Teen flick 'Untukmu': An insult to intelligence

Joko Anwar, Contributor, Jakarta

New Indonesian teen flick Untukmu (For You) should have come with a warning about its hazardous content. It is guaranteed to keep your mouth open for so long that you may not be able to close it again.

The movie, proudly brought to you by Asun Mawardi, the producer of the horrendous The Black Magic, is so unbelievably inept in almost every department that it insults even its target audience and anyone who can count from one to 10.

Or, it may give you stomach cramps from laughing throughout this unintentionally hilarious movie, which makes local teen flick Catatan Si Boy (Boy's Diary) in the 1980's seem like an Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Film.

First, let's take a jab at the film's storyline that seems to have been written by a chap with an underdeveloped ability to write a movie about college kids or someone too old (septuagenarians and above), and who is completely out of touch with how young men and women live today.

The story centers around a university where a new, rich male student (Okan Kornelius) has just transferred from another college. He is (supposedly) very charming and (supposedly) a very good basketball player.

He immediately catches the attention of a (supposedly) sultry, rich female student (Yunita David) who vows to make him her boyfriend.

Meanwhile, the new guy is having difficulty coping with his new classes and gets an F for Statistics. So he seeks help from a (supposedly) smart female student (Asty Ananta) to give him tutorials.

As you may have guessed at this point, the new guy and his tutor fall in love with each other. Conflict arises when the new guy's friends, including the sultry girl, do not approve of the relationship.

The latter manages to find out the smart girl's classified background: She was adopted. They then use this big, (supposedly) embarrassing secret to separate the two people in love.

In a scene too mind-bogglingly hard to believe, the bad guys mock the nice girl by exclaiming, "You are adopted child! You are adopted child!". The (supposedly) mature, clever girl runs away in tears.

Are they sure they are not making a movie about kindergarten kids here? My God!

After the incident, the new guy is angry with his friends and leaves the basketball team. But no need to worry, my dear readers, since for no apparent reason, the sultry girl suddenly realizes that she has been mean and apologizes to the nice girl.

In a corny closing, the new guy, apparently ebullient with the progress of the romance so far, turns into a hero by showing up at the last minute when the college's basketball team was on the very verge of losing a game. That's it. The end.

Please note that we are fully aware we have given away the ending of the movie but it matters not -- the movie's official website, www.untukmuthemovie.com, does it too.

If you think the plot is already as thin as a flake of dandruff, wait until you hear the hokey dialogues that will make even junior high school kids howl in pain.

It's made even worse by amateurish performances with miscast actors.

TV presenter Okan Kornelius, whose expressions range from A to somewhere near B, does not possess the slightest charm to be a charming guy.

Meanwhile, newcomer Asty Ananta wears a new haircut and make- up that makes her look like a photocopy of the similar character in hit teen flick Ada Apa dengan Cinta? (What's Up with Love?) played by Ladya Cheryl.

In its press kit, the producer boasts the movie is the first Indonesian production to use cutting-edge music score and real rap songs.

Yeah right. They must have been talking about the wrong movie since the music in Untukmu is simply tasteless and appears to have been taken from an album that failed to be released and was shelved in the '80s.

In fact, I suspect producer/director Asun Mawardi is inspired by his love for an old Indonesian song from the late 80s, also titled Untukmu, which he made the theme song of this embarrassing movie.

OK, the producer deserves credit for shooting the movie on celluloid, which means that they were willing to spend more money in production rather than using the cheap, ugly digital video medium that most local film producers do.

However, Untukmu can't help from looking cheap as it was not supported by a competent art department.

The poorly conceived sets seem to have virtually cut the production value of the relatively expensive movie by more than half.

And whoever approved the costume prepared by the wardrobe department should be thinking about finding another career.

There is a scene where our nice girl shows up in a party in slow motion and (supposedly) surprises everyone since she (supposedly) looks dashing wearing a (supposedly) beautiful gown.

Teen girls and boys who were watching the movie with me could not help but burst out laughing at the scene since the girl looks like she has just emerged from a very seedy beauty salon.

Even if we put aside issues of taste such as music, costume, make-up, etc., the movie still has to deal with basic technical issues.

The picture is often out of focus and plagued by a jarring use of lens filters that ignore the picture's continuity.

The producer also bragged that the movie was the first Indonesian film to utilize aerial cameras. That may be right but who cares about such cameras when they can't even pan correctly? In short, this movie's shots may only give you a headache.

For those who only want to see the Indonesian film industry grow, we can only hope that this kind of extremely unprofessional effort will not scare away Indonesian audiences from watching our local movies.

-- I-box

Untukmu (For You) Drama/Romance, Zero Stars (out of ****) Starring Asty Ananta, Okan Kornelius, Yunita David, Ali Syehan, Ika Eviolina. Directed by Asun Mawardi