K2 (nick for this movie) excels in the art of film making, only when compared to other Indonesian movies nowadays, as it is the only modern Indonesian movie that succeeds in transporting its audience to another realm - quite far away from the everyday life. I like the atmosphere that slowly thickens towards the end. The emboldening of "the evil that men do" topic is subtly done. I enjoyed being carried away to Samantha's deepest and darkest part - something I have never experienced in other Indonesian movies (and I'm talking about Indonesian movies in general, not only horrors).
I must underline, though, that this movie is NOT A HORROR flick. It is a fantasy / adventure movie with horror scenes - which I think were not well-executed. The Kuntilanak creature was designed as if the figurine would be released as a gimmick, and as if somebody would really like to buy it. It is okay to run an extra mile in presenting a ghost rather than taking the easy way and showing just another Sadako-like girl in need of hair recovery treatment. However, the real point in making a horror flick is to have those blasting jolts in every five minutes - some silly ones, some real ones. I chose to watch a horror movie to get shocked, to get my adrenaline pumped, and to get myself cheated with cheap thrills. The more successful a horror movie could cheat me, the better it is.
K2 is lacking of those scenes. There was almost no point where I could get really shocked or surprised. Yes, the tense is there, but no sudden high-voltage jolts as found in good Asian horrors like "Shutter", "Ringu", or "Pocong 2". There are spaces prepared in K2 for those jolting scenes - like Iwank's kitchen scene, Agung revisiting the old house, Agung reading the Mangkoedjiwo Bible in the car, the little girl peeing alone in the middle of the night, etc. But those were executed only to give visual treat, not adrenaline pumps. Even the opening sequence, which I think is a pretty genius idea, failed to shock me - due to the bad acting, too much noise from the score, and lacking the sense of surprise and shock therapies. Iwank's death in the kitchen was too lousy done. This is a major flaw to a movie tagged as a horror flick. Mantovani should treat scenes like these seriously, and pay more attention to scenes like these rather than any others.
The only shock came from the two street singers (not gonna say here when it happened, so it's not a spoiler) - which is just a cheap thrill. If that's the only working scene to shock people, then K2 can be tagged as a fantasy movie with one cheap thrill. That's it.
Mantovani is clearly not an actor's director, judging from all his movies, starting from Kuldesak, to Jelangkung, even to the first Kuntilanak movie. Somehow, in K2, actors and actresses found their own way to perform. The villains act theatrically, Julie Estelle acts dramatically, Evan Sanders act badly, and the little girl acts the best: naturally. There is no clear direction on what kind of acting style should the ensemble present in harmony. It gives me pure headache seeing such a chaotic blend of performance, and I bet Mantovani couldn't control them as well.
Everything then was saved in the editing room, and well-decorated by the score. The score, once again, redefines the genre of this movie into fantasy / adventure.
And, what's rather interesting in K2's case, is the story. The main plot of "fighting against your own dark side" is pretty original for an Indonesian movie, but the forced insertion of love story between Samantha and Agung was a major bug. The stolen white space scene from The Matrix once again disturbed K2 as a real horror movie, and officially crowned it as Indonesia's first successful fantasy / adventure movie. It is such a pity how a strong main story has to be flawed with such kind of scenes and subplot. Mantovani has to stop mixing genres in a movie, or else he will end up making a laughable trashy movie like Kala.
K2, overall, is a milestone in Indonesian films, and a thumbs-up effort. While others make laughable "movie" in one week, thus mocking the art of film making, K2 is setting a higher standard.
I must underline, though, that this movie is NOT A HORROR flick. It is a fantasy / adventure movie with horror scenes - which I think were not well-executed. The Kuntilanak creature was designed as if the figurine would be released as a gimmick, and as if somebody would really like to buy it. It is okay to run an extra mile in presenting a ghost rather than taking the easy way and showing just another Sadako-like girl in need of hair recovery treatment. However, the real point in making a horror flick is to have those blasting jolts in every five minutes - some silly ones, some real ones. I chose to watch a horror movie to get shocked, to get my adrenaline pumped, and to get myself cheated with cheap thrills. The more successful a horror movie could cheat me, the better it is.
K2 is lacking of those scenes. There was almost no point where I could get really shocked or surprised. Yes, the tense is there, but no sudden high-voltage jolts as found in good Asian horrors like "Shutter", "Ringu", or "Pocong 2". There are spaces prepared in K2 for those jolting scenes - like Iwank's kitchen scene, Agung revisiting the old house, Agung reading the Mangkoedjiwo Bible in the car, the little girl peeing alone in the middle of the night, etc. But those were executed only to give visual treat, not adrenaline pumps. Even the opening sequence, which I think is a pretty genius idea, failed to shock me - due to the bad acting, too much noise from the score, and lacking the sense of surprise and shock therapies. Iwank's death in the kitchen was too lousy done. This is a major flaw to a movie tagged as a horror flick. Mantovani should treat scenes like these seriously, and pay more attention to scenes like these rather than any others.
The only shock came from the two street singers (not gonna say here when it happened, so it's not a spoiler) - which is just a cheap thrill. If that's the only working scene to shock people, then K2 can be tagged as a fantasy movie with one cheap thrill. That's it.
Mantovani is clearly not an actor's director, judging from all his movies, starting from Kuldesak, to Jelangkung, even to the first Kuntilanak movie. Somehow, in K2, actors and actresses found their own way to perform. The villains act theatrically, Julie Estelle acts dramatically, Evan Sanders act badly, and the little girl acts the best: naturally. There is no clear direction on what kind of acting style should the ensemble present in harmony. It gives me pure headache seeing such a chaotic blend of performance, and I bet Mantovani couldn't control them as well.
Everything then was saved in the editing room, and well-decorated by the score. The score, once again, redefines the genre of this movie into fantasy / adventure.
And, what's rather interesting in K2's case, is the story. The main plot of "fighting against your own dark side" is pretty original for an Indonesian movie, but the forced insertion of love story between Samantha and Agung was a major bug. The stolen white space scene from The Matrix once again disturbed K2 as a real horror movie, and officially crowned it as Indonesia's first successful fantasy / adventure movie. It is such a pity how a strong main story has to be flawed with such kind of scenes and subplot. Mantovani has to stop mixing genres in a movie, or else he will end up making a laughable trashy movie like Kala.
K2, overall, is a milestone in Indonesian films, and a thumbs-up effort. While others make laughable "movie" in one week, thus mocking the art of film making, K2 is setting a higher standard.
