Si Tjonat

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Si Tjonat
Directed bydirector
Written bywriter
Based on
F.D.J. Pangemanann
Produced byproducer
Starring
  • Ku Fung May
  • Herman Sim
Narrated bynarrator
Production
company
Batavia Motion Picture
Distributed bydistributor
Release date
  • 1929 (1929) (Dutch East Indies)
CountryDutch East Indies
LanguageSilent

Si Tjonat (

indigenous man who, having killed his fellow villager, flees to Batavia (today Jakarta) and becomes a bandit. After kidnapping an ethnic Chinese
woman, he is defeated and brought to justice.

A commercially oriented work aimed at ethnic Chinese audiences, Si Tjonat received mixed reviews; box office proceeds are unclear. Although intended as a serial, no sequel was ever made; the production house, Batavia Motion Picture, closed soon afterwards. Several works in the same genre were released soon afterwards, including Si Pitoeng, which used the same director and star.

Plot

Tjonat, a Sundanese youth, kills his friend and escapes to Batavia (now Jakarta), the capital of the Dutch East Indies, where he finds work with a Dutch man. Tjonat soon robs the man of his wealth and seduces his mistress (njai), then leaves the household to live the life of a bandit. When he asks Lie Gouw Nio (Ku Fung May), the daughter of a peranakan Chinese farmer named Lie A Tjip, to be his lover, she refuses. Enraged, Tjonat kidnaps her, but Lie is rescued by her fiancé, Thio Sing Sang (Herman Sim), who is well-trained in martial arts.[1]

Production

A plain book cover, reading "Tjerita Si Tjonat" at the top, "Oleh" in the middle, and "F.D.J. Pangemanann" on the bottom.
Si Tjonat was based on Tjerita Si Tjonat (1900).

Si Tjonat was directed by

fiction film, the commercial flop Lily van Java (1928), with funding from a high-ranking General Motors employee in Batavia named David Wong.[a][3] Jo Eng Sek, a shop owner, had never produced a film.[4]

The story for Si Tjonat was based on the novel

F.D.J. Pangemanann and first published in 1900.[5] The story had proved popular with ethnic Chinese readers.[4] It was often adapted to the stage by Betawi stