Donny Alamsyah week - for me.
Since the near-death experience of Indonesian films in the 1990s, now people began to sigh a great relief, seeing more and more quality national films breathing in cinemas again (despite still alongside ridiculous horror flicks which bring more horror to us to see how badly they were made than the ghosts in them). Last week, I watched two Indonesian films, both featuring Donny Alamsyah who curiously played characters of very different ethnic backgrounds. One is a nationalist drama called Merah Putih (‘Red and White’, the colours of the Indonesian flag) and Merantau.
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!” everytime 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?
The second film I watched was Merantau, 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 give a shit 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 fucking 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 dialogues 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 coreography deserves a thumbs up, with the cameras seemingly know very well which angles can show the best of silat movements.
PS: In Merantau, Donny Alamsyah played Yayan, Yuda’s older brother, who’s done his own merantau and for reasons unclear were scolded by his parents - perhaps because he failed? A small role, but still a nicely done.
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!” everytime 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?
The second film I watched was Merantau, 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 give a shit 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 fucking 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 dialogues 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 coreography deserves a thumbs up, with the cameras seemingly know very well which angles can show the best of silat movements.
PS: In Merantau, Donny Alamsyah played Yayan, Yuda’s older brother, who’s done his own merantau and for reasons unclear were scolded by his parents - perhaps because he failed? A small role, but still a nicely done.