Limitless and Conspicuous Consumption in Jakarta – USD$200 to Watch a Movie!?!?!
An article in the Jakarta Globe 31/5 made me think. My critics will no doubt comment that this is an unwonted activity for yours truly, but go ahead, that’s what the comments column is for!
The item concerned the dispute which is currently preventing new USA movies reaching our local cinemas in Jakarta. I’ll let the JG explain that.
The standoff between the tax department and the Motion Picture Association over levies on imported films has dragged on for months, leaving Indonesian viewers in the dark when it comes to the latest Hollywood releases.
I usually take in a movie once a week.
This week it was ‘Limitless,’ a slightly weird but enjoyable film with Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro, which somehow arrived here in Jakarta despite the current problems.
It is well worth watching, even though the character played by Anna Friel looks a bit rough compared to this picture I found to delight you. Abbie Cornish has a larger role, which she fills to perfection, as another photo culled from the internet exemplifies.
It’s so cheap here, $US 2 or 3 per person, nice comfy seats, air-con (sometines too chilly, but you can wear a hat and a jacket!) and I like the local horror flicks. There are plenty of Western movies, so either they sneak through or they are arriving late, but who cares?
Evidently a lot of people, for the JG tells us that the ‘the ongoing foreign film boycott fiasco has led some moviegoers to go above and beyond to satisfy their addiction.’
It goes on to describe how ‘committed film buffs Johannes Prayudhi and Ratna Dewi flew to neighboring countries over the weekend to catch up on what they’ve been missing.’
Johannes, a 30-year-old who works in finance in Jakarta, flew out to Kuala Lumpur early on Saturday morning with a couple of friends, and returned very late on Saturday night….he and his friends went to see “Kung Fu Panda 2” and “Fast Five,” the fifth installment of the “Fast and Furious” series.
The weekend before that, he flew to Singapore for a movie marathon to see “Thor,” “Insidious” and the long-awaited “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.” To kill time between the midnight show and the first flight back to Jakarta, he and his friends went to the 24-hour casino at Marina Bay Sands instead of looking for a hotel.
As the article says, ‘trips like these aren’t cheap. Plane tickets to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore can cost upward of Rp 500,000 ($60) each way, not including food, accommodation and, of course, movie tickets.’ The maid next door is probably lucky if she gets his expenditure for that trip as her entire monthly wage. That’s what made me think, mate.
Another example of this conspicuous consumption mentioned is that lassie named Ratna Dewi, ‘a 29-year-old editor for a film and technology magazine, said she usually went to the theater three or four times a week. While her friends spend their money on clothes, shoes and the latest gadgets, Ratna’s main hobby is discovering new films. “Films keep me sane,” she said. “For me, my mental health is much more important than money.” That’s why she was willing to break the bank to fly to Singapore over the weekend to catch showings of “Thor,” “Fast Five,” “Priest,” “Dylan Dog: Dead of Night” and the new “Pirates.”
Ratna told the Globe that ‘at least 20 percent of the audience watching “Thor” at Singapore’s Lido Cineplex during her visit appeared to be Indonesian visitors.’
Both these young people try to cut corners, staying at the cheapest available accommodation, but even so, in a country where most people struggle just to keep body and soul together, it is surely just a little disturbing to think of folks flying abroad just to see a movie. Especially when there are lots to see right here.
I checked my sms 2121 movie info last night, and at Blok M Plaza cinema, a perfectly nice place to watch films, you can this week enjoy –
Source Code, Limitless, Deaths of Ian Stone, Scream4, and something called Lost Bladesman, presumably an Asian film…enough to be going on with. But Ratna’s film outing, including plane tickets, hostel room, meals and cinema tickets, came to about Rp 2 million!
“That’s probably equal to the amount I saved by not going to the cinema for three months,” she said.
But even if you don’t care for any of those above, you can go to Ratu Plaza, or Glodok, or almost anywhere in town, like Blok M bus terminal, where I pass through most days and evenings, and buy a DVD, for under a dollar! Why don’t they do that? It’s hardly a secret – even the JG report mentions that ‘Indonesia’s pirated DVD vendors have reportedly enjoyed a 50 percent jump in demand since the boycott started.’ This contrasts with a 60 percent drop in income, according to Djonny Sjafruddin, head of the Indonesian Cinema Companies Union (GPBSI).
Dian Sunardi, head of marketing at Blitzmegaplex, said the cinema chain suffered a decline of around 15 percent to 20 percent in ticket sales this season compared to the same period last year.
