ROMEO AND JULIET
Indonesia, 2009, 104 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Andibachtiar Yusuf.
The story of Romeo and Juliet has been told and re-told. Here it provides a basis for an Indonesian story about football fanaticism and hooliganism. Which means, of course, that the fans of Jakarta and the rival fans of Bandung become the equivalents of the Capulets and the Montagues. And the enmity is literally deadly. In this situation, a Jak is smtten by a Viking girl (the name for the Bandung fans), the latterday Romeo and Juliet.
For a western audience, this is a surprisingly accessible story (as well as for many Asian audiences, though the film has been banned from screening in neighbouring Malaysia). This is the world of young adults all around the world, students and workers, in their T shirts and jeans, with popular music, with a much less traditional approach to moral behaviour, communicating in their slang and being hostile in local swearing. It seems that secularisation is not just a phenomenon of older Christian countries but with so many of the Muslim countries in Asia or in Africa.
There is quite an amount of hooliganism and brawls in the film, staged quite realistically and, for the audience, rather overwhelmingly.
As with West Side Story and Baz Luhrman's Romeo+Juliet, the interest is in looking at and appreciating whether the contemporary equivalents of Shakespeare's plays work or not, or how well. One thing is that this picture of Djarkarta youth shows them behaving and sounding like tough youth anywhere, especially with their language and preoccupation with sex. That is the world of Romeo, who is a leading hooligan. Juliet's world is that of college and study, though she has mechanic brothers who can be as belligerent and violent as the hooligan's in Romeo's world.
And, as we know, it ends badly and tragically, just as Romeo is coming to his senses and could be the better for it.
Indonesian films are not seen widely. Audiences might be surprised at the 'universal' style of young Indonesian film-makers.
1.The popularity of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare’s version, West Side Story, film adaptations? Updatings?
2.Jakarta, the modern city, the comparisons with Bandung, Malang? 21st century Indonesia? Prosperity, buildings, the big cities? The different worlds, the fanatics, the football matches, the roads and clashes, the railway, homes, workplaces? Realism? The musical score, the piano? The echoes of West Side Story?
3.The initial information about football in Indonesia? Fanatics? Violence and hooliganism? The suggestion that it caused more evil than religion? The dedication to victims of football violence?
4.The staging of the fights, elaborate, violent? Throughout the film?
5.The Jaks and the Vikings? The different types, the brutality, the fights, egging each other on, deaths? The fanatic stories about loyalty?
6.Rangga and Desi, opposite sides, their eyes, watching each other, instant falling in love (as on Rangga’s t-shirt)? Desi and Rangga and their talking about their meeting, Desi and her family, friends, going to the campus, writing her thesis, her brother’s work, her mother’s devotedness? Her dedication and loyalty to the football? The prospects for her life? Her girlfriend and the discussions, going off to Jakarta?
7.Rangga and his friends, fishing on the boat, together, macho, their way of talking, Rangga as a character, his violence, bashing? Yet a romantic – and Desi’s comment that hooligans were human?
8.His friends, their loyalty, readiness to fight, crass language, attitude towards sexuality? The comparison with the Vikings in Bandung, Desi’s brothers?
9.Rangga and Desi together, in love, meeting, talking, the train rides, encountering the brother, the fights, their plans, the proposal?
10.The marriage ceremony and the mood?
11.The forced separation and its effect?
12.The build-up to the final confrontation, the discussions, the Vikings, the brother and his plan? Rangga and his violence?
13.The separation, Rangga and his being beaten, recuperating, going to the football match, seeing Desi? The clash, the bashings, the attack on the bus, Desi watching, the knife killing?
14.The reaction of Desi’s brother, taunting his older brother, asking him ironically whether he was happy? The emphasis of this comment for the overall impact of the film? An Indonesian 21st century version of Shakespeare’s tale of woe?
