Everything's nice for director Harry<\/p>\n
Monique Natalia, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The cafe, located in a popular South Jakarta shopping center,
\nis still empty at 10 in the morning. Good, I think to myself, I'm
\nearly. But just as I'm ordering, Harry \"Dagoe\" Suharyadi arrives,
\nwearing an orange T-shirt, cargo pants, running shoes and green-
\ntinted sunglasses.<\/p>\n
\"Sorry,\" he apologizes as he gives me the standard \"celebrity\"
\ncheek-to-cheek greeting, \"I'm a bit late.\"<\/p>\n
We sit down and talk about the 31-year-old filmmaker's pride
\nand joy, Pachinko and Everyone's Happy, a film he wrote,
\nproduced, directed, edited and starred in.<\/p>\n
We also discuss his children's musical Mencari Pelangi, which
\nwon eight awards at the 1998 Indonesian Sinetron Festival,
\nincluding one for best director, and his short film Happy Ending,
\nwhich was an official selection at the Toronto International
\nShort Film Festival, as well as at film festivals in Singapore,
\nPusan and Palm Springs in 1996 (\"This is my stance against
\nviolence in the media.\")<\/p>\n
If you are wondering about his nickname, \"dagoe\" or \"dagu\" is
\nthe Indonesian word for chin and was a nickname given to him by
\nhis college buddies. And the multitalented Harry (aside from
\nmaking films, he used to write short stories for a children's
\ntabloid and plays classical guitar) does not mind the nickname,
\nand has even come to use it himself.<\/p>\n
What he does mind are people who think they are film critics
\nand go about tearing down the struggling Indonesian movie
\nindustry.<\/p>\n
\"They (the film critics) compare Indonesian cinema to foreign
\nfilms. They don't understand that making a film in Indonesia
\nitself is nothing short of a miracle. It's so expensive to make a
\nfilm here. We don't have the supporting infrastructure necessary
\nto produce a good film. Most post-production has to be done
\nabroad and it costs dollars,\" he explains.<\/p>\n
What does he think of the negative reviews of Pachinko, a film
\nthat tells the story of a woman working in adult movies to earn
\nthe money for plastic surgery on her eyes, a geisha mother, a
\npachinko-obsessed grandmother and a happy-go-lucky young
\nIndonesian?<\/p>\n
\"I feel sorry for them,\" he answers passionately. \"Why were
\n(these film reviewers) hired if they do not understand how to
\ncriticize a film? Criticizing a film is not just saying what is
\ngood and what sucks! It is finding the real potential in the
\nfilm, what the message the director is trying to get across and
\nwhether it is getting through to the audience.\"<\/p>\n
His passion can be understood considering that the making of
\nthe movie, which Harry calls an art film, was quite a juggling
\nact for the director, trying to keep everyone involved in the
\nproduction happy.<\/p>\n
The project started in 1999, when the Japanese Culture
\nDepartment granted Harry a fellowship to live in Japan for nine
\nmonths. He left with the ambition of making a film, and after
\ngetting to know the people in Japan and studying the culture for
\nsix months, he hit upon the idea for Pachinko.<\/p>\n
But why make a film about a geisha and a porn star? How about
\nchildren, for example, recalling his past success with Mencari
\nPelangi, which tells the story of young boy who polishes shoes
\nbut dreams of becoming a writer.<\/p>\n
\"Living in Tokyo, I was surrounded by those things. There were
\nno children to be found wandering around in Tokyo. They were too
\nbusy with school and extra lessons,\" he explains while sipping
\nhis strawberry juice. \"Through my new acquaintances in Tokyo,
\nmost of whom were female, I learned that their main ambition was
\nto become beautiful, to have big, beautiful eyes. 'There are lots
\nof people who are smart,' they would say, 'so I need to be smart
\nand beautiful.' Being smart just don't cut it anymore.\"<\/p>\n
As for the geisha part, he did some research that involved
\nrenting 20 films (including documentaries) about geisha, reading
\nbooks and also meeting and talking to a real geisha about her
\nlife.<\/p>\n
\"I needed to do that. I couldn't go out there and suddenly
\ndecide to make a film about a geisha and not know anything about
\nit. I didn't want to make another tourist film.\"<\/p>\n
This is one of the many reasons that Pachinko was made in
\nblack and white, why there is almost no camera movement and why
\nthe camera angle is so low. \"I was going for simplicity. Why?
\nBecause the story itself is already so complex and full of
\nconflict and emotion. I didn't want it to seem too pretty,\"
\nHarry explains.<\/p>\n
\"Also, by watching Japanese films, mostly Ozu Yasujiro's films
\n(Ozu is a legendary Japanese director whose films include Tokyo
\nStory), I learned that most Japanese filmmakers have their own
\nstyle of cinematography and their own language.\"<\/p>\n
Armed with the results of his research, Harry went ahead and
\nstarted shooting his film. Most of his crew were Japanese and
\nthis proved to be somewhat of a headache for the director.<\/p>\n
\"Being Japanese, they felt that they knew better than me, an
\nIndonesian, about geisha. At first they would come up to me and
\nask why I did this or why I made the geisha do that, and so on.
\nBut to shut them up all I had to do was ask whether any of them
\nhad actually met a geisha, and showed them the 20 films I'd
\nrented.\"<\/p>\n
But this was a minor difficulty compared to the one he faced
\nhalfway through the production. The cost of the film was going
\nway over the budget, which was coming out of Harry's own pocket.
\nThe amount needed to finish the film was the exact amount he had
\nin his bank account from the fellowship, so he finished the film
\nand spent the rest of the month sleeping on park benches and in
\ntrain stations in freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n
Harry's plan for the movie was to show it in galleries around
\nIndonesia on his own projector. \"Because I meant it to be an art
\nfilm, I didn't think that it would be played in movie theaters. I
\nwas prepared, I even bought my own projector in Japan,\" he says.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, his film was met with an enthusiastic
\nreception. Studio 21, the largest movie theater chain in
\nIndonesia, agreed to carry the film.<\/p>\n
\"I had tears in my eyes when I saw them putting up the
\n(film's) banner,\" Harry says.<\/p>\n
Even being distributed by Studio 21, it will be difficult for
\nHarry to recoup the some Rp 1.4 billion he spent making Pachinko.
\nThis, however, does not trouble is not of great concern to Harry,
\nfor whom money is the last consideration when choosing projects.<\/p>\n
\"I became a director not only because I wanted to make a
\nliving from it. Being a director doesn't mean that I will take
\nany directing job as long as there's money in it. Every time I
\ncreate something, it has to be according to the morality that I
\nhave as a director and as a human being.\"<\/p>\n
Instead, he will only direct films that he can relate to or
\nthat have a close connection to him. \"I'd rather make a film
\nabout something that I'm really familiar with. Something that is
\nclose to my daily life and to other people's daily lives,
\nsomething that is really happening in real life, in the world.
\nSomething real.\"<\/p>\n
He clearly managed to portray \"something real\" in Pachinko
\nbecause Yomiuri Shinbun, one of Japan's biggest newspapers,
\ncalled the movie a modern-day Tokyo Story<\/p>\n
\"I was so honored when the I heard that. Ozu Yasujiro is my
\nidol!\" With Pachinko garnering mainly positive reviews, Harry has
\nclearly pleased more than himself and the crew of the movie.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/everythings-nice-for-director-harry-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}