Well, I do sympathise with the cinemas, but I still find it hard to empathise with Ratna’s obsessive attitude. As a huge fan of the Harry Potter series, Ratna practically has her bags packed and ready to go. “The Harry Potter finale is crucial because I’ve been keeping up with all the films for seven years,” she said. “I’d just about cry tears of blood if I didn’t get to watch it.”
Uuuh…how old is she? My offspring might have spoken thus aged five or six years old, but this young lady is TWENTY NINE!
Before you all jump in and ask how much I spend on my weekends, I am not advocating that we all don hair-shirts. Of course I work to live, not live to work, but there surely ought to be some sense of proportion…anyway, I am notorious as a skinflint.
But again, as I have previously retorted to snob expats who look down on me for mixing with Indonesians in their warungs and public buses, flaunting one’s income is hardly meritorious. Quite the reverse – it is offensive.
And I find it all the worse when rich Indonesians do so, their affluence rubbed in the noses of their less fortunate fellow-citizens.
Just buy a DVD, or be patient. When enough cash changes hands, above or below the board, the movies will come flooding back in.
rossrightangle 
Jakartass 05:26 on June 6, 2011 Permalink |
Hi Ross.
This issue is a little more complex than you’ve written here. As you rightly point out, western movies are being shown on local cinemas, but perhaps not as much as before.
For a start, there is a company – Cineplex 21 – which has a virtual monopoly, and it appeared last November, when they raised the kerfuffle, that they owed a few million dollars in tax.
Tax avoidance or tax evasion? I’m never quite sure which is which, but there’s no doubt that the owners of 21 Cineplex are far from broke.
Read my post here.
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ross1948 11:06 on June 6, 2011 Permalink |
Glad to have your input, Jakartass.
I just bought half-a-dozen dvds, including Liam Neeson’s ‘Unknown,’ which I watched last night, so am currently insulated against the crisis.
I also like pocong and kuntilanak films, so a dearth of Western movies will not be too much of an ordeal.
There are usually layers of byzantine complexity in these sagas – it presumably boils down to who stands to gain the most cash.
But I’ll study your post as suggested.
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ross1948 17:29 on June 6, 2011 Permalink |
Yo, Jakartass. Just had time to read your analysis properly. Very good. Lots of info there I hadn’t heard of before.
I assume the abysmally high number of re-runs on tv is related to all this?
Steven Seagal is back again On Dangerous Ground on Trans TV tonight!
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Jakartass 03:52 on June 7, 2011 Permalink |
Hi Ross.
I can’t say that I’ve ever watched a Steven Seagal film…. tho’ I do have Indovision. If there’s anything I watch that I particularly like, e.g. L’armée de la crime, I make a point of looking for it at Ratu Plaza. I’ve also watched films, such as Letters to Juliette, which I had already got on DVD but hadn’t got round to slipping into my player.
So there’s a nice symbiosis in building up a library for when I’m too poor and/or doddery to get out and buy some more.
As for the repeats, there are only a few ‘owners’ of film catalogues, e.g. MGM, which has a distribution deal with Sony. Most of the smaller companies you may be familiar with, such as Working Title, Cannon, Hemdale, have been absorbed into these vast conglomerates.
Of course, MGM/Sony and Fox seek to maximise revenue by offering TV companies the films which will attract the largest audiences.
Thus those films with the lowest common denominator in terms of artistic ‘integrity’, such as the Steven Seagal you mention, get shown. That an occasional Tim Burton film, such as Big Fish and the wonderful animated classic (my opinion) ‘9’ (which he produced rather than directed) get shown this week are pleasant surprises.
BTW. Why do I automatically type ‘movies’ when as a Brit I should use the word ‘film’? (Note that I’ve had to proofread the above.)
And a final note for Indonesian movie … oops … film lovers.
The Indonesian word for ‘cinema’ is ‘bioskop’. This is derived from bioscope.
The Bioscope, or Cinematograph, is the name for the first incarnation of cinema on the fairground. The popularity of this attraction meant that Bioscope shows flourished around the turn of the Century, after which the cinema as a separate entity began to establish itself in towns and villages. The fairground has an intertwined link with cinema and moving image.
Before the urbanisation of Indonesia (the Dutch East Indies), the rural masses in their kampungs would have looked forward to the visit of travelling fairs, some of which can still be discovered even here in Jakarta.
Not only would there have been the familiar rides, roundabouts and side shows, but night time film shows, possibly outdoors, offered an alternative to the traditional wayang kulit shows.
Later came television ….
in tThe earliest films
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