Last week, I had the express (dis)pleasure to see an Indonesian film. Before the film started, we were treated to an infomercial on sussing out counterfeit money. There was a female shopkeeper dressed neatly in traditional dress, the dutiful civil servant, and the glum but impeccably clean day laborer complete with extra-long pinky nail. The laborer pays for his snack and the shopkeeper checks the bill over. The laborer gets snooty at her accusation that he is passing off bad bills. The civil servant steps in and busts out the three d’s of detection of counterfeit bills. The laborer takes this all in seriousness and acts a bit like a mentally challenged person reciting the three d’s and acting plain goofy. At least he got paid.
I was bored one day and I decided to test my Indonesian language capabilities by seeing a movie. The throngs seemed to be seeing some newly released date movie; I went to the less crowded theater. The movie turned out to have some themes that I was amazed to have the censor here pass. The movie touched on themes of lesbianism, drug abuse, spousal abuse, HIV/AIDS and the extreme differences in rehabilitation and recovery facilities offered for the poor and rich. I think it tried to do too much. That and the acting made me think of blue films. Also, the association of the female lead being bathed by her maid and looking at her maid’s cleavage when she was young as a precursor to her lesbianism was a bit ridiculous. I may expect too much but I think I’ll stick to Indonesian documentary films.