2001 hints at signs of film industry recovery

Joko E.H. Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta

An unusual sight has been repeating itself at Blok M Plaza theater in South Jakarta, where teenagers wait at the entrance early in the morning to get tickets for an Indonesian horror movie, Jelangkung, which has been playing at the theater for weeks.

"I must get a ticket today, otherwise I'll die from curiosity," 16-year-old Ria desperately told The Jakarta Post.

"I've been trying for weeks to get tickets to see Jelangkung at Pondok Indah Mall (South Jakarta) to no avail, so I'm trying my luck here," she said, as echoed by her friends.

It was such a refreshing sight to witness people so eager to see a local movie. It has been quite a long time since so many have lined up at the box office -- not since last year's Petualangan Sherina was on.

The fact that there were still a lot of people wanting to see Jelangkung many weeks after its premiere showed that nobody had wanted to bad-mouth the movie.

This could be seen from the reaction of theater audiences, which seemed to be enjoying it. They laughed at the funny moments (some of which were unintentional), and screamed at the scary ones: They were involved in the movie.

The fact that it was technically far inferior compared with another of this year's most talked-about Indonesian movies -- the art house piece Pasir Berbisik (Whispering Sands), which was released not long before Jelangkung -- did not seem to bother them.

While Pasir Berbisik, directed by female director Nan T. Achnas, was beautifully (and expensively) shot on celluloid, Jelangkung was shot on video and is even shown at theaters via a video projector.

What really attracted the audiences was that Jelangkung was made with the clear intention of being straightforwardly entertaining.

"We were out to make a mainstream movie, commercial art," the movie's codirector Rizal Mantovani told the Post.

The young director agreed that Jelangkung, which he codirected with Jose Purnomo, was the kind of movie needed to rejuvenate the film industry here.

"We made a movie that the audiences want to see so we had pop culture in mind while making it," Rizal said, adding that the movie cost them Rp 400 million (US$40,000) to make.

Rizal, who is well-known as one of the first notable music video directors here, thought that a movie about an urban legend was a great idea.

"We always hear young people talking about scary urban legends, so why not make a movie about it?"

The movie tells the story of three students who, under false pretenses, visit supposedly haunted buildings in the city but then decide to go to a small village with a grim past after their project in the city fails to provide any evidence that ghosts exist.

There is nothing original in the movie, which will quickly bring to mind American offerings, including the indie-hit The Blair Witch Project and the Evil Dead series.

Fortunately, the movie hits the bullseye, as can be witnessed by the number of people who have been disappointed through failing to get a ticket.

Jelangkung is currently being screened at only the two venues mentioned earlier: Rexinema, the company that produced the movie, could only afford to buy two video projectors to show it.

The year 2001 should be noted as an important one for Indonesian cinema as it marked signs of recovery in the country's film industry.

There were at least eight locally produced movies released for public viewing this year and this is considerably more when compared with recent years.

Unfortunately, not all of them were winners as they failed to attract significant audiences.

Pasir Berbisik, for example, succeeded only in drawing people curious to watch it in the first few weeks following its release.

Despite being heavily publicized, the movie was quickly bad- mouthed by many as being a head-scratcher for most audiences.

"I have no idea what is the aim of the film. I don't know why the film was made. For me it's simply boring and confusing," movie buff Priesnanda Dwisatria, 25, told the Post.

The film, however, was beautifully shot and won the Best Cinematography Award at the 46th Asia Pacific Film Festival, held here in October.

However, since the storytelling is muddled for mainstream audiences, the film failed to attract people in great numbers.

It was also a disappointment because the film had not really decided which market to target.

This was in contrast to Jelangkung, which, according to Rizal, was clearly aimed at 15-year-old to 25-year-old audiences.

Meanwhile, other movies ended up as disasters.

Two, supposedly made for children following the phenomenal success of Petualangan Sherina last year, Joshua Oh Joshua and Bunga: Jangan Ada Dusta, were simply dead on arrival.

The two movies were badly produced by filmmakers who did not seem to understand that people had much better things to do with their time than sit in theaters watching 90 minutes of mind- numbing movie, with nothing to offer.

There was also an action flick produced this year titled Reinkarnasi, which was a shameless rip-off of everything from Jackie Chan's Armor of God to The Matrix.

Nevertheless, the movie was embarrassingly admitted as an entry to the Asia Pacific Film Festival.

It seemed these three local films were made without any awareness that nowadays audiences are more sophisticated, especially with the existence of many TV channels and more foreign movies being screened.

Another movie Jakarta Project, which was also aimed at the youth market, tells a story about a massive diamond hidden on top of the National Monument in Central Jakarta and involves the U.S. National Security Agency.

The problem is, the moviemakers were unaware of their shoestring budget for making such a big story, not to mention how ridiculous it was.

Had the movie been made tongue in cheek and not taken itself too seriously, it could have been successful.

It is high time for our local moviemakers to be aware that they should concentrate on things they have good knowledge about, since audiences have become much more critical.

One of the keys to the success of Jelangkung is that the movie is at least smart enough for its target audience.

Thankfully, there was at least one winner this year so maybe we can expect more locally produced movies next year. Who knows, it might not be too long before our film industry awakes from its hibernation!