 Thanks for checking out this movie review video So this is for the 2019 film in pedagore and it's a shutter original and it hits shutter on Thursday July 23rd when I'm putting this review up. It is ahead at that time So since that's a case this will be a no spoilers review And I will say off the off the bat if you don't want to go too much further into the review But please do I appreciate that I would say definitely check this out This is one of the films that when I hear shutter original I'm hoping we really get because it looks good. It's got an interesting story to it It's not a perfect film, but it is one of the better films that are shutter originals It's kind of always a mixed bag, you know Like like any film really like sometimes you get something that's really not that great Sometimes you get something that you're like and sometimes you get something that's real nice and this one like I said It's not a perfect film. It's not like my favorite film ever But it's quite good and I highly recommend that you check it out at least once definitely worth one viewing So this is actually I think the very first Indonesian film I've ever seen if I've seen any others It's it's probably only been one and I just can't recall at the moment But I think it's my first Indonesian film now that said at least early on in the film There's some very rapid-fire like fast exchange in a non English language What do they speak in Indonesia? I don't think it's Indonesian. I don't think that's the Javanese Javanese is a language in this but I'm not I don't think that's what they're speaking, but anyway that that's a side note That doesn't matter so it Exchanges were kind of fast and I'm not a super fast reader especially subtitles So I was missing a little bit of stuff in the very beginning But trust me that does actually slow down quite a bit when they get further into the film It's just for that pretty much for that beginning segment before the opening credits is where it's like a rapid fire Back and forth, and it's a little hard to follow after that definitely calms down slows down. So that's all good This is written and directed by Joko Anwar who did the films Jakarta Undercover Dead Time Ritual not the one on Netflix and Satan slaves, which I believe Satan slaves is Currently on shutter. I think I'm pretty sure That's not all the films this person's done, but that's just a few I just picked out to give you that info on So quick non-spoilery synopsis of this film It's about a woman named Maya and her friend and she has a weird Thing happened in the very beginning of the film, which obviously I'm not going to spoil that prompts her to kind of start looking into her past and further to travel back to where her parents used to live to kind of look into her family basically and When she gets there the there's there's some weird stuff about the village And that's all I'm gonna tell you and that you should definitely watch the film Beginning events actually do a really good job of creating some mystery to this film And it makes you really wonder like where is this actually going and there are a few moments throughout the film where they just kind of like place little breadcrumbs in a sense of Things that kind of pique your interest a little bit more. It's like here's a little piece of the puzzle Here's a little piece of the puzzle here's a little piece of puzzle And even if you're following those little pieces of the puzzle, which I assume you are if you're watching it You're not going to know what's going on in the end really most likely So I'll reiterate that a little bit later and kind of expand upon that but you know Gonna get to other stuff at the moment The beginning credits actually kind of mess up the flow like the momentum of the beginning of this film because it starts By really doing a good job of grabbing you like I said it creates this mystery and yours like what is really going on here This is interesting and then they do the opening credits, which I understand why the opening credits look the way they do but it's Dedicated time to the credits on like a pretty much blank canvas And you're just seeing the credits come up and it feels like it drags on forever This is one of those instances where I wish they wouldn't do the credits at the beginning Just do the credits at the end of the film or if you're gonna do them in the beginning have stuff going on at the same time And have it like down in the corner or something like that Just having it dedicated to the credits it really messes up the momentum of what just happened in the film And that's one of my complaints with this film Granted it's not a big one There's something very intriguing that happens to the main character Not long after the credits and this is yet another little piece of the puzzle It's as as interesting as the first thing is that happens as character The next thing is weird But like weird in the most intriguing way so used to be like what is going on here very interesting Definitely grabs you at that point. I mean it already grabbed me in the beginning and then it grabbed me even further there but Unfortunately, I do feel like there are a lot of moments or stretches of this film where it slows down a lot and that's a little bit unfortunate because It's like an hour and 45 minutes ish The runtimes like an hour and 47 minutes, but obviously there are credits in the beginning and at the end So it's probably close to like an hour and 43 minutes or something like that total And it feels long at times and that really sucks. I really think that This is probably my biggest criticism of the film There's it definitely should have been edited down a bit to kind of keep it moving faster That said I still think it's worth seeing in its in its current iteration I think it's definitely worth seeing and they did a really good job and a lot of the technical stuff is really good And during some of those scenes that feel like kind of slow and drawn out At least the environment looks good. They're shooting locations are very interesting There actually is a lot to look at part of that might just be because I've never been to Indonesia So a lot of this stuff doesn't look familiar to me. I've not I've not seen that type of setting so That's nice The other thing about that setting too is that it's this interesting mix of like beautiful and creepy at the same time So they did a really good job picking locations for the film and add to that the fact that the soundtrack is awesome It's a very very very well done soundtrack that always matches the scenes That's one of the most impressive things to me Other impressive things about it. I'm well, I mean I'm gonna say from a technical standpoint They did an excellent job with this film. The directing is outstanding the cinematography looks great Obviously like I said the filming locations are so good. The acting was really good I didn't see a single performance