c h o c o l a t h e a d w e l c o m e s y o u

As I promised, here is my review on JANJI JONI. Although it’s only an amateur review, please, please and please try hard not to laugh at my writings. I watched it last 2 Fridays, alone and I found the movie is not well promoted. As the result, only 15 people show up on the 12.30 P.M. show that day. However, I liked this movie because it’s so funny and every single scene of the movie made me laugh and I laugh hard. The movie is about Joni, modern day “postman” who “post” film’s reel to every cinema in Jakarta. He loves his job and didn’t feel ashamed about his job. But one thing he couldn’t find is love. But he’s quite happy with his current condition as a single, Indonesian guy and managed to distract his craving for love by being busy with studies and his passion towards his job. Until he met with a hot girl, Angelique who happens to watch a movie that darn day with his overzealous boyfriend played by Surya Saputra. Joni really wants to get to know this girl and he finally get the guts to chat with the girl and ask for her name. The girl, not surprisingly, seems to like Joni and promised to tell Joni her name if Joni managed to send the reel on time. But, that darn day is not Joni’s day. One by one accident fall on his lap and he, being such a sweetheart can’t stand the seduction of helping blind man, helping an upcoming indie band who lost their drummer, helping a girl who was robbed and all that boils down to the failure of Joni’s promise to Angelique. But, Joni got her name anyway as the girl was impressed with Joni’s determination. But what captures my attention most is the soundtrack of the movie. I love all the songs featured in the movie. All songs in the movie were contributed by Indonesian upcoming underground band. There’s no poppy-ish song in this movie and I believe that this movie’s director wanted the movie to feel like an underground movie. The song I love the most in this movie is White Shoes and The Couples Factory’s “Senandung Maaf”. The song really has the Britpop-ish feel in it. In fact, the overall songs in the movie had the Britpop feel in it, which is good and suits the mood on the film. I can’t help but keep on stomping my feet to the songs featured in the movie. I also dig the song played at the opening of the movie. If I’m not mistake, the title of the song is “I Got Johnny on My Mind”. The soundtrack of the movie is available now and I’m trying to find the pirated one because I totally have lost my mind when I had my shopping spree last Mega Sale, which comes down to the downfall of my financial situation. In short, I’m broke. Anybody who loves the music industry, and hates people who love piracy like me, you can easily stop me from doing such by buying me the CD. Pleaseeeee…help me. Help me to stop my addiction towards piracy. Anybody who are sweet enough out there?

as usual, i will be watching this movie tomorrow (friday) and i will post the review of the film as soon as possible.i’m on vacation,so i guess you guys have to wait for one week (teehehee..).so here’s the extract from "janji joni" film review that i get from the faithful net.ENJOY!!!

"Janji Joni", Beratnya Perjuangan Pengantar Film

Selama ini, orang menonton film sekadar mencari hiburan. Mereka tinggal datang, antre karcis, masuk gedung, duduk manis, dan menikmati sajian. Tetapi, tahukah mereka perjuangan berat saat pembuatan film itu? Perjuangan seorang pengantar rol film yang harus berkeliling dari satu bioskop ke bioskop lain. Pengantar rol film inilah penentu bisa tidaknya sebuah film itu dinikmati oleh masyarakat.

Tema inilah yang diangkat dalam Janji Joni, karya teranyar sutradara muda, Joko Anwar. Joko ingin berbagi cerita bahwa di balik pembuatan sebuah film, ada beberapa orang di belakang layar yang punya jasa cukup besar, tetapi sering dilupakan orang.

Tokoh utama film ini adalah Joni (Nicholas Saputra), seorang pengantar rol film. Dalam menjalankan tugasnya, Joni berjanji pada dirinya sendiri untuk tepat waktu saat mengantarkan film. Dia tidak ingin penonton menyaksikan tulisan "MOHON MAAF, TUNGGU FILM" di layar lebar begitu lama.

