Why are Indonesian films not appreciated by the public even though they are of high quality?
The world of Indonesian cinema has been growing rapidly lately, many quality films have started to appear this year. However, with the development of the globalization era, Indonesian films were replaced by the entry of films from abroad which had much better quality. Then why can’t Indonesian films start to match the quality and can’t compete with the variety of foreign films like Hollywood? The slow pace of film development is realized by the large number of viewers each year. In fact, the quality of Indonesian films tends to fluctuate, aka up and down, both in terms of quality and performance. This is due to a lack of appreciation from the public for Indonesian films, our society does not trust Indonesian films, it is not uncommon for the films to be of high quality and boom and then end up being thought that Indonesian films have copied foreign films, even though they were originally produced by themselves, we are still confined by the stereotype that Indonesian films must be remake foreign films, so that when there is a good film, people still can’t believe it. Indonesian people also tend to view Indonesian films as films with more “negative” sides because currently many films from Indonesia are entering theaters whose scripts are based on Wattpad Story, which romanticizes young marriage and other juvenile delinquency and many people assume that foreign films are definitely better and cooler. It is common knowledge that most Indonesians are always interested in foreign matters.
Foreign films have been very advanced as evidenced by the very large budget costs, in contrast to Indonesian film budgets which are much smaller. Most local films still stick to their comfort zone and pay less attention to quality. Budget and human resource limitations are also a factor in this. There are still many Indonesian filmmakers who are too money oriented, regardless of quality or not, the important thing is that they sell lots of tickets and are able to achieve fantastic profits, because the indicator for evaluating the success or failure of Indonesian films is measured by the number of viewers. By publishing a high number of viewers on a regular basis, a film appears to be presented as a recent work that is interesting and important to watch so that people will consider watching the film. What makes it difficult for Indonesian cinema to progress is also the lack of film critics. You can judge for yourself why critics are rare in our country. Review is the process of reviewing the shortcomings, advantages, benefits, components, and other things about a product. However, the fate of the reviewer was even blasphemed by netizens for giving a bad review and ending with a clarification. How are you going to move forward if no one can review it honestly? Even though the role of the film review channel is very important, because it can lead the audience to watch what kind of films and can spread education about quality films so that market tastes change so that the film production process also follows the market flow. Win win solution!
Most Indonesian films are also in the same genres as horror, romance, and comedy. I think our people need to give Indonesian films a chance, a new wave is coming to Indonesian cinema, so the genre isn’t just horror or romance anymore. There are superheroes, sci-fi, action, and so on. Then the composition of the plot is a mess because what is highlighted is only the plot twist, even though the plot twist can be very good if the building of the story is mature at first, for example by providing small details on the atmosphere and accessories, lack of character development from each character so it doesn’t depicting the visualization of the characters depicted in the script, dialogue that is too stiff and sometimes there are even some films where the intonation and pronunciation are not clear so that we as Indonesians have to watch Indonesian films using subtitles, then color grading and cinematography which are not very comfortable to see for a screen film width and the most important thing is the storyline of a film that seems packed in a hurry with an unsatisfactory ending and too many plot holes to the point where missing the point is the reason why our films are of less interest to us. In fact, if our film producers had the courage to create more varied genre breakthroughs and provide other interesting viewing alternatives, perhaps the public would be more excited and consider watching films made in our own country, because as long as the inferior mentality of Indonesians still exists, Indonesian filmmaking will still be difficult to advance. Little by little, compared with foreign films without being able to appreciate the improvements. In my opinion, there are two ways out if Indonesian films want a lot of variety, firstly the audience must start supporting new genre films by appreciating their improvements and secondly producers or directors must be determined to make new films through trial and error without fear of experiencing losses.
Even though the Indonesian film is relatively slow to develop, in fact it tends to start improving every year, this is a positive side because it means that the country’s film production capabilities have started to show a creative side. The marketing system for introducing Indonesian films to the general public must also be improved so that quality box office films can be followed up so that everyone knows about the films, such as “don’t know, don’t like. “Marketing that doesn’t arouse curiosity will definitely not produce good results. For example in the case of movie posters that are very templated so that the audience is not interested just by looking at posters that are too mainstream. Hopefully, the Indonesian film industry can execute and go further by providing quality changes both nationally and internationally, because films are not just a matter of fatigue at leisure. But also media appreciation and social criticism of the condition of this nation.
Writer: Hanifa Fitria Ekowati (Psychology’21)
Editor : Salma Devy Andini (Communication Science’21)
