Aftering reading the brief history of Indonesian film industry, I’m not surprised to see the quality of Chants of Lotus anymore. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_Indonesia ) It is understandable to be a not-well produced movie. Indonesian start to produce independent movie in the 1990s, and till 1999, there are only 7 national productions. In the 2000s, ‘post-Suharto era,’ with the growth of domestic industry, the censorship are loosening, people begin to pay attention to formerly banned “adult” themes like sex, love, religion, race, etc. In the 2010s, transnational production around “talent” become popular, and Chants of Lotus comes out at this moment. The young directors attempt to talk about the social issues. The movie is based on a documentary research on several topics about women, ‘what the life like a woman’, ‘how women everyday life like’, etc. They attempt to discuss about the identity as women.
Just my personal bias, I am not a fan of “realistic movie,” the movie that reveals society problems and advocates society to pay attention to the dark cruel reality around them. Compare to their identities as filmmakers, they are more like social activists. But I do appreciate their effort to show the heart-breaking things happening in the world on normal women and try to wake people up and open the eyes to see the world.
Chants of Lotus is a 4-part omnibus film and tells the tragedies of 4 women. Directors attempt to discuss abortion, teen sex, child sex trafficking, and AIDS issues. The movie is fill up with abundant violate, sex, They attempt to show us the “reality” of contemporary society of Indonesia and let people notice and hear women’s voice. But they failed. I do see the society issues, such as how women being ignored, how women being abused, how violate this society is, how horrible the teenage education is today. Then what? They failed to discuss and figure out the reason. It’s not working. Let alone the poor editing, inconsistent storytelling, and bad acting. In the Indonesian film history, Chants of Lotus might be a remarkable movie, because of the censor content, but in the world film history, it is not artistic, it is not deep, it is just ok.
This movie reminds me of “A Touch of Sin” directed by Jia Zhangke in 2013. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/movies/a-touch-of-sin-four-tales-from-china-by-jia-zhang-ke.html?_r=0 )Jia Zhangke is a typical director who only makes the type of movie – the type that reveals society darkness reality and goes to all kinds of film festival then wins a lot of awards.
In my opinion, a movie is more than storytelling; it is an art expression of politics, history, literature and philosophy. Also for the movie that is spreading around the world, it is a representation of this country. I’m not judging, but the movie will affect your opinion on the people, culture, society, and government in Indonesia. If the directors really want to reflect the serious issue happening on the Indonesia women, they should make a documentary rather than a movie.
(Act of Killing is a remarkable documentary, it is deep, shocking, real, and far better than this one.)
