FILM REVIEW - ISTANBUL AKU DATANG!
ISTANBUL AKU DATANG! – FILM REVIEW
By Nurul Syazana Shamsurizal
Istanbul Aku Datang! is a Malaysia romantic comedy film
written by Rafidah Abdullah. The story is about a young lady from Malaysia who
comes to Istanbul to meet her beloved boyfriend. Instead of meeting her
boyfriend, she also has come out with a massive plan to make his boyfriend
propose to her. Feeling excited and happy at the same time, out of the blue,
she did not expect that everything starts to crumble and go wrong once she
rents a house.
When it comes to film,
they are introduced with different kinds of genre. Besides, there are some
films that contain hybrid genres or also known as aesthetic approaches, in
which the films have mixed more than one genre in the stories. In this film by
Bernard Chauly, an aesthetic approach has been used which mixes the genre of
romance and the comedy in the stories. Usually, the combination of romance and
comedy genre is known as romantic comedy or ‘romcom’ for short. Romantic comedy
genre is highlighted in this film as the story is not only focused on the
protagonist's love story, but there is also some funny part included in the
story which makes the film interesting and fun to watch by the audience.
Furthermore, the
aesthetic approaches in the movie can also be related with the mise-en-scene
which included everything in the story like the cinematography, costume design,
and also music (Roberts, Meneses, Sicard, Lopez, 2012). In my opinion, the
costume used in the film for the protagonist actually shows their
characteristic. For example, Dian (Lisa Surihani) in this film, she wears a
bright and colourful outfit which matches her characteristic that is cheerful.
‘Istanbul Aku Datang!’ film cinematography is by Haris Hue Abdullah.
After watching the film for the first time, I have found out that the film
cinematography is aesthetically pleasing with the use of high key lighting,
shallow focus, and also the bokeh effect in the story.
A shallow focus can be described as a technique where it keeps one part
of the image in focus and the rest is out of focus or blurry which in this
film, it uses to focus on the characters and blurred the background (Maio,
2019). Meanwhile the bokeh effect is also the same as shallow focus but bokeh
effect tends to give images a dreamlike appearance (Maio, 2020). With these
kinds of shots and effect, it makes the cinematography in the film look
pleasing to the eyes of the eyes of the audience.
Every story has its plot which makes the flow of the stories. This plot
can also be referred to the progression in a narrative of the film (CORN,
2018). The plot for the romantic comedy film, Istanbul Aku Datang!
directed by Bernard Chauly is almost the same in Malaysia and it is also
predictable, but one thing that makes this film different from the others is
that the cliché element does not apply in this film which makes the film Istanbul
Aku Datang! by Bernard Chauly has its own uniqueness and flaw.
Moreover, what makes this film interesting is that the director’s
ideology to the film is to highlight that the things will not always go
according to our plan. Besides that, this film can also be about the
long-distance relationship. We can see that Dian’s plan to be Azad's fiancée is
a mess when she finds out that Azad has a new girlfriend in Istanbul. Also, in
the film, the director shows that when things go wrong, it will end up right
with something even better which leads the protagonist finally be able to make
a right decision at the end of the story.
The narrative or plot in the stories also can be viewed or related with
a season like spring, summer, autumn and winter. According to Northrop Frye
(1957) theory, he associated romance with spring, comedy with summer, tragedy
in autumn, and irony with winter. In this film by Bernard Chauly, I can
identify that the plot is associated with spring and summer.
Spring is related to romance which in the film, the story shows the
romance and love between Dian and Azad. However, the funny moments in this film
showed there is an element of summer. Instead of the funny scene of Dian and
Harris, the comedy in the story somehow can also be seen through the comic
relief in the film which in this case, two of Azad friends, Ijoi and Nadim.
Both are the comic relief of the film Istanbul Aku Datang! which makes
certain scenes look funny.
Semiotics are explored by signs that have literal or nonliteral meaning.
It can also be defined as the study of signs. Moreover, it has two key
components which are signifier and signified. Signifier refers to the sign like
images, sounds, or letters. Meanwhile signified refers to personal
interpretation of a signifier (Holes, 2019). In the film ‘Istanbul Aku
Datang!’ by Bernard Chauly, there is a scene of Dian saying ‘‘don’t talk to
me like I’m a drug addict, okay?’’ to Harris. In my opinion, the word ‘’drug’’
that is used in the script or text does not mean that Dian is addicted to
smoking or alcohol.
