Movie Review: Ada Apa Dengan Cinta

From the very first 5 minutes, the movie hooks the audience in by showing shocking evidence of familial abuse. Although not the main subject of the movie, this subplot successfully reminds the audience that this is not just another teen love story. This is something totally different. This is a story that touches the realities of growing up, friendship and, not forgetting, love.

This is Rudi Soedjarwo’s “Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?”

It has been ages that I’ve seen any Indonesian films. The last time that I’ve seen any was when I was terrified as a child from watching those gore-filled Indonesian horror movies. As I grew older, I lost touch of Indonesian (as well as Malaysian) local productions, favoring Hollywood produced blockbusters instead. I never realized how much I have been missing out until quite lately when we started seeing the resurgence of Asian movies in the local market.

“Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?” or was popularly known as AADC was one such spike with the Malaysian movie audience. The film played quite some time ago and has been since shown on of the local public TV stations. I remembered reading about how much of a stir this small production made in the media when it first came out. For many, this was the first time they had revisited the movies produced by our neighbors and saw how much they have changed from the Indonesian movies of old. What many of them saw was nothing short of phenomenal. Word of mouth spread like wildfire and at a time, everyone was talking about it and began to compare to our own locally produced movies. This was a fresh face from Indonesia’s movie making industry. An entertaining yarn that is both commercial and yet not fluffy or heavy handed.

Of course, I’m always the last to embrace any sort of trend so I didn’t really get on the bandwagon when it first came out. It fact it took me until today before I finally sat down to watch AADC. My initial though is that I hoped that they would have subtitles on the VCD copy that I bought last week since I could never understand Bahasa Indonesia completely. Although quite similar with my own language, Indonesian language uses different words, terms and even some pronunciations that may cause a problem for me. Once it was established that the VCD did have English subtitles, I sat back and enjoyed this brilliant production.

AADC tells the story of teenage friendship and love between Cinta and Rangga which blossomed in spite of their initial dislike of each other. As the story enfolds, Cinta finds herself tore between her burgeoning feelings towards Rangga and her loyalty towards her group of girlfriends. The subplot involving Alya, one of the members of Cinta’s inner circle, further complicates the situation which leads Cinta to regards Rangga as a distraction from her fulfilling her loyalties as a friend. Rangga, who has been a loner before, finds himself alone again after allowing himself to fall for Cinta and suddenly dismissed by her. In his disappointment, he decides to follow his father and move to America. This revelation invokes Cinta to face her own fears and, with the help of her friends, finally face Rangga with the truth of how she feels toward him in an emotional climax.

In line with the premise of the movie, principal actors in AADC were selected from up and coming teen actors that I have to say that I have never seen before. They might be young but they showed a lot of promise and talent. If I had to point out any particular one, my choice would be Nicholas Saputra who had the unenviable job of portraying “Rangga”. His brilliant portrayal of this character pulls in the audience as we shared his journey. To me, he is Indonesia’s answer to Joshua Jackson’s Pacey from Dawson’s Creek in terms of delivering the “goo” factor just with his expressive eyes. Of course I may be a bit biased with my assessments of him for obvious reasons. Whatever it is, he has it in spades and it shows beautifully on screen.

The soundtrack to AADC is another refreshing change from the Indonesia movies of old. The selection of Indonesian pop songs by Anto Hoed and Melly Goeslaw beautifully complements the scenes as they play out on the screen. I enjoyed the soundtrack so much that I know now what CD to get the next time I go to my local CD store. The VCD set that I bought also included a bonus CD that tracks the making of AADC which I also enjoyed. It is very rare that we get a glimpse of how the Indonesian production was made and for me the bonus VCD was a welcomed addition.

AADC was both entertaining and inspiring to me. It got me thinking about beginning a new screenplay that follows the concept of AADC but of course not in the same vein. I have been playing around with the story idea about someone turning 30 and the trails involved with that for quite some time now. That might be the next thing that I might try. It may not be as successful as AADC but I will do it for just the satisfaction of being able to.