Do you know one of the trending topics or trending lifestyles these days? Smart guess. Movies in theatre. A lot of people spent their Saturday Nights in the cinema. When it becomes trend, it naturally shaped movies into another secondary need.
If we take a further look to the titles of movie that are being shown in the cinemas these days, they’re usually are Hollywood’s made. Mostly, or in a wider point of view, they’re usually the West’s. Since the 1990’s, Asian movies have started to steal the audience attention. Movies from Thailand, China, India (what we usually called Bollywood) or even from Phillipines.
Where’s Indonesia?
Indonesia’s motion picture industry was started in 1926, with the making of silent film Loetoeng Kasaroeng by two Dutches. This film was played by local actors and showed at the Elite and Majestic Theatre in Bandung for the very first time. Since then, more than 2.200 movies have been created.
Two thousands is quite a lot of numbers. And yet, the Indonesia’s movies quality is being questioned these days, not just by the press but also by the society, mainly the more educated society.
In the 1980’s, Indonesia movies had its own great moment where it run riot in the local cinemas. Movie like Catatan Si Boy and Blok M were produced at that time and has been considered as one of the greatest Indonesian movies. But somehow, Indonesian movies quality was getting worse at the beginning of the 1990’s. Almost all of the movies being produced were concerned on the adult content! At that fragile time, the Hollywood and Hong Kong movies has taken the lead on the movie industry and the heart of the audience.
I bet everybody knows about the movie Petualangan Sherina. Petualangan Sherina and Ada Apa Dengan Cinta were two movies that have risen the spirit of Indonesian movie industry back to the line. Mira Lesmana and Riri Riza created a scarce of flash light in the grey cloud development of Indonesia movie industry since. And also, the long queue inside the cinema the whole month reflected the movie was a great commercial success. The society was ready to take a part of it, or at least it looks like it.
Afterwards, people no longer look down to the Indonesian movies. More and more Indonesian movies are being made along with the great response from the audience. The audience comes from every part of society, from the president to the housewives. And since, movie career also change into a promising job.
Some journalist from the press media gathered around to list the names of greatest Indonesian movie of all time and the movies that have hit the box office. There were 25 of each, and guess what? Only one name of the movies sits in those lists, which is Petualangan Sherina. From 25 names, only three of it produced after the 1990’s. The top three Indonesian greatest movie were Tjoet Nyak’ Dhien (1986), Naga Bonar (1986), and Ada Apa Dengan Cinta (2001). On the other hand, Laskar Pelangi (2008), Ayat-ayat Cinta (2007), and Ketika Cinta Bertasbih (2009) ranked the top three on the Indonesia’s box office.
The list I just mentioned showed that Indonesia hasn’t actually back to its golden moment.
Most audience are hypnotized by how enchanting the movie can be, especially adapted from a very popular (romance) novel. But was the movie really enchanting? I don’t think so. Movies in theatre these days is far more than just a work of art for entertainment, it’s a huge commodity, besides the opera soap in television. The question now is how the Indonesian movies arise that fast? And does the quantity of film production compatible with the movie quality itself?
The rising of the private tv station in the end of the 80’s, also affect the movie industry in Indonesia. When TVRI became the one and only national tv station, people all over the country are watching the same thing every time. And it’s lack of the real entertainment value. Now, there are tens of tv stations, you mention it. Back to the 1996-1997, telenovela thing or what so we called soap opera was a huge hit. Production houses for television then create something that the society will like, that will increase the rating. Watching Indonesian television, it only ends in one conclusion, that the people need drama and paradox.
The rising of Indonesia movies was started by the end of economic recess. It’s true that people have to go to this particular place called cinema, pay some amount of money for the ticket, but worth compare to the facility. But the pride and the luxury for people whose watching it is can’t be compared to any amount of money. For some part of the audience, movies offer a lot more ‘real’ entertainment that just some ‘cheap’ soap opera. Soap opera always end with some romance and family complication, where everything irrational is considered a coincidence.
Entering the year 2002, new Indonesian movies are being released almost every week. New films, new actors, but sometimes the plot is just similar one to another. In another word, movie has changed into a ‘potential’ economic commodity in Indonesia’s entertainment. At the end, everybody in the movie area does the same thing just to compete in numbers of audience. Ratings, just like the soap opera.
The problem is that some of production house in movie or television industry simply built their company based on the economic aim. They have forgotten the idealism which point into the art value of the movie itself. I’m not saying that our movie product is bad. No. Producers like Garin Nugroho, Riri Riza, Mira Lesmana, Nia Dinata, they produced great movies. It’s not a subjective opinion because they usually produced non-commercial movies but in the end it received a lot of award in international events!
Back to the 1980’s, Indonesia Film Festival was first held annually to give the award to the film people and lasted only for a decade. It was used to present the award for the movie people with their great achievements. Nowadays, these kind of award is easily thrown away everywhere. Big names of tv station used their rating and publicity to throw this kind of awarding events that need the society votes. Then again, they scored not by its quality but by the society taste.
Many film festivals are being held annually this days, one of them is the Jakarta International Film Festival. In this festival, those non-commercial movies from Indonesia (and all around the world) are being released, like Drupadi, Fiksi, and a lot of other names. Sometimes you can even watch the movie for free! It’s such a shame. Even for a movie like Tusuk Jelangkung, Suster Keramas, people would pay thousand of rupiahs to watch them! It just show how low the rate of education in Indonesia these days. Movies are seen by only one perspective, which is comedy.
Latest movies in Indonesia only know two kinds of theme, sex-comedy and ghosts. Ghosts reflect the people’s unrealistic behavior, indirectly it teaches the society not to struggle with their lives. Sounds simple, but it does happen! In the other hand, the sex comedy reminds us about the age of Suzanna, where the woman is simply being a subject of exploitation, and the most pathetic part is, those woman even accept that kind of role. Differentiating between the commercial and non-commercial movies only shows that most of the society hasn’t ready for the high quality movies.
It’s time for those house productions to extend their quality and the institution which called Lembaga Sensor Indonesia to considerate more about the society education than just some comedy with the lack of integrity.
People keep complaining about how low the rate of education for students in Indonesia could be. But some of these educated people forget that the simplest education in their society is through entertainment. And if they don’t care, we might considerate to reflect our moral values in this country.
ps : Wish me good luck! I'll see you soon then.
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