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Indonesia 1987
Director: Achiel Nasrun
Cast: Ryan Hidayat, Nurul Arifin, Agyl Shahriar, Septian Dwicahyo, Firdha Razak, Henky Solaiman
Rating: Remaja (Teen)
Language: Bahasa Indonesia
VCD Quality: Poor/Decent/Excellent
Release Date: 1987
Running Length: 1 hour 21 minutes 34 seconds
The Movie Review
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LUPUS 1:
TANGKAPLAH DAKU
KAU KUJITAK
( Catch Me and I'll Flick You ) |
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When I was going to a book store back in the 80s, there were not much novels for teenagers to be found. Unlike today where teen literatures or better known as Teen-lit are like mushrooms in the monsoon. Lupus was definitely my choice, and as what a novel about teen should be it depicted truly of the teenagers life at that time. So Lupus movies were produced, and I was really happy to know that. And strangely, but good, up until now Lupus still amuses me. Lupus' entries are delicacies from the 80s, teen-flicks that are worthy to be remembered. The title, by the way, probably loosely translated in English would be "Lupus: Catch Me, and I'll Flick/Hard-Pat Your Head"
If you've read the novel, surely the storyline is not needed, but I don't know if there are any Lupus' novels still left in the book store, so I'm just gonna give you the plot and a bit info about Lupus. Info? Yup, because this is the biggest and foremost flaw of Lupus movie(s), the filmmakers were arguably over confidence about its targeted audience probably thinking that potential viewers already knew everything about Lupus. Yes, from the very first minute, it is assumed (expected) that we already know about Lupus. I did, because I had read the novel, but what about other moviegoers who hadn't?
Based on a Novel with the same title written by Hilman Hariwijaya, the storyline revolves around a high school boy named Lupus (Ryan Hidayat), a modest and outgoing person who also very talented in writing. Lupus' father has passed away, and he lives now with his cute little sister, Lulu (Firdha Razak) and their mother. Lupus is the class clown and his trademark of bubbling a gum is a well-known trademark in his Merah Putih high school. Lupus has several close-friends who come from different backgrounds, most notable from all is Gusur, a poet-wannabe who has a crush on actress-wannabe Fifi Alone. Another one is the notorious Boim who has no fixed love-interest. Other less notable character would be Gito, Anto, Poppy, Nyit Nyit and Drakuli.
In this movie, Lupus has a crush on Poppy (Nurul Arifin), a rich girl who is not easy to be dated, however since Lupus has so many activities, Lupus always forgets his date to pick Poppy up or simply spends some time with her. From helping Indah, a girl who works at the school cafeteria and is evicted for being accused of selling beers, to Lupus doing his interview with a famous singer, Lupus always disappoints Poppy. Lulu is also facing her own problem, a polite rich middle-aged man (Henky Solaiman) who always subtly comes to Lulu's house to win her heart, much to Lulu's disgust of having to hear his boring speech about "the future generation" over and over again. A reference to the title is when Lupus happily chases a girl who carries his plants.
What's so great about the movie and the novel is actually rooted to two things, honesty and simplicity. There are no intricate romance relationship among the characters, and there are no show of force or show of money in excessive (read: excruciatingly boring) amount. There are also no forced jokes or whatsoever. The jokes are simple but highly effective! The humour although most of the time nowhere near slapstick, it holds true of what the students used to say to their friends. Those jokes are not just make us chuckles and titters but also, the most important part, amuse us.
Saying those things, of course the filmmakers owe greatly also the solid performance of the entire cast populating this com-rom flick, aside their good acting quality with no over-the-top incidentals, those actors and actresses honestly seem to really having fun playing in the movie. Frankly, this quality of honesty is a rarity (extreme rarity) in nowadays' Indonesian comedy-romantic flick. Chemistry....yup, where is one when you need it?
Lupus' other major flaw sadly is the video quality that's so poor and blur, you could still see clearly the faces of the character but they don't look sharp. And another thing that may be very subjective, which is the soundtrack, not that because it has the 80s tune but because it simply un-enjoyable and doesn't reflect the real Lupus as it's depicted in the novel. I might as far as to say, the song is annoying. Other than those minor negatives, watching Lupus' movie especially for fellow moviegoers who owned the novels is a definite joy.
© iwan pranowo of Movielogy.com
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