[REVIEW] BATTLE OF SURABAYA

[REVIEW] BATTLE OF SURABAYA

It's been a long time we didn't make any movie review. Guess it's a right time to make one. This time we're bringing an Indonesian movie, Battle of Surabaya to spotlight. For a time being the movie only have been being distributed in Indonesia only. The movie is expected to be distributed worldwide since there is already an agreement between Mataram Surya Visi, Ltd. (MSV Pictures) with Walt Disney Asia-Pacific. MSV Pictures is subsidiary company owned by STMIK AMIKOM, a private IT college/academy in Yogyakarta. The movie spends 3 years and Rp15 billion (US$ 1 million) to come to fruition.

STORY

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PRE-EVENT

Aug 06, 1945

The United States dropped an atomic bomb named Little Boy to Hiroshima during the final stage of the Second World War, marking the war is closing to the end.

Aug 17, 1945

Indonesia declared their independence following the bomb incident and numerous pressure from the youngster. Indonesian people is elated. The celebration is held throughout country. But the peace is soon to cease.

Sept 02, 1945

Representative of Japan stand aboard USS Missouri signing Japanese Instrument Surrender, the formal written agreement of Empire of Japan surrender. The ship was harbored in Tokyo Bay. The Second World War is truly ended. Even so, it drew curtain back of another war in another corner of world. The war is back to arise.

Somewhen between Sep 03 and Nov 10 in 1945

As the winner of war, British as the member of Allies demand for Dutch East Indies domination right. Coming along with and through Netherlands channel, they want to secure the right. There is already a lot of incidents in Surabaya. Following the incident of Dutch flag-torn by pro-revolutionaries youth, the tension of battle is increasing. War could be happened anytime. It is only a matter who attacks first. The independence had been declared, but nation sovereign is questioned. The sky is turning red again, a boys' warning. 

 

"It's not about war. It's about humanism. It's the matter of honor and freedom." - Musa

MAIN SETTING

Musa is an ordinary shoe-polisher. He just wants to live a simple life. Fully eat and and comfy sleep. But ever since the war the food price is skyrocketing due to lack of supplies. He has to work more in order to maintain a sufficient life in addition to taking care of his sick mother. Yet his stall is taken by Yumna. Annoyed by her, Musa decided to leave. Yumna catch him up right away and giving him a traditional snack to make up for her mistake.

Kaliasin subdistrict is under surveillance of Japanese army. The Indonesian army needs someone to keep the communication under control. Musa is close to the army and he is considered the most convenient to infiltrate the strict guard so he is chosen as a courier. Supervised by Danu, Musa later finds Yumna is on the same boat with him.

Musa has to deliver mail in any range of type, from classified mail contained how to encrypt news to hearty message of the sender to their beloved one with his life at stake. Meanwhile, a mysterious organization called Kipas Hitam was keeping an eye for him. In the last stage prior to one of biggest battle in history ever, the past and the fate of Musa, Yumna, and Danu is soon to intertwine by the irony of fate.

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The overall plot is actually really good in my opinion. Unfortunately, it's not neatly arranged. It seems there is something missing in some scene or some might be overlapped. There is a scene that Danu has been getting further from Yumna but a few seconds after Danu is as close as before he goes. Due to this condition, the character development is getting vague. 

Even so, thanks to nicely described of characters past, the character development is getting steady as the story moves forward. Each of characters possesses distinctive past and it builds their very choice and thought regarding the war tension. Ultimately, they successfully brought out their message, "There is no glory in war". The trauma of war has been told without a far-fetched melodrama.

The movie is carried out with thorough examination of historical reference apart from the fictional character. As the matter of fact, the fictional character is really worthwhile to develop the story and triggers some weighty moments of characters. As expected, the movie is presenting simple Suroboyoan, local accent of Surabaya people, as well as its curse and expletive as jest although for a while. 

The movie is intended to be enjoyed by everyone in regards to various ethnic group and religion in Indonesia. In order to aim for those thought, they as well present another local accent besides Suroboyoan and various praying or worship. The joke works well and it's really hilarious. Those trivial is really useful to relieve the stiffness of the dialogue. Instead, it's one of attractive point of the movie.