The word ‘drug’ used in the text can possibly mean addicted to love
which in this case, where Dian possibly looks like she is addicted to Azad by
easily accepting to marry Azad when he proposed although she had been
humiliated and hurt by Azad. She said that way not because of her addiction
towards Azad, but because she had known him for a very long time. In a film, it
is possible to use the words that give a straightforward meaning, but using
semiotic or the hidden meaning words makes the storyline more interesting.
In a film, sometimes the director shows or portrays the culture of the
society or place in their work and as someone who gives a movie critique, they
may use the cultural analysis to describe that particular scene in the film.
The cultural analysis or the cultural film theory is where the films reflect
the culture in which they are made with the understanding on how meaning is
constructed in a society’s social, political, and religious context (Emmons,
Bellmore 2016).
Bernard Chauly, the director of the film ‘Istanbul Aku Datang!’
has portrayed the culture of Istanbul as an Islamic country which in the film,
Dian needs to adapt and adjust herself with the culture of Istanbul since it is
an Islamic country. This leads Dian to not hugging her boyfriend in public like
she used to back in Kuala Lumpur because it is not nice when other people see
it. In my opinion, in that scene, the director wants people to know that we
need to respect other country’s cultures, especially when we are in an Islamic
country like Istanbul.
Everyone knows that a film will not be possible without the power of the
director to create the amazing film that the audience watches every day during
their free time. That satisfying feeling after watching a good or amazing film
is all credit to the production, especially the director's effort in the
filmmaking. However, not all film directors can be called as auteur to his work
or film. An auteur refers to the director who has their own style and elements
in making the film (Binder, 2019). The person in charge of making the film ‘Istanbul
Aku Datang!’ is Bernard Chauly and he is the film director in
Malaysia.
Bernard Chauly has his own way, style, and sense of making a film. Based
on my understanding, Bernard Chauly always uses an urban style in his film
which makes his film unique and different from the other Malaysia film. Morever,
like the other auteur director, Bernard Chauly does have a collaboration with
the same artist like Nur Fazura and Lisa Surihani in few of his film. Furthermore,
as I can see, Bernard Chauly usually portrays and focuses on the exploits of
female characters as they put themselves in the story. Besides ‘Istanbul Aku
Datang!’, Bernard Chauly has also made a film which gives the same impact
and feeling about centralizing the female characters. Those movies are ‘Gol
& Gincu’ which portrays sporty young girls exploring to find their own
voice and identity. Besides that, his film, ‘Pisau Cukur’ also has given
the same vibe and feelings about the female characters portrayal in the film.
In Bernard Chauly’s film, ‘Istanbul
Aku Datang!’, the portrayal of the female protagonist, Dian as the centre
of the film, has been shown by showing the weaker side of her boyfriend, Azad.
Instead of that, the film also shows how strong the female protagonist can
stand on her own and make decisions by choosing the right one for her to be
with her at the end of her story which is also the end of the film. In my
opinion, it is not common for a film to centralize the female character, even
if there are this kind of film, mostly it will show the weak side of the female
characters. That is why, by having the film that focuses on the centralization
of female protagonists like in Bernard Chauly film, makes his film unique and
show the other good and strong side of woman.
In conclusion, the film ‘Istanbul Aku Datang!’ by Bernaud Chauly
is indeed different from the other romantic or rom com films in Malaysia which
mostly contain the cliché elements in most of the scenes with too many
conflicts. It is also a pleasant to see our favourite actors nailed the character
that they starred as and it is my first-time seeing Lisa Surihani bring a
character that is cheerful, bright, naïve yet strong in this film. Besides
that, the fact that the film was filmed in Istanbul makes the film even more
unique with the different culture and society. Plus, the shot at the different
places in Istanbul also is the additional or bonus to the aesthetic
cinematography in the film. Although the plot of the story is predictable, this
movie is worth watching.
LINK: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10qpr9Unj3_AobLNahqoXyKUv9rA9zCQP/view?usp=sharing
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