tiggerhans

I didn't read the book, didn't know it even existed... and wow, did I like the movie! This is how movies should be made. Imagination is the right source for any movie, any book, any piece of art. Imagination helps children to grow up in a world full of nasty adults who can't keep their hands of their children anymore without thinking filthy, without abusing them, without giving them hope for a future. This movie is how Disney should be. Nice to have 3D animated features, but the combination of animation and real images like in this movie is much better. It even gives adults the chance to go back in time, remembering those moments we all had our own day dreams, imaginary friends and worlds of fantasy we would like to escape to. And a movie like this with such a great cast working together, makes it even a bigger pleasure to watch. Can we please get some kind of sequel??

Exiting times in Indonesia! two Indonesian films defeate the 3rd movie in 'The Matrix' Trilogy. But the one that everyone's eyes are at is 'Arisan!'. 3 Close friends live a normal life, that is, at first look. After a while we see them strugle with unhappiness in different forms. Meimei hears from her Doctor that she won't be able to become pregnant and sees her husband run away. Andien's husband slept with someone else, and Sakti -who is gay- is afraid that his mother or best friend Meimei might find out that he is.

Well, she finds out, but in a way he never imagined she would.

This film is the first BIG HIT in Indonesia where it is all about 'coming out'. Sakti and Nino will learn that in modern Indonesia, being gay is as normal as in other countries (far from the reality, but common in some areas of Indonesia).

Screaming girls in the cinema when Sakti and Nino first kiss. No sensor in Indosia, and that is surprising!!

Over all, this film is not only good because it doesn't show any stereo type Indonesian gays (mostly transsexuals or overacting feminate gays), but two people like everone else. It is also a film technically quite good, although the editing could have been better.

Two thumbs up for Arisan!

When I saw this movie in the cinema (to confirm I did not watch this on tv and it has never been on tv yet!) i started with high expectations. It seems that finally the Chinese community in Indonesia receives some recognition after being discriminated for ages and still being discriminated in many areas of life in Indonesia today. The movie tells us about a woman who goes back to Indonesia to find out about her parents: who they were , what they did. The movie starts with the worst scene of the whole film...she meets with supposed relatives, a bunch of young actors, full with make-up to make them look old. It is the worst thing of the movie, but luckely it is only for a couple of minutes so we can forget about this asap. The story in itself is interesting: a young prostitute gets saved by one of her customers, a Chinese businesman, to the dislike of many others who see him as a treath for their business. Happiness seems to be found till the moment the man gets arrested for making false banknotes. He escapes later to Thailand, and while his ennemies think he is death, he is preparing to come back and fight the Japanese who occupied Indonesia. But not only his old enemies are there, he also made new enemies and the supposedly happy ending soon becomes a sad ending. At moments, the movie is very interesting, with backflashes in black and white, and the leading actor (Salim) is doing a great job. However, the lack of experiences by the other actors, and the terrible way they articulate everything they say, makes this movie to one of the less interesting movies of the last years made by Indonesians. The book though is very interesting, and it could have been a great movie. However, it is not a bad movie, and at times entertaining and showing us much about Indonesian-Chinese culture and history. if you get a chance, rent the VCD and watch it (it only lasted a short time in the cinema).