It is very rare for a movie to be
able to capture the imagination of a generation. And when a bunch of filmmakers
succeed in doing so, the movie itself transforms into something that is more
than a 90-minute escapism. It becomes a culture. I do not need to go to great
lengths to prove that “Ada Apa Dengan Cinta” (“What’s Up With Love”/“AADC”) is
one such movie (in Indonesia at least).
Almost everyone from my generation in Indonesia that I know of are familiar
with the names “Rangga” (played by
Nicholas Saputra in his screen debut) and “Cinta” (played by the perfect—and none of you can
convince me otherwise—Dian Sastrowardoyo), even if they have not
actually seen the film. A lot of people can recite the lines to the point where
they become parodies (with the most popular ones being: “Salah gue? Salah…..(if
you can fill in the blanks then I have proved my pseudo-theory)). A lot of
people can immediately recognize the music whenever it is on. Some people may
even remember phrases from the Rangga’s poems. The point is, when a movie (or
any event, really) is blessed with being at the right place, and at right time,
the target audience will eat it up, its stars will be typecasted, the storyline
will be copied, and the lines and
quotes will be etched in that generation’s mind for a long time as if
they have been taught in school textbooks (which got me thinking, maybe the
best way to get kids to voluntarily memorize some boring textbooks is by
capturing their imagination, but I digress).
I am one of those people that
were in awe of the film when it first reached Indonesia’s theaters in 2002. Back
then, I was in high school and I did not understand what teenagers my age were
talking about, what music they were listening to and where they hang out. Basically I was like the Amish of my school. Imagine
how I felt when I saw AADC on the big screen with hundreds of anak-anak gaul Jakarta (that’s Jakarta’s
hip teenagers for you) who I assume have all experienced what Cinta experienced
(the puppy love, the heartbreaks, the cliques, the hangouts, the concerts and
the need to be accepted by their peers). It was like getting a crash course on
“how Jakarta’s young people supposed to behave”. During the first minutes of
the movie, I was dumbfounded at the dialogue between Cinta and her clique. I
was shrinking in my seat when I saw how Cinta and her clique treated the school
nerd, Mamet. I was terrified when—I imagine—that the teenagers watching the
movie were nodding in agreement to all of the above. I remember thinking, “So those are what’s acceptable. That’s the way I should’ve talked to my
peers.” It made me question whether I was ever human.
But then, as the plot progressed,
the viewers were introduced to another character, Rangga, which was a loner and
a cynic with a penchant for poems. He did not have any clique. He spent his
time reading at the back of the school, and scoffed at the concept of “peer
pressure” which teenagers subject themselves to. But even so, Cinta was almost
immediately drawn to Rangga, like a cat to catnip, from the moment they met.
And I just realized from a recent re-viewing of this film that Cinta was the
one who orchestrated her subsequent meetings, dates and midnight strolls with
him. Like a scientist who stumbled upon something mysterious, she wanted to
know more. And surely, as with any boy and girl characters in any teen movie,
they fell in love, albeit not without some memorable bickering in between.
These bickering, is pivotal for me, as these are what made me like the movie.
One of the standout arguments between Rangga and Cinta, for me, happened during
the basketball scene, where Rangga approached Cinta to apologize about what he
said during their first outing as frenemies in a traditional bookstore. I like
their confrontation in this scene because each of them had valid points, and it
made each Rangga and Cinta (and me), got that needed slap in the face. The heated exchange went something like
this: Rangga called Cinta aside to talk privately during her friend’s
basketball match. He apologized to her about his behavior the day before. She
dismissively told him that she didn’t think about it anymore. However, seeing
that the girl kept looking at the other direction while speaking, made Rangga
called her out: “Why do you keep glancing to your friends the whole time you
are talking to me? I bet they don’t like seeing me here, do they? You too are
embarrased to be seen talking to me, aren’t you?”
When Cinta defensively responded that his thoughts are mean, Rangga went
on, “I just wanted to read the minds of people like you and your friends.”
Hearing this, Cinta’s anger intensified, “So now you can read our minds now can
you? And that makes you have the right to judge us? Whose fault is it if you
always feel uncomfortable in social settings? Is it my fault? My friends’
fault? You want to know what I think? I think you are out of your mind.”
Bear in mind that the above is a loose paraphrasing of the original
dialogue. That being said, at that time I could really imagine myself saying
the things Rangga said. He faked self pity in front of Cinta so people like her
and her group could not hurt him, because he got there first. She got great comebacks
though, since it is true that Cinta and her “people” are not responsible for
Rangga’s cynical view of the world.
Back to the movie, I honestly think AADC is wonderful. Unlike, say, Hollywood
teen movies, it transcends its genre. It is not drown is teen movie cliches.
Even if there are cliches, they don’t feel like it when I watched it. The movie
didn’t end in a party or a prom (although to be fair, it ended with a chase
through the airport), the girl didn’t fall for the guy because he’s a jock or a
rebel that needs fixing, neither of them have terminal illness, there is not
bets (as in “he/she dating her/him is actually a bet made with his/her
friends), no opposing families and they bonded over poetry and books, not due
to their time spent during a detention or community service mandated by the school
principal.
