[Film Indie] Aku Cinta Batik (I Love Batik)

I heard about this movie from my FB friend, UdehNans. Udeh, is a stuntman and you can see him started in January next year in the hallway scene from one of the most anticipated Indonesian movie, THE RAID.



Yes, that was him, stabbed by Iko using knife. Fu fu fu fu fu..


Aku Cinta Batik (I Love Batik) was an idealistic project, made for final project of Udeh Nans' friend.

Aku Cinta Batik was directed by Versy Catur Nova also written by her. The theme was 'Batik', the Indonesian art of wax painting.

The story itself was simple. The main character, Vava (played by UdehNans the stuntman), fell in love with Ratri (played by Bimbi) the daughter of Batik merchant. To show his love of Ratry, he wore Batik to every place.




Did I tell you that 'Aku Cinta Batik' was an action movie? Because this independent movie had shown that an action movie doesn't have to be a revenge movie. The action could be triggered by something simple like, the jealousy, the immature act of someone. In this movie, the action was triggered by the act of Radit, whose jealousy insulted Batik, told the main character that he used Batik to mop the floor.


I believe, most of actors here never be in a movie, less to say an action movie, of course with the exception being the main actor himself, Udeh, who have been in various Indonesian TV series and now he would also appeared in cinemas. Since the review was asked by Udeh itself and the movie was an action movie, I will focus the review on the action itself.



The Story
The story, while it contained message to raise Indonesian audience awareness to Batik, it was simple enough to drive the action scene. You wouldn't be bored by the story.

The Action
I believe most of the actor here never been in action movie except Udeh himself. Surprisingly, they came up with a good sequence of scenes and it really gave a good time for Udeh to show off his capability from jumping the building,



to do acrobat to avoid motor cycle,
or to tell audience that the main actor, Udeh, does not afraid to be hurt.

Note that this was not a Merantau Films' movie. They have no a good safety tools and limited by time. So there were times when the move their planned was not executed well enough but those weakness were easily forgiven when we remembered how limited the fund they had.

Surprisingly, Iqbal, Ucup, and Novandy as cameraman could get the best angle most of the time. I said most. As you can see, it is easy for me to pause and take screen shot of the movie.




and Syahrul as the editor have done his job really well so all the scenes taken in several locations had successfully joined in a believable long fight sequence.

Versy (Director and Scriptwriter), Iqbal, Ucup, Novandy, and Syahrul,
believe me when I said, I seriously wait your next project.


The Martial Art Coreographer
I didn't see any fight coreographer on the credit title and while I saw some of the actors, indeed have martial arts background like Capoeira,




most of the fight scene was a 'how common people fight'. Of course, due to Udeh involvement in THE RAID, I saw some of the silat movement which probably he learnt from the project.

I can't complain, honestly. While I have too much watching Youtube demonstration of martial arts which made me lose my appetite to a lot of fight scenes in the movie, I am aware that for normal people, those scenes was good.

Of course, there are some scenes that really need to be fixed.
For example, this scenes in 11:17. Everyone can see the kick was far from the main actor's head. They should took from the other angle to remove the distance so the kick would be believable.


The other scene was in the 11:40-11:41 where Udeh ran toward a wall and flip jump backward and kick his opponents from behind.



The problem with the scene was, when it shown from the back, it was obvious that Udeh's kick didn't touch his opponents at all. Instead of taking the pictures from behind, they should take a close up between opponents' back and dummy leg. So, it is shown that the kick touch the back. This trick was used in rooftop's scenes in one of Jackie Chan's movie "WHO AM I".

Other than those two scene, I don't have problem with the other scene.

Congratulation for Udeh and his friends. I love the movie.


Title: Aku Cinta Batik (I Love Batik)
Actor:
Udeh Nans, Bimbi, Arif, Arland, Calado, Anjar, Erick, Furqon, Falah, Jaclnger, Vandamn, Eygon
Director: Versy Catur Nova
Ass. Director: Maya Puspita
Scriptwriter: Versy Catur Nova
Cameraman: Iqbal Kibo, Ucup, Novandy Pradana
Editor: Syahrul Farih
Lighting: Indra Odoy
Art Director: Havid Ali, Samid
Duration: 16 minutes 15 seconds