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              STORY            ||  A-  ||

STORY AND PLOT                       ||   7.43  ||
      * INTRODUCTION & CONCEPT       ||   7.5   ||
      * PLOT                         ||   6.0   ||
      * ENDING & TWIST               ||   8.8   ||
                                     ||         ||
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT                ||   9.67  ||
      * BACKSTORY                    ||  10.0   ||
      * STORY TIE-IN                 ||   9.0   ||
      * EMOTION BUILT                ||  10.0   ||
                                     ||         ||
FOUNDATION & TRIVIAL                 ||   9.0   ||
      * JEST & FANSERVICE            ||  10.0   ||
      * HISTORICAL REFERENCE         ||   9.0   ||
      * LOCAL CONTENT                ||   8.0   ||
        (ACCENT & EXPLETIVE, DETAILS)||         ||
                                     ||         ||
AVERAGE                              ||   8.70  ||

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VISUAL

The opening sequence sometimes was like storytelling with a little motioned drawing. I don't know what it's called but it's often used in game and in another major animation to summarize the story prior to movie setting. It's really smooth given its their first time to show on big screen. Things get different when the main setting takes place.

The whole animation is neither terrific nor terrible. It's good but it needs more improvement. The animation sometimes is rendered patchy, some times erratic, yet the battle part is cool. They also show slow-motion of bullet shot in one or two act and whorl blitz attack to immobilize enemy in certain range. The latter is awesome though. They also use 3-D model eventhough the whole animation is actually 2-D. Some of the 3-D model looks like strange from Minecraft.

Worry not. The movie has another best part untold. First, the movie is really clever to find the right angle of viewpoint so that the audiences won't get any boredom for viewing another angle again and again. Second, the background is really well rendered. Despite the difference of the dimension in some scene, the background can work well in unison with the character. By applying the right contrast and color tone, the background and the character compensate each other. Well done. The last part, altough there is only a little in amount, the armament and historical building is properly depicted. They did research and took details into account. From Kempetai Building to Dnepr M-72 and its sidecar that used by Danu, everything is just right as it is.

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              VISUAL            ||   A-   ||

ANIMATION                              ||   9.33  ||
      * OPENING SEQUENCE               ||  10.0   ||
      * 2D ANIMATION                   ||   8.0   ||
      * SCENE VIEWPOINT                ||  10.0   ||
                                       ||         ||
CHARACTER DESIGN & SETTING             ||   8.5   ||
      * CHARACTER DESIGN               ||  10.0   ||
      * 3D ANIMATION                   ||   6.0   ||
      * SETTING & SUPPORTING UNIT      ||   9.5   ||
        (ENVIRONMENT, BUILDING, ARMS & ||         ||
        VEHICLE)                       ||         ||

                                       ||         ||
AVERAGE                                ||   8.917 ||

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AUDIO

I think the BGM is the very best part of this movie. It's really majestic and pretentious. With the latest technology of Dolby right now, the BGM is like to encourage you to set loose of your emotion even more. The music as if its whisper to you about Musa's bravery, the sadness and the ambition of the characters. And all of those come at the right moment.

The notable artist makes contribution to the voice act such as Reza Rahadian as Danu and Maudy Ayunda as Yumna. Musa is voiced by Ian Saybani who has voiced many characters of adapted animation for Indonesian television. In an ironic manner, Danu here is one of main characters but his appearance and voice is only as many as Cak Solihudin, a fellow soldier as well as the funniest character in the movie. The character voice is  really owning the character but it's too bad some part.
The closing soundtrack is sung by third-place winner of Netherlands' X-Factor 2013, Angela Nazar.

 

"There is no glory in war. Never holds a grudge, son." - Musa's Mother

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              AUDIO       ||   A   ||

VOICE ACT & CHARACTER          ||   9.0   ||
BACKGROUND MUSIC (BGM)         ||  10.0   ||
SOUNDTRACK                     ||  10.0   ||
                               ||         ||
AVERAGE                        ||   9.667  ||

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              FINAL REPORT       ||     A-    ||

                      point      factor    point*factor (x)
STORY             ||   8.70   ||   *3   ||     26.10     ||
VISUAL            ||   8.917  ||   *2   ||     17.834    ||
AUDIO             ||   9.667  ||   *1   ||      9.667    ||
                                        ||     Σx/60     ||
WEIGHTED AVERAGE                        ||     8.9335    ||

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-FINAL NOTE-

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The movie should be given another title since it doesn't really tell about the Battle of Surabaya nor the reason behind its happening. It could be more like "A Dawn before Battle of Surabaya" or "The Courier" or something else like that. The movie is good enough to be enjoyed by overseas audience or even worldwide. The process of adaptation is ongoing right now such as voice-over and sing-over in English version. The name will also get changed to match the taste of the global audiences. 

Even in lack of resources state, the movie has been answering people expectation and challenging for even more. There is still alot homework to be done. Over all, this movie will be renowned for the one which swiftly change the face of animation industry of Indonesia. The resilient industry that has been compressed to recoil for a long time will take their time to spring back.

"MERDEKA!"

Source: official site (link embedded above), imdb, Wikipedia, The Jakarta Post
Disclaimer: Every opinion is reperesenting ideas of personal and/or entities