Indonesian Romantic Comedy

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Since I was a teenager, I have always been interested in reading the novels and watching the videos created by Raditya Dika. Raditya Dika has been a famous Indonesian comedian for a long period of time. His novels and videos always give me a big laughter, turning my bad mood to a good mood. He has always inspired me to be happy everyday. Knowing that Raditya Dika is also known as the best director, I decided to discuss his movies, called Malam Minggu Miko the Movie (2014), Single (2015) and Koala Kumal (2016). Through the launch of these movies, he has successfully attracted more audiences’ attentions in Indonesia. His good sense of humor and creative ideas have amazed many people in Indonesia. Although his movies are not well-known globally, however, his movies definitely have become so popular locally, reaching about 1 million views for each movies. The similarity between these films is that the story is about a mid 20’s average looking man who is searching for a lifetime partner. In his movies, he showed the audiences how much efforts that the main character has to put in the process of finding the right one. These movies are different from other romantic comedy movies. The films portray a complicated love life that is usually happened in the real life. These films are incredibly good since it allows the audiences to relate to their love life conditions. Next, all of the three movies are located in Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia. The romantic scenes in these films are occurred in the ideal places which Indonesian couples mostly hang out. In this discussion, I will be discussing on how these three movies have the potential to promote Indonesia as Indonesia is still a developing country.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

Romantic comedy movies in general display good looking main characters to increase the rating views. Not to mention, the love stories are mostly unrealistic and too exaggerated (Johnson & Holmes, 2009). For example, Hollywood and Korean romantic comedy movies tend to appeal audiences to watch the movies by showing the ideal face and body appearance and lifestyle as what people usually desire for. Furthermore, the love stories of Hollywood and Korean romantic comedy movies are usually about love at the first sight and the harmonist and romantic couples which are far way from the reality. Unlike those movies, Raditya Dika’s movies display a middle class average looking guy as the main character. There is nothing special about the main character, he is merely an ordinary man, which relates to the society in general. The stories in his movies tend to be more realistic, portraying the struggle of finding the right partner with many awkward moments. The main character encounters situations which make him heartbroken, such as betrayal, rejection and false signals. Therefore, I feel that Raditya Dika’s romantic comedy movies are indeed interesting and inspiring since there are very few romantic comedy movies which carry stories that are more realistic.

 

The story of Koala Kumal is conveying the audiences that it is difficult to move on from our previous boyfriend or girlfriend, especially breaking up due to a betrayal. It allows the audiences to realize that the process to get back on the track and move on with life requires a lot of effort. In order for the main character to move on with his life, he explores different places which help him to slowly recover from his heartbroken. A place is known as an instantaneous configuration of positions. It defines an indication of stability (Certeau, n.d., p. 117). The settings which were taken in Koala Kumal (2016) are the typical places where those who are single could meet their future boyfriend or girlfriend or those who are couples could hang out together. In the film, it shows settings such as restaurant, art exhibition, cosplay performance and dating site. Places can allow people to remember the past memory that they have experienced before (Lengen, 2012). There is one scene in the film where the main character, Dika, remembered the past moment which he had with his ex-girlfriend, Andrea, when he ate in the restaurant which is their favorite spot to eat. Moreover, there is a scene where Dika and Andrea were in the art exhibition viewing the painting of koala. In this opportunity, He expressed his heartbroken feelings to Andrea through the painting. An art exhibition is an ideal place to share one’s thoughts and feelings as the surroundings tend to dig in one’s inner world. Furthermore, cosplay performance is used to encourage individuals to express their favorite imaginative characters and be creative. Not to mention, people could also share their interests and connect with one another. There is a possibility that through cosplay performance, people could release their stress and sadness. However, in this film, Dika seems to remain sad during the cosplay performance. Furthermore, dating site allows individuals who are single to meet new people whether it is online or offline. It is a good platform for people who are heartbroken to find a new partner. In this film, Dika went to meet several girls through the dating site. He met girls with different personalities and thus it helps him to gain experiences. This shows that an organization helps people to connect with one another and allows individuals to gain knowledge and experiences through the events that they encounter.

