My DVD Stash From Indonesia Part 3 - Indonesian Films

In this post, we continue with our list of movie titles that we acquired from Indonesia. Most of these titles are comedies laced with a sprinkling of romance, a bit of sports ("Garuda Di Dadaku"), a little dancing and music ("Benci Disko"), lots of melodrama ("Menebus Impian"), and smudges of sexual innuendos ("Arisan Brondong", "My Name is Dick").

Indonesia undoubtedly makes better films than its economically more stable neighbor Malaysia ("Evolusi: KL Drift", "My Spy" with Carmen Soo - to name some representative Malay flicks shown last year 2009). There are new wave Indonesian directors like Rizal Mantovani (Did you see "The Chanting 2" shown in Manila earlier this year?) who have stagnated into doing suspense-horror films, but on the whole, the artistic input of the country is looking bright - and we are hopeful. We have yet to watch our copy of the sequel to the heart-warming "Laskar Pelangi " (Rainbow Troop) called "Sang Pemimpi" (The Dreamer) which also featuresrockstar Ariel Peterpan (who notoriously became famous worldwide after his sex videos went viral - his name trended with Twitter for several days).

I can't wait for future Indonesian titles. But how come I can't seem to get a copy of "Selamanya"(Forever)?

This is the Eye in the Sky.

Here are the DVD titles:

Title: Fiksi ("Fiction", above)

Capsule: "Fiksi" spins an intriguing tale about a lonely rich girl's obsession with a handsome writer. Variety describes it as briskly paced with well-drawn characters. Though we bought this Indonesian suspense-thriller from our Melakan visit 5 months ago, we decided to include it in this collection.

Title: Namaku Dick (My Name is Dick)

Capsule: Bama, a successful guy with women trailing him everywhere, is actually haunted by events from his childhood when a love letter he wrote for a girl in school was read aloud in class. Embarrassed, the girl swore off him, and Bama moved on. Years later, he transforms into this serial womanizer. But one morning, he wakes up alone and hears someone chatting - his dick talks!

Title: Garuda Di Dadaku

Capsule: Finally, a film that pays homage to the country's most loved sport - "football"! A prepubescent boy deals with young love and his passion for the sport, and how he won over the odds. Disneyish flick with a rousing finish.

Title: Roman Picisan

Title: Benci Disko (Hate the Disco)

Capsule: Hamdan is the local dance club's favorite habitue. Unfortunately, his popularity results to his getting 2 women pregnant. As a consequence, he marries both of them (he's muslim, after all, so it's allowed). His children grow up and embark on a rivalry that would ultimately have them help out their younger sister who's in love with a relatively unsuccessful cad. Problem is, the guy could dance like there's no tomorrow - exactly like their dying father!

Title: Cinlok

Title: Menebus Impian

Title: Kidnapping Miyabi

Title: Kawin Laris (Fast Marriage)

Capsule: Will it be marital bliss for Agus? Or will all his troubles fall through the chaos surrounding his life?

Title: Ai Lop Yu Pul

Capsule: Debt, an explosion and vengeance populate this comic narrative that stars Ricky Harun (below).

Ricky Harun joins the cast of "Ai Lop Yu Pul".

Title: Arisan Brondong

Capsule: Socialite women - "cougars, if you will - compete to have the most good looking, younger men. Indonesian, Japanese and an American woman join the fun. What becomes of Rian (Ferly Putra) after the catfight's been subdued?

Part 1 of Indonesian Movies - http://eye-in-the-blue-sky.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-dvd-stash-from-indonesia-part-1.html

Foreign DVDs From Bali - http://eye-in-the-blue-sky.blogspot.com/2010/12/bali-as-film-paradise-my-dvd-stash-in.html

N.B.

We haven’t seen these DVDs yet, but for this post, we found it hard to get plot lines and story capsules from their original DVD boxes – or even from search engines in the web. Though the films have English subtitles, the blurbs at the back are written in Indonesian Bahasa. So - we left them blank.

For queries and a whisper: eyeintheblueslyblog@yahoo.com.