acting wise that I was like, yeah, it's a little bit rough It was all good. The everything technically is really nice One of the other things I can point to other than you know They should have edited it down a little bit is that they do a lot with light lights light and shadow And it looks like a lot of the lighting is like natural lighting. Well, they have candles and stuff here and there So for that reason sometimes it's a bit too dark and it's kind of hard to see what's going on But that's not a lot of the film, but there are those moments So I kind of wish that they would have lightened those up a little bit so you could kind of see more What's going on, but it doesn't kill the film. It's just you know a little nitpicky type thing. So just saying There's a lot of banter between the two main characters Which I think is good because a lot of times like the dialogue plays with especially with the banter Like they're actually kind of funny moments and it makes sense for the two characters And I do think that it really helps make their relationship and them as characters feel very realistic But I think it goes a little bit too much like they have too much of that in there And that's actually one of those definite points that they could have edited down. They could have cut out a lot of the banter because You know really with that. What are you achieving? It really didn't add to the story All it did was add to the relationship between those two And I think if you still cut it down by like maybe even half You're still getting everything you need to understand that relationship. So just saying One of the characters does something that as an audience member, you're like, oh, no, don't do that You're about to make a huge mistake You know what I'm talking about You've had those moments as an audience member where you see a character making a mistake and you're just like, oh, no Don't do that. It's one of those moments in the film and what's even better about it is the way It's done with the acting and the dialogue delivery You can tell that there's hesitation and that they know that they're making a bad Choice to a degree, but they decide to make that bad choice So I really like how that kind of played out and you'll see what I mean when you watch it There is a particular scene that could have produced a lot of gore effects Which a lot of people usually want and I usually want but they shy away from that instead They do it in a very artistic interesting looking way and I really think that Well, when I look back and consider it That's better than how it would have looked if they did it with the all-out, you know balls of the wall gore So I actually this is one of those kind of rare instances where I'm more than fine not getting all that gore Usually I'm just like why did you shy away from the gore show me the gore in this instance? They gave me something better They gave me something more interesting looking and really cool and artistic and visually pleasing that I was just like oh Cool, I don't even miss the gore. I'm totally fine not getting it So that was really impressive and cool There's a pretty good. Oh, I already talked about this the score. The score is really good throughout You never know what you're gonna get with film score wise a lot of times you're just like it's fine You know like oh, I didn't even notice it or it's fine or it works This one in particular like you notice the score because it's particularly good for what's going on in the film You may think you know where this movie is going and I'm gonna bet that you don't the other thing about it Is this film is dark? Not the whole duration of it, but when it gets to the end I'd say probably the last like 20 25 minutes It is dark and I'm not talking about the lighting. There are times where it is dark lighting wise, but Material it gets dark and I was not expecting that I was I mean I thought it would get dark, but I did not think it was gonna get as dark as it did that was pretty impressive It's a crazy end and this it's one of those things where if the ending wasn't what it was and it didn't have the Impact that it did and it wasn't as crazy as it was I would have been like this film's fine It's okay, and then it would have made me even more mad about the moments in the film That kind of felt like they dragged so When you get a good payoff like you do with this film It really makes you feel a lot better about any of the flaws in the film So I was able to kind of forgive some of that stuff overall But yeah that ending has to be seen. It is dark man. I was like wow, okay Do do do do do Okay, so a few thoughts on like overall like kind of subtext thematic stuff with this film that occurred to me this this plays with the secrets of a family's past and reminds us that Reminds us all that you never know what's been hidden from you and how that can actually go on to affect your life I think that's kind of one of the things that play here And I think it's done well within the film Another thing at play here is it speaks to the issue of one person fixing their own problems in their life at the expense of others And how awful that can end up being so really I mean speaking to the selfishness of People really and what kind of implications selfishness in this type of instance that can have Terrible terrible terrible and the final thing is make sure you have all the information before you act on things that are Important this made it occur to me big time where I was just like oh man if people If people involved in this film really knew I mean the characters obviously if the characters really knew all the information about what's going on here There are a lot of things they may not have done and there are a lot of things they may have done So it's one of those cool moments where you you think you know what's going on But then once you have all the information you're just like oh And then that makes you like oh Then that means that this this terrible and yeah, so you see what I'm saying about this But anyway, it's a good film. I recommend it. I would love to see more by Joker Anwar Definitely and now I want to watch Satan's slaves because I like I said I believe it's on shutter So I'm gonna check that out anyway, so Like I said, it's not perfect. I heard some of my grievances with certain things about the film So out of five stars with half stars in play. I'm gonna give it a solid four star rating It is a good film definitely check it out and you'll probably recommend it to people I mean well, I can't say probably maybe you will I will but anyway, thanks for checking this out Put some comments down here. We'll make it comments can be spoilers. So if you don't have anything to say If you don't want to potentially see any spoilers then don't read the comments, but you can you know throw a comment down there That's not spoilers. That's fine. 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