|
Posted on 07.07.09 by David @ 8:49 am
 AKA: Pintu Terlarang Review By: David Austin  On the basis of this year’s Forbidden Door and last year’s Kala, Joko Anwar is one of the most fascinating new talents working in genre cinema. His work is a far cry from the extremely fun but trashy Indonesian films of the 1980s, like The Warrior or Mystics in Bali, and he deserves a far wider audience. It is a shame that the lack of exposure of Indonesian cinema has resulted in his almost total obscurity outside of his own region. Anwar achieved success in Indonesia with a couple of well-received social comedies, but turned 90 degrees with 2007’s Kala, a paranoid modern noir with its feet set firmly in the world of supernatural. Influenced as much by J-horror as by Roman Polanski thrillers like Chinatown and The Ninth Gate, Kala is a masterpiece of apocalyptic atmosphere and one of the rare films of the last few years to send a genuine chill down my spine. Kala features all the noir hallmarks – femme fatales, hardboiled detectives, corruption, and a mystery plot that spirals into terror - as well as uniformly excellent performances. Were it not for an ill-advised and poorly-executed turn into Night Watch-style fantasy mythology in the last act, which, unfortunately, tarnishes the entire experience, I would say that Kala is one of the best films of the decade. Forbidden Door does not quite reach the heights of Kala, but nor does it sink to its lows. Filed under: Movie Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Good ★★★ and Movie Reviews: Indonesia and Film Festivals: New York Asian Film Festival 2009 Comments: 1 Comment |
|
Posted on 05.05.08 by Jeff @ 3:54 pm
Country and Year: Indonesia (1979)  In recent years, the Mondo Macabro DVD label has provided Western viewers with easy access to the colorful world of Indonesian exploitation cinema. Highlights have included the delirious Virgins from Hell (which splits the difference between Russ Meyer’s early work and a Cannon action movie) and Mystics in Bali, one of the most notorious films in the East Asian “black magic” genre. Mondo Macabro has now added another “black magic” film, Queen of Black Magic, to its collection. Just like Mystics in Bali and many other “black magic” films, Queen of Black Magic tells the story of an innocent who falls under the influence of an evil sorcerer and is exposed to the weird world of magical rituals, floating heads, blood, snakes, maggots, and other gross stuff. However, QoBM is a much more polished piece of filmmaking than Mystics in Bali. While Mystics in Bali is basically a series of bizarre special effects sequences connected by only the loosest of narratives, Queen of Black Magic is a flat-out melodrama. Fans of Mystics in Bali should have no fear, however, as QoBM definitely delivers the goods, particularly in the final third of the film, which features all of the exploding people, flying body parts and sorcery duels that fans of the “black magic” genre have come to know and love. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and Rating: Good ★★★ and DVD Companies: Mondo Macabro and Movie Reviews: Indonesia and Contributors: Jeff and DVD Reviews: Indonesia Comments: 2 Comments |
|
Posted on 01.14.08 by Jeff @ 6:42 am
Country and Year: Indonesia (1981)
There are weird movies, and then there is Mystics in Bali: the film against which other weird movies are measured. While some weird movies are 90-minute freakouts devoid of any comprehensible plot, and other weird movies contain startling moments interspersed with long, boring narrative sequences, Mystics in Bali strikes the proper balance between craziness and an interesting (albeit awkwardly told) story. The film tells the story of Cathy, a young Western lass who is determined to learn about Indonesian black magic. With the help of her Indonesian boyfriend Hendra, Cathy tracks down an ancient witch known as the Queen of Leaks. (That’s pronounced “lay-ack”.) Cathy convinces the Leak Queen — a shriveled, cackling hag who sounds like an evil Yoda — to teach her black magic. Over the course of several evenings, the Queen — who has the power to transform, alter and levitate herself — inculcates Cathy in the dark arts. The Queen paints mantras all over Cathy’s body with her elongated tongue, does a strange ritual dance, and causes Cathy to shoot out a forked tongue like a serpent and transform into a pig, among other fun stuff. Filed under: General and Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Rating: Good ★★★ and DVD Companies: Mondo Macabro and Movie Reviews: Indonesia and Contributors: Jeff and DVD Reviews: Indonesia Comments: None |
|
Posted on 09.04.06 by David @ 2:00 pm
AKA: Golok Setan Review By: David Austin  If what the movies teach is true, I want to move to Indonesia. Apparently the entire country is populated with snake queens, crocodile men, witches with removable heads, and armies of busty biker babes in pleather. Indonesian film studio Rapi Films experimented with a lot of different genres during its heyday, including ninja-sploitation (The Warrior and the Ninja), women-in-prison films (Virgins from Hell), and war epics (Hell Raiders). The Devil’s Sword clearly aimed to ride the coattails of 1982’s mega-hit Conan the Barbarian, combining it with the formula that made their indigenous sword and sorcery series The Warrior (Jaka Sembung) so successful – wild costumes, over-the-top violence, and martial arts courtesy of Barry Prima. Finally, the filmmakers overlaid the proceedings with a prog-rock synth score guaranteed to remind you that the film was made in the ‘80s.  Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Good ★★★ and DVD Companies: Mondo Macabro and Movie Reviews: Indonesia and DVD Reviews: Indonesia Comments: 1 Comment |
|
Posted on 01.05.06 by David @ 3:40 pm
AKA: Perawan Disarang Sindikat Review By: David Austin
Virgins from Hell kicks off in grand fashion with a veritable army of busty biker chicks in leather short-shorts whooping ass on a gambling parlor, tearing around on dirt bikes, and crashing through walls in battle jeeps adorned with skulls-and-crossbones. It’s as good as it sounds. Most people probably won’t need to know more than that to decide if this is the right movie for them.
VFH is a pure product of the ‘80s, a bastard child of the Roger Corman Filipino women-in-prison (WIP) films, and Golan and Globus’s patented low-budget Cannon cheesefests like American Ninja. Indonesian artisans added their own touches, ratcheting up the gore while combining obviously exploitative subject-matter with a demure ban against nudity. This is the kind of movie where the girls have catfights and shower together, but do it in their bathing suits. (Click Here To Read More…) Filed under: Movie Reviews and DVD News and DVD Reviews and Contributors: David and Rating: Good ★★★ and DVD Companies: Mondo Macabro and Movie Reviews: Indonesia and Movie News: Indonesia Comments: 4 Comments |
* 
