This article focuses on the 2007 Indonesian film Coklat Stroberi and its accompanying novel and pop video. The novel by Christian Simamora was based on the film script. The song ‘Di sini untukmu’ was written especially for the film, in which the band Ungu made a cameo appearance, and the accompanying pop video features numerous scenes from it. While in recent years quite a number of Indonesian films have featured gay characters, this film is notable for the fact that it puts a gay relationship at the very centre of a romantic comedy, and is clearly aimed at a young (17–25) audience. Coklat Stroberi is undoubtedly trying to show same-sex relationships in a progressive light. Nonetheless, the representation of the characters and the film's final outcome highlight an ambivalent attitude towards homosexuality that is common in many Indonesian films. This article pays particular attention to those ambivalences and explores how our understanding of them is enhanced by analysing the transformation of the film into the genres of novel and pop video. Attention is also paid to an apparent mismatch in the filmic imagination of gay characters and the reality of gay lives as they are lived in Indonesia today.
Keywords:homosexuality, Indonesian cinema, Indonesian literature, Indonesia
Coklat Stroberi | |
---|---|
Directed by | Ardy Octaviand |
Produced by | Adiyanto Sumardjono Upi Avianto Khristo Damar Alam |
Written by | Upi Avianto |
Starring | Marsha Timothy Marrio Medhithia Nino Fernandez Nadia Saphira Fauzi Baadila |
14 June 2007 | |
Running time | 97 minutes |
Country | Indonesia |
Language | Indonesian |
Key dan citra adalah mahasiswa yang memiliki pekerjaan sampingan. Citra bekerja di sebuah distro, sedangkan key berjuang mengikuti audisi untuk menjadi pemeran sinetron. Karena suatu permasalahan keuangan, membuat key tidak mampu membayar kontrakan tersebut, dan kontraknya untuk melanjutkan peran dalam sinetron pun juga gagal, akibat produsernya yang menginginkan key untuk pergi.
Coklat Stroberi (Chocolate Strawberry) is a 2007 Indonesian teen drama comedy directed by Ardy Octaviand and written by Upi Avianto.
Synopsis[edit]
The film tells the story of two young female university students, Key and Citra, who share a house in a plush Jakarta suburb. Due to difficulties in paying their rent, their landlady forces two new male tenants on them, Nesta and Aldi. Key and Citra, despite their beauty, are for some unexplained reason very unlucky in love and fear that they will end up as spinsters. They immediately fall for their handsome housemates. Unbeknown to them, the two young men are actually lovers, though various visual clues ensure that the audience is let in on the secret. While Nesta has a very masculine and straight-acting look, Aldi is feminine and moody. Nesta explains to Aldi – and to the audience – the theory of chocolate strawberry. Basically, strawberry equates to feminine and gay, and so in order not to be found out it is important to act chocolate – that is, to act masculine and straight. As well as more innocent ways of showing that one is straight, such as doing weight training, spending hours on the PlayStation, and not cooking, Nesta decides it would be a good ploy to start flirting with and eventually dating Key. Aldi becomes increasingly jealous as he sees his love of the last two years devoting far too much attention to Key.
Meanwhile, Citra starts flirting with Aldi, although he notices none of her various manoeuvres. Aldi decides he will lie no longer, and when his parents come to dinner, he comes out to them. His father has an asthma attack, such is his shock and disgust, and his mother leaves with his father, urging Aldi to revert to how he used to be. Things further come to a head when Citra and Key walk in on the two men as they are kissing. But instead of admitting it was all a deception, Nesta states that he really is in love with Key. Nesta has turned truly chocolate (or straight). Key initially rejects Nesta for lying to her, but returns to him after having run through the Jakarta night to stop him before he leaves forever. So it seems we have the conclusion: Nesta is turned straight by the charms of the pretty Key; Citra is still alone due to her distrust of men; Aldi is also to spend his life alone as a sad but out homosexual. However, in the final scene, as is demanded by romantic comedies, everyone is provided with a partner: Citra wins the attention of a cool rocker at a pop concert, and then Aldi appears hand in hand with Citra’s boss, Dani. Incidentally, the punk-looking Dani is played by Fauzi Baadila, one of Indonesia’s most in-demand young actors, someone generally associated with far more macho roles.[1]
Cast[edit]
- Marsha Timothy
- Marrio Medhithia
- Nino Fernandez
- Nadia Saphira
References[edit]
![Coklat Stroberi Full Movie Download Coklat Stroberi Full Movie Download](/uploads/1/2/6/2/126247135/982143745.jpg)
- ^Murtagh, Ben (2009). 'Coklat Stroberi: an Indonesian romance in three flavours'. South East Asia research. 18 (2): 219–243.
External links[edit]
- Coklat Stroberi on IMDb
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