 

 

Next, the story of “Single” is about the journey of Ebi on searching for a girlfriend. He even went to clubs, hoping that he could find the right one. However, he did not succeed. Then he shared his single life experiences to the public during the stand up comedy. One unexpected day came where Ebi met Angel, a beautiful and kind girl, living in the same boarding house. There were awkward as well as sweet moments happened in the boarding house. Then Angel’s friend, called Joe, came to destruct the friendship between Ebi and Angel. Both Ebi and Joe were fighting for Angel. In this film, there were two locations that were been used in portraying the journey of Ebi on searching for the right one, such as Jakarta and Bali. Jakarta is a capital city of Indonesia. Jakarta is an urban city which are surrounded with high buildings and shopping malls. While Bali is a more traditional place which are surrounded by nature, such as mountain and beach. The film shows the lifestyle of people in Jakarta by displaying the scenes in the clubs. It is normal for people in Jakarta to enjoy their nights in the clubs as they are living in a metropolis city. Guys are mostly gone to clubs to search for girls. However, people in Bali have different kinds of lifestyle. Most people go to Bali for relaxing and connecting with nature. People tend to do activities such as watersport, skydiving and hiking. This is shown in the movie when Ebi and Joe were having skydiving competition with one another to fight for the love of Angel. The clubs in Bali are not seen as popular as the clubs in Jakarta. People in Bali usually chill and drink in the bar. In general, Bali is everyone’s all time favorite spot to travel. By using Bali as the location of the film, it helps to attract more people to watch the movie. Furthermore, this film shows realistic location which individual can meet his or her future partner, such as boarding house. Boarding house is a good opportunity to meet and connect with new people as it opens for public kitchen and living room. Kitchen and living room are potential places for individuals to build relationship where they can share their foods and chatting together. This movie also shows stand up comedy where Ebi shared his single life experiences to the public which is considered to be funny and dumb. The concept of stand up comedy has the potential to increase the humors to the movie, attracting more viewers to watch the movie. Thus, it is not surprised that the movie turns out to be good.

 

Malam Minggu Miko the Movie does not show explain much about the meaning of the locations. However, there was a scene where Dovi brought the international students to the highlight of tourism attraction in Jakarta, such as Kota Tua. In this sprawling metropolis of a city, it is difficult to imagine that Jakarta was once restricted to just a small area here around an area that was known as Batavia. Today it is called Old Town or Kota Tua and it is a reminder of the centuries of Indonesian history dominated by Europeans. In the 16th century, the Dutch set up a base here that was the center of commerce in the region. Due to its strategic position and access to natural resources, it quickly became an essential hub across the Indonesian archipelago. Oddly, though, it always remained relatively small. Just a century ago at the start of the 1900s, Jakarta only had a population around 150,000 people. Since then, it has grown to 28 million in the greater urban area. The history of that small colonial origin has almost been lost in the wave of development which has washed over the city. Kota Tua is the only place that is been preserved. Not all of the buildings have been protected as well as before. However, wandering through the streets and the main square give an impression of the European settlement that started Jakarta on the path to becoming one of the largest cities on the planet (Time Travel Turtle, n.d.). In the film, there were many people selling street foods and two ondel-ondel (Jakarta’s iconic giant dolls) joining the crowds in Kota Tua. Kota Tua has been a great place for people to spend their leisure time with family and friends. This movie allows audiences to gain an insight of the history and environment of Jakarta. It promotes Jakarta and persuades viewers to travel around Kota Tua which is an interesting place to explore.

 

In conclusion, Raditya Dika’s movies have successfully made the audiences satisfied through his humors, realistic love life stories and the beautiful locations in the movies. His creative ideas indeed deserve to get many applauses. Through his movies, there is an opportunity for Indonesia to grow as a better country as his movies display many aspects of Indonesia, attracting locals as well as foreigners to come and support Indonesia.

 

 

References

Certeau, D. M. (n.d.) The practice of everyday life. University of California Press, pp. 114-131

Johnson, K. R., & Holmes, B. M. (2009). Contradictory messages: A content analysis of hollywood-produced romantic                                   comedy feature films. Communication Quarterly, 57(3), 352-373.

Lengen, C., & Kistemann, T. (2012). Sense of place and place identity: Review oneuroscientific evidence. Health &                                         Place, 18(5), 1162-1171.

Time Travel Turtle. (n.d.) What to see around Kota Tua, Jakarta Old Town, Indonesia.     

            Retrieved from: https://www.timetravelturtle.com/what-to-see-kota-tua-jakarta-indonesia/