Joni selalu berpikir bahwa selama dia bisa mendedikasikan hidupnya untuk suatu pekerjaan, dia tidak perlu terganggu dengan kenyataan bahwa dia belum pernah punya pacar. Tapi suatu hari, keadaan berubah.

Suatu hari, Joni sedang melaksanakan tugasnya saat dia melihat seorang gadis yang sangat cantik mengantre tiket. Si gadis bersama pacarnya yang terlihat sangat arogan. Joni jatuh hati pada pandangan pertama.

Saat Joni mengajak gadis itu berkenalan, gadis itu malah menantang Joni. Bila Joni bisa mengantarkan film yang akan ditontonnya tepat waktu, baru dia akan memberitahu Joni namanya.

Joni mengira hal itu adalah sesuatu yang sangat mudah. Salah besar! Saat mengantarkan rol terakhir, petualangan terberat Joni dimulai. Berbagai kesialan datang menimpanya. Mulai kecurian motor, menolong ibu hamil, sampai kecurian tas berisi rol film terakhir yang harus diantarkannya!

Dengan sekuat tenaga, Joni memenuhi janjinya agar bisa mendapatkan nama gadis yang ditemuinya di bioskop. Tapi, akhirnya Joni terlambat. Film sudah putus dan semua penonton pulang. Joni kecewa berat. Dia telah mengecewakan banyak orang. Lebih dari itu, dia telah kehilangan kesempatan untuk bisa bersama gadis itu. Kalau saja dia tidak membantu kakek buta, kalau saja dia tidak menolong ibu hamil, kalau saja?

Apakah perjuangan Joni sia-sia? Jawabannya ada bisa disaksikan di bioskop-bioskop mulai April 2005. Itulah sekelumit cerita film baru yang akan mulai syuting besok pagi ini. Joko Anwar sang sutradara mengaku ide cerita Janji Joni didapatkannya sewaktu kuliah di Bandung. "Saat saya nonton sebuah film di bioskop, filmnya sering putus di tengah-tengah. Lalu, di layar muncul tulisan "MOHON MAAF, TUNGGU FILM". Hal ini sangat mengganggu saya karena membuyarkan ilusi film. Karena terlalu sering mengalami hal itu, timbul keingintahuan saya tentang apa yang sebenarnya terjadi di balik proyektor," terang mantan wartawan sebuah koran terbitan ibu kota ini.

Akhirnya, Joko tahu bahwa satu bioskop berbagi kopi film dengan bioskop lain. Saat itulah dia menyadari begitu besarnya peran seorang pengantar rol film. Setelah ngobrol dengan beberapa pengantar rol film, Joko punya ide untuk menuangkannya ke dalam skrip film. Skrip itu dibawanya kepada Nia diNata. Ternyata, Nia menanggapinya dengan sangat positif. "Saya tak menyangka masih ada penulis di Indonesia yang memperhatikan hal semacam ini. Jadi begitu saya baca skripnya, saya langsung bilang oke," ujar Nia.

Dalam film ini, Nicholas Saputra ditunjuk sebagai pemeran Joni. Menurut Nia, produser film ini, sosok Nicholas dirasa sangat pas untuk memerankan Joni. Awalnya, Nia dan kru film ini harus berusaha keras untuk membangun karakter Joni pada diri Nicholas.

"Soalnya, skrip ini diberikan begitu Nico selesai syuting Soe Hok Gie. Nah, kita langsung minta dia gondrongin rambut, gemukin badan. Untungnya, Nico sanggup melakukannya," terang Nia.

Nico pun sangat antuasias dengan peran barunya. Menurutnya perannya di film ini sangat lain dengan peran-perannya sebelumnya. "Pokoknya beda banget. Waktu jadi Rangga aku jadi cowok cool, di Soe Hok Gie jadi aktivis. Kalau di sini (Janji Joni, Red), jadi cowok yang agak-agak konyol," urai Nico.

