This is Cinta: A Commentary about Characters

This all started because I was feeling kinda bad. Last year was the second year I became a member of judges committee in Piala Maya, yet from the films that were nominated, I had watched only one on the cinema (at best). So I thought I made it my resolution this year to watch Indonesian films at least once a month, more if I can. And luckily my boyfriend agreed to accompany me to do this. So far we have seen three films. Yay, right? Well, yes and no.

I am a truly movie enthusiast who is also interested in learning (deeply) the craft of screen writing. I know part of the process of (self)learning is, learning (!) to dissect the movies I see. Sometimes I refuse to do that because, you know, it is a sure-fire way to ruin an experience of movie-going and movie-watching. But I think I'm finding the right balance where I can get really lost in the movie (if it's THAT good) and then either watch it again while seeing with different eyes, or, if the movie isn't really complicated, I would watch it once and later compare it with known screen-writing formula and then reflect which works and which doesn't (for me).

We decided to watch This is Cinta. Obviously, I am not the target market of the said film (obviously/ I am so far from the target market, I have to say it twice), yet a good story is a good story and it should be able to speak with people no matter how young/ old. I am sure I'm not the only one who still enjoy watching Disney animated films, although I would say I watch it only with my kid (not really). But after 10 minutes we went out of the cinema watching This is Cinta (and wasn't enjoying it), we already forgot the characters' name.

Then I started to think about it; what was it that we didn't like in the movie? I noticed that the beats connected with 'but' and 'therefore' so it's quite in a good structure.(SPOILER AHEAD) Farel and Rachel were best-friends since they were little, but for some reason Rachel's mother didn't like their friendship and decided to move Rachel very far away (try New Zealand). Fast forward to their teenage years, they still hadn't gotten over each other, in fact they were literally making their life goals to find each other; Farel by enrolling to a TV talent show with the hope of Rachel seeing him on the tube. And Rachel was insisting her family to move back to Jakarta. Therefore, they found each other, but Rachel's mother, still disapproving of their relationship, was pushing her to see other guy but Rachel rebelled therefore making the guy angry and kidnap her, so that she could love him. But Farel interfered and saved Rachel, yet their return was abruptly screeched halt by a fatal accident. Farel died, but then brought back to life and Rachel was on a coma. But Farel couldn't face that they should be apart again, so he did all his might to finally "persuade" her not to walk towards the light, but towards his love.

In my honest and humble opinion, when I write the outline, I see that the story could work well. It won't be easy to make (like all good things) but it's definitely doable. But then I look at the characters. Turned out, that what went terribly wrong. What do we get from Farel and Rachel beside the established fact that they love each other? Almost nothing. I know Farel could play the piano well, thus able him to enter the talent show. Other than wanting to see Rachel again, what is Farel's dream? His aspiration? His hobby? His annoying habits? Same goes with Rachel. We know that Rachel is a sweet girl who could turn into this extra rude, bitchy, spoiled brat when she was with Nico (the guy that her mother pushed her to date). Most of the time I felt sorry for Nico and hated her for that. And what about NICO? Despite the vague leer that (maybe) try to tell the audience that he might not like Rachel's attitude towards her, there's no clue about him. All the characters in the movie were there to serve only one purpose: either to HELP the main characters to be together, or to PREVENT them doing so. They are so one-dimensional I could picture them becoming mannequins when they're not on the scene, because they serve no other purpose. And for that, they don't deserve personality, traits, dream, fear, love, like we humans do.  Rachel's father (Ari Wibowo) had no personality whatsoever, he repeated the words of Nico's father in the same scene WORD BY WORD. I face-palmed so hard.

Poor Rachel's Dad, he doesn't even have a name...

With one-dimensional characters, come one dimensional intentions and motivations. I couldn't understand why Rachel's mother hated Farel, and I couldn't see why Rachel and Farel valued their friendship so much. I also didn't see how why should Nico kidnap Rachel. Because of the half-baked characters, even the connection between the two main characters feels so superficial. Their "relationship goal" too, feels shallow. And those two are supposed to be the foundation of the film! Also, I cannot fathom a female millenial whose dream is to go to "a palace" (as a princess or otherwise), unless the palace is a metaphor of being a CEO of their own or multinational company and being productive until old age with their husband supporting their aspirations for the rest of their lives? I'm not sure to find it sexist or simply naive. Even Disney princesses aren't doing it any more.

Maybe it's not easy to make a character tree for each of your character, also to write a full story of them that happened in the movie (despite it would be shown on the screen or not), but if it would make a movie so much better, maybe it is worth doing.

On Feeding Humanity

Earlier when I was putting on my eyebrows, I remembered an article I read on the internet. It's about how, to grow almonds in California require a vast amount of water. So with the droughts that have been happening, the farmer drilled a deeper and deeper well so it messed with the stability of the land, thus making almonds aren't exactly environmentally sound, though I know quite a lot of people seem to think so. Especially almond milk, that people think (with other reason rather than health) is much better than cow's milk. To make a glass of almond milk, we have to use quite a lot of almonds.

This makes me think that, maybe, just maybe, there is no environmentally sound way to feed human. Let alone 7 billion humans. So maybe, just maybe, the logical way to preserve our earth is; for human to stop procreating.