'Satu Nyawa' is totally amateurish<\/p>\n
Joko E.H. Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Satu Nyawa dalam Denting Lonceng Kecil (One Soul in a Ring of a
\nSmall Bell); Minus zero stars (out of ****); Horror, 90 minutes;
\nStarring Jajang C. Noer, Nana Prambors; Directed by Abi Prasidi;
\nA Prasidi Group\/Dream Station Production; In Indonesian.<\/p>\n
While several Asian countries can be proud because their horror
\nmovies (The Ring, The Eye) make worldwide hits, Indonesia, in the
\nmeantime, can only swallow this bad news.<\/p>\n
A new star rating system should be created for this shockingly
\ninept, incompetently made movie which will embarrass anyone who
\nhas ever worked in the film industry.<\/p>\n
The fact that the filmmakers are confident enough to release
\nit to public is intriguing and will tickle anyone who is familiar
\nwith Edward D. Wood Jr. who is hailed as the grandfather of bad
\nmovies in the U.S.<\/p>\n
However, while Wood's works, mostly sci-fi and horror, somehow
\nmake a hilariously campy experience for the audience, Satu Nyawa
\ndalam Denting Lonceng Kecil is painful to watch.<\/p>\n
Shot mainly during weekends in two weeks on digital video, the
\nmovie shows no hint of the filmmakers understanding the basics of
\nfilmmaking.<\/p>\n
The movie opens alarmingly badly with a fake full moon and
\nproceeds with an incomprehensible tracking shot which will match
\nany home video produced by a 12-year-old.<\/p>\n
The story revolves inside a family with a drunk father who is
\nlater killed by someone in the family and ends up being a ghost
\nwho often shows up in the house.<\/p>\n
Months after the murder, several university students move into
\nthe house and keep seeing the ghost.<\/p>\n
As you can expect, the ghost will haunt the students whose
\nnames you will not even care to remember.<\/p>\n
It is totally useless to talk about the lack of character
\ndevelopment since nobody in the cast (mostly radio DJs) seems to
\nhave any idea of how they got into this mess.<\/p>\n
Worse, there are several subplots which do not have anything
\nto do with the movie!<\/p>\n
Most of the time, you will not understand what is going on
\nbecause not only do you have to endure the jittery camerawork,
\nthe dialog is incomprehensible.<\/p>\n
Prolific actress Jajang C. Noer -- who recently won Best
\nSupporting Actress at the Cinemaya Film Festival in India for her
\nrole in Eliana, Eliana -- is wasted here in a totally laughable
\nscript.<\/p>\n
While most bad movies, including Indonesian horrors, made in
\nthe 80s, are still watchable because they were humbly made, Satu
\nNyawa dalam Denting Lonceng Kecil is very unpleasant because of
\nits pretentiousness.<\/p>\n
It is obvious that the filmmaker intended to shoot the movie
\nusing a hand-held technique a la TV series NYPD Blues, with an
\nembarrassing result.<\/p>\n
During the premiere, the audience kept laughing every time the
\nghost showed up.<\/p>\n
One thing that may make the audience stay until the closing
\ncredit rolls is to see how bad the movie gets. Believe me, it
\ngoes too far. And can anyone explain the movie's tasteless title
\nwhich has nothing to do with the movie?<\/p>\n
The movie is soon being released to local multiplexes and will
\narguably be the worst movie ever put in movie theaters.<\/p>\n
The 21 group, who own most of the film theaters in the country
\nand who keep being accused of hampering the progress of the local
\nfilm industry, strangely keep giving opportunities for local
\nmovies which actually will not pass as entertainment to be shown
\nat their theaters.<\/p>\n
The release of Satu Nyawa dalam Denting Lonceng Kecil hits the
\nalarm bells for the fledgling local movie industry because there
\nseems to be no quality control applied to movies being shown to
\nthe public.<\/p>\n
This year's Indonesia Independent Film Festival (FFII), which
\nis organized by private TV station SCTV, showed several entries
\nwhich were more suitable to be called amateur rather than
\nindependent.<\/p>\n
Several so-called independent film festivals can take credit
\nfor urging many filmmaker wannabes to start making movies using
\nany equipment they can get hold of.<\/p>\n
However, they also should take some blame for moviemakers'
\nthinking that they can feed the public with their crap.<\/p>\n
If this condition persists, our list of local movies will be
\nlong, but most of them will be movies we do not want other people
\nto see.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/satu-nyawa-is-totally-amateurish-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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