The music and the songs that fill the movie is exceptionally good too, to
the point I can dare say that the film is, in part, a musical, even if none of
the characters burst into songs at any
point in the movie. It is because the songs, rather than disrupting the scenes,
are actually intensifying them. This, to me, can be clearly seen in the much cried
over “farewell at the airport” scene when both characters professed their love
to one another. The haunting and classical sounding “Suara Hati Seorang Kekasih” (“A Lover’s Desire—okay I just made it
sounded like an X rated adult movie, but trust me, this song is good) were
playing in the background and climaxed (sorry, couldn’t resist) just in time for
Cinta and Rangga to embrace each other
for one last time.
That scene marked the last time Indonesian vievers saw Rangga, Cinta and
her friends. However, acclaimed producer Mira Lesmana and Director Riri Riza
pulled a “Before Sunset”/”Before Midnight” move, and made the sequel to AADC in
2016, fourteen years after the first movie broke into Indonesian big screens. It
involves all the main characters of the first movie, namely Rangga, Cinta and
her group of friends, living the life as thirtysomethings with all the perks
and challenges it offers. The movie opens with Cinta and clique, still as tight
as they were back then (now, do not misconstrue that), celebrating several
milestones. There is an engagement, a pregnancy, and a recently clean and sober
former addict (it goes to show that, life after a successful teen movie is indeed
usually rough). To celebrate this milestone, the girls decide to go to
Yogyakarta, a city in Central Java that is steeped in tradition, myth and
culture, old-timey regalness, magnificent mountains, awe-inducing temples, honest
to goodness food, laid back aura and friendly people (I cannot praise
Yogyakarta enough. Anyone should visit this city at least once).
In an act of serendipity, Rangga
who since the end of the first movie, has been living in New York, decides to
also come to Jogja (short for Yogyakarta) to finish some family matters. Long
story short, they finally meet in Jogja and has the much needed talk to, not
only catch up with what the other one has been doing for the last fourteen
years, but also to get some explanation, some venting up, some acknowledgement
and apologies, truce, and finally, closure, so they can move forward in life,
be it together or otherwise.
I must admit, I quite like the
idea of making the second movie sort of like a road movie. I like that the two former
lovebirds are confined by (compelled by) time and space to quickly resolve
their issues with one another. I imagine that, because they are not an item
anymore and so many years have passed, they can really say hurtful things to
one another and get on each other’s nerves like nobody’s business, when they
feel like it, like people in long term relationships often do. This does not
happen here though. There are some heated exchange of words (mostly courtesy of
Cinta) of what happened in the past, but I feel like it is played for giggles
and laughs (mind you, I think this is intentional) rather than realism.
This says about the tone of the
movie. Maybe, in order to keep this film strictly on the sweet and romantic
side, the filmmakers have decided to keep the “fights” in the romantic comedy
territory. This made the sequel lost a bit of an edge when compared to the
first one. After all, a little “You are so selfish” or “You lied” or “Why now?”
are hardly comparable to a spot on piece of character dissection hurled by the
two of them in the basketball scene in the first movie. But, this decision has
made the movie into a simple and entertaining crowd pleaser while it last, even
if it is not a mature or a substantive one.
A lot of props must be given to
the main actors who imbue their respective characters with distinctive and
consistent personality. Cinta, as played by Dian Sastrowardoyo, is still the “leader”
of her group, even if she is constantly in need of validation from other people
and almost always in fear of what her group might think of her decisions.
Rangga somehow seems comfortable in his loneliness, but begins to question some
of his choices in life, some family related, some love related and is picking
up the courage to make peace with these choices. The other characters are not
equally fleshed out, but given the limited screen time and how thin they are
written, Cinta’s friends remain amusing as a group and provide the needed comic
relief, which mostly comes from the character Milly as played by the effortlessly
comedic, Sissy Priscillia, who almost steal the movie.
However, to me, the standout
actor in the movie is still Dian Sastrowardoyo. Sure Nicholas Saputra displays
some emotional range, however, in this film, Ms. Sastrowardoyo displays
something that I have never seen from her before (no, not what you’re thinking),
that is her comedic range. As I have written above, some of the exchanges
between Cinta and Rangga seem to be intentionally made for laughs, and if the
viewers do laugh like they did when I watched the movie, it is due to her line
readings and facial expressions. One need to look no further than when Rangga
drives Cinta around Jogja. She tries to keep her cool but occasionally a
gleeful smile would escape from her lips. It is a hoot to watch. It is as if
Ms. Sastrowardoyo can command the viewers to react the way she wants them to
react, simply by making subtle (and not so subtle) change in her expression and
voice. This part of her reminds me of Jennifer Lawrence. I do not know if she
even knows that she is capable of doing comedy.
Now about the music, AADC 2 is
still scored by the talented couple that scored the first movie,
Melly Goeslaw & Anto Hoed.
While the orchestraic music and songs sound grand and big to my inexperienced
ears, none of them have stuck yet to the brain. They correspond well to the
scenes on screen, but I did not end up humming the songs on the way out of the
theatre. But then again, maybe the objective of this movie is not to compete
with the first one, which has attained somewhat of a cult status among people
of my generation, but simply to make up for lost time and bring us up to speed
with what has happened during the 14 years, just like a reunion. And like any
reunion, it might not be as exciting as we had hoped, but we sure are glad we
came to the party.
Dimas
Riyo Kusumo
Jakarta, 1 May 2016
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