Sanubari Jakarta

Just watched "Sanubari Jakarta". Since I saw its movie posters on my local cinemas, I've been curious and waiting till this movie come. And today is the day.

The poster itself made me curious.

I won't talk much about how the plot was. You can find it here or 21cineplex. Basically,Sanubari Jakarta tells 10 short stories about 'Love'. Yeah, love melulu~ Hehehe,however,what intrigued me at the first place is  the whole stories are about LGBT relationship. Yep, 10 stories about love in Lesbian, Gay,Bisexual, and Transgender.

For me, it's not a simple stories. I have to blame Joko Anwar's exciting public lecture about symbolism in movie at my university years ago. I can't watch the movie like it is.  So many questions came out in my heads, like:

1.In the 1st story, they use red light to shoot the girl, while using blue one to shoot the boy. Why?

2.Why the director had to use one actress for 4 different characters in 'Pembalut'?

3. Especially in "Menunggu Warna." This made me question so many things.Why the guy has to wear dark apparels and his spouse wore bright--mostly white--apparel? It also makes me excited to see how they shot the gay couple decided to leave 'the religious society' with motorcycle so they can be together.  Or, how they shoot "Menunggu Warna" in black and white? What's the writer's intention? Do the writer wants to show us that we're living in a world that only see 'black and white'? Either it's straight or nothing at all. Or maybe the writer wants to show us the reality about how it will took a long time for our current society to give 'green light' for gay people the right to be together? Or may be it's simply wants to picture one man's waiting for green light to be lit so he could approach this one guy? See,how I  became questioning too much about one story?

I'm not a fan for all of the stories. What I like are:

1. "Malam Ini Aku Cantik" It's about a man who decided to be a transgender prostitute. His narration was so cool.

2. "Lumba-Lumba". It's about a bisexual mother who fell in love with her daughter's teacher.

3. Menunggu Warna. A story about a man's falling in love with another man while he's waiting for the red light in traffic light turnes into green. I love it so much, because it's sweet, touching, sad and there's so many things shown between the scenes. Plus, they don't need words to tell us a story.

4.Kentang. It's about a gay couple in one's kosan (dormitory,maybe?) room. Every time they're trying to make out, there are always things coming between them. I love it because it's so funny. I love whoever plays the 'woman' character. He's so cute~

5. Kotak Cokelat. At first I kinda confused about this story. So was the girl used to be a guy or simply used to be tomboy? Because if it's the second one, it will be too bad. I mean, sad but true, in our society, straight couple seems to be more acceptable and more likely to have happy ending in public's eye. Also if she's only used to be tomboy,this guy will be so shallow in my eyes.So he's okay with this girlfriend used to be tomboy  because now she's beautiful? SHALLOW! But after reading an article, it turns out that the girl used to be a boy. Good. So the guy's not shallow at all. He can face and accept his girlfriend's past. Not everyone can deal with it. This story give all LGBT people out there that there's a possibility of happy ending for them. :)

I have to be honest, because i'm not that of a thinker, there's confusions left  while watching stories like "1/2","Pembalut" and "Untuk A". The others.. well, it simply didn't touch my heart.

Overall, this is an interesting movie with unusual theme for Indonesian movies. But hey, it's way better than those 'what-so-called' Indonesian horror movies.  Even though there are sexual scene here and there,but it's not vulgar at all. They were just  gestures 'about to be done' or 'just finished'. Though it's a low-budget movie, this is one high quality Indonesian movie :D It shows us how LGBT life in Jakarta without being judgmental about it. So, I totally recommend it.

 I like this movie. They give us so much variations. We can see the Lesbian and Gay stories from unrequited love theme until backstreet relationships. We can see the straight couple who can't be happy with their relationship and in fact they're bisexual. Oh, and that transgender theme. At first, I thought they only showed stories about people who being transgender just because  the situation made him to be one; or became one just so she can make a point to guys that woman can be awesome,too. It turned out there's a story because one feels he's been living in a wrong body and belongs to another sex, so he did something about it.  

I really want to give this movie 10/10, but I can't.  Because there are some stories that I just didn't get. There's one story I found kinda  boring.  And also, some of the actors' acting skills need to be polished.  Lastly, I know they want to picture gay guys in reality, but why can't we have a really hot man played as a gay guy? Like, Dr.Christian Jessen gitu?

The hot Dr. Christian Jessen from Supersize vs Superskinny series. I wouldn't knew he's gay if he didn't mention it to the world. Oh well, but then, I had my suspicion, too. 

Haha, okay, the last one's just a silly reason from my mind.

Hmm, oh well, this movie may not be  perfect, but I don't mind if there will be Sanubari Jakarta 2 in the future .So, I give this movie 8/10 :D

 My thoughts about LGBT

Before I give my opinion, I'd like to say that I'm  100% straight. Yes, I like man and I want to marry one.

But, I'm so pro with LGBT relationship. In fact, I always want to have a gay friend, like Sin in Bookends, Kurt in Glee, or Tom Levitt in Smash. I get annoyed when one of my cousins being so homophobic and looked so disgusted when we met a gay man. There are celebs I like who happen to be gay, like Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, the guys from Modern Family, and so on.

Okay,okay, I know my religion taught me that LGBT is wrong and also a sin.

So it's wrong, So it's a sin and against what God and society has taught us. However, we can't just point a finger,hate them, and force them to be straight again. What rights do we have? It's not like we're saints or has no sin at all so we can judge them.

Maybe it's because I'm a hopeless romantic. I believe that everyone deserves  true love. Everyone has the right to love whoever they want to. If they choose to be in love with somebody who has the same sex as theirs, well it's their decision and I just want to respect their choice (of course as long as it's because they really mean it. Not just for fun or having same sex relationship while they still have another relationship with another people).

What?Just because they're gay, so they're disgusting,or not precious, or like You-Know-Who that will kill you? Enggak kan? So have a little understanding and respect,people. :)