depth. I, for example, could not sympathise with Lintang, she seemed like a caricature: a passive, feminine, rich woman, and honestly, she had a personality of a wall. Although if that's what the director was going for, then the actress did a good job. Hell, I don't even remember what Lintang studied as her existence seemed to depend on her interactions with other people!
On the other hand, the cinematography is beautiful. The movie truly showed the beauty of the Netherlands (yes, even the robbery scene). The soundtrack can be a bit too much, but that is to be expected from these kinds of movies. A decent movie to watch if you have a leisure time. Strangely enough, with all of the main characters being students, none of them were shown their struggles while studying or even adapting to a completely different culture and language than Indonesia! They are in the Netherlands as if it is something they do everyday! Horribly inaccurate in this matter. How about homesickness? Bureaucracy in the indonesian embassy? housing difficulties? Discrimination/racism? Being very short? Seasonal time shifts and its effect on their sleep? Having to schedule video call with family at their home country 6 hours in advance? Getting lost? Rarely eating rice? Adapting to a completely different teaching method? Mental stress or heck, bicycle accidents? There are so much more materials you can use in a movie about studying in the netherlands as an indonesian student instead of focusing on the romance!
However, as a romance, the story worked out quite well although I can argue that the ending is not properly executed. The love story seems to be taken out of some otome game, with all the guys with distinct personalities (well, except one) liking this one, generic, girl. She could've shown more expression and character instead of just being 'elegant', 'feminine' and occassionally saying iiiih kok gitu sih to her friends' pesterings. Otherwise, the acting is the best thing about this movie, the characters come to live, translates well into the story-telling, and their friendship seems realistic enough.
However, I'm still quite disappointed because I have a lot of expectations on movies about studying abroad. I think this is the time Indonesia has to make a movie that is more realistic about studying abroad instead of solely focusing on the romances and the merry touristic exploration of the country that only serves as a setting. Due to their previous intention of studying in the Netherlands, I think it is only natural for me to expect some scenes of them studying and to see their lives revolve around studying. While in this movie, the Netherlands only serves as a background setting where every event happened. It does not hold any major significance to the plot other than for aesthetics reasons. Frankly, you can move the setting to Jakarta, take out the travel scenes, and it won't make any difference as a romance movie.
Could have been so much better, 5/10
Tiga Dara (1956)
A humble portrait of Indonesian family with a great sense of humour (English)
Not gonna lie, I was entirely skeptical when I first saw the advertisement of this movie in Instagram. I thought it will be just a corny love story with soap opera undertones, but what I have watched totally exceeded my expectations.
This film is one of the earliest example of Rom-com musical in Indonesia, and the people who worked to restore this movie into 4k resolution really knew their job. The story is quite humble, it's about three sisters with different personalities who live with their father and their grandmother. The eldest, Nunung (Citra Dewi) is forced by her grandmother to get married because she will turn 30 next year. And the rest of the story is a series of comical matchmaking attempts and funny misunderstandings, all of them accompanied by charming vintage songs.
Other than providing the portrait of family life, it also managed to become a sweet romance story. Every actors did their job really well, I feel like nobody outshines each other but instead, compliments each other's performances and their chemistry is strong. The characters are not one dimensional, they all have flaws and sympathetic moral points. Plot-wise, the story's depiction of Indonesians living in the 50s is quite realistic and genuine, especially viewed by the sister's interactions, the family situations, the language and early hints of desiring more freedoms from gender stigma for young people in those years. The songs are very memorable and melodious, I was impressed by the actress's and actor's vocal capability. The songs somehow sounded like they had Malay and Hollywood influences, but that's a good thing.
Even though this movie had its soap opera moments (frozen in place while waiting to be struck by vehicle, dramatic fights all because they love the same man, tearful excuses), they were never the ones that really irritated me because they were actually convenient to the plot.
And the modern cinema audience's reaction to the film really surprised me. I thought it was 'not cool' to watch black and white Indonesian movie, but we really managed to appreciate this movie that won the FFI prize in 1960. We were laughing, pouting in annoyance, and cheered to root for the characters. When the movie ended, the whole studio erupted in applause and even some them gave a standing ovation, as if congratulating Usmar Ismail for making this timeless gem.
Completely exceeds my expectations, and I, as a young generation, was but very enchanted by the magic of black and white cinema and thoroughly entertained by this masterpiece