Ia mengaku tak kesulitan dalam mendalami karakter. Sebab, reading yang dilakukannya cukup banyak memberinya masukan dan pandangan tentang siapa Joni. Sedangkan bagi Mariana Renata, pemeran tokoh Dessy, Janji Joni adalah film layar lebar pertamanya. Sebelumnya, Mariana dikenal sebagai bintang iklan sabun. "Ini pengalaman pertamaku dan aku sudah nggak sabar untuk segera berakting," kata Mariana.

Lain halnya dengan Rachel Maryam. Di film ini, Rachel (lagi-lagi) mendapat slot sebagai pemeran pembantu. Namun, Rachel sangat senang. Dia tidak melihat perannya sebagai apa. Tetapi, lebih melihat pendalaman bakat aktingnya.

"Bagiku sih nggak masalah mau jadi pemeran pembantu atau pemeran utama. Yang penting adalah bagaimana akting kita dan bagaimana film itu sendiri. Biar hanya pemeran pembantu, aku tetap total akting kok," cetusnya.

click here for the link to site that contains JANJI JONI’s film review:

http://nikimovie.blogspot.com/2005/01/janji-joni-beratnya-perjuangan.html

http://bennychandra.com/2005/04/26/seberapa-panjang-durasi-film-di-janji-joni/

http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janji_Joni

http://www.layarperak.com/print.php?newsid=1104852421

Both of band featured here are my favorite Malaysian band. o@g and The Times. I grew up listening to Brit bands such as Blur, Oasis, The Verve, The Cure, Travis and bands closely related to them. When Faiz (my brother) was 13 (if I’m not mistaken) he bought Blur’s “The Great Escape” and keep on rewinding back and forth the EP. I have no choice but to listen to the songs like “Charmless Man” again and again and again. As the only girl in the family, I have no authority to demand my brother to change the dial of the radio only because I wanted to listen to BSB songs. Sucks.

For the whole 10 years of my childhood life, before I went into boarding school, I’ve been listening to Radiohead’s “Creep” but only realize that this song is a phenomenal song by Radiohead when I’m 18 years old (or is it 19?). I am soooo outdated. I never bother to ask my brother what song he is playing if I like the particular song he’s playing at that moment. Without his knowledge, I sneak into his room and scroll through his CD rack and trying hardly to remember what the cover of the album looks like and played the CD while he’s not home. I am so embarrassed if my brother knew that I’ve been listening to his CDs collection.

The Cure is another band that my brothers (Faiz, Ilos and Izal) love. I remember while they’re watching The Cure’s video clips compiled in a CD, I managed to catch a glimpse of it and at that time I think they are really scary. With makeup on and black eye makeup, it gave me a nightmare. Friday I’m in Love is the only song I knew from The Cure (because they keep singing the line) but now, I like The Cure’s Lovesong plus I learned more about the band.

Songs from The Beatles really slipped into my heart and stayed there. I still can visualize me and Faiz in a car trip heading to Terengganu, singing the line “I wanna hold your hand” and mistaken it for “I wanna hold your hair” and I grabbed his hair while repeating that line. How beautiful childhood life can be..

What does it got to do with o@g and The Times? Well, I’m trying to picture how I love this genre of music, B R I T P O P. And obviously, o@g and The Times resemble Britpop bands. o@g transforms from an indie band to 60s crunchy pop band (as what Radhi described their music genre) and some mistakes it for a grunge band and still believes that o@g is a grunge band. From OAG to o@g and currently, OrAnG, I love this band for as long as I could remember.

The Times is a new band that was formed after the departure of Naza, Alem and Mono from o@g after releasing a smashing album, Satelit Ink. For me, it’s a shame that they broke up. They make good music if they are together and why stop when you’re at the top? I couldn’t answer that because I’m not the one who’s working with Radhi, Alem, nor Naza. They have their own issues and why mingle together if you have different view on something? Musical Politics is harder than real life politics. What ever it is, I really dig The Times’ debut album and I’m looking forward for their next album. Although they lack exposure in

Malaysia

’s music industry, for me they are my Malaysian Britpop heroes. (plus,I’m crazy in love with Alem!!)

<======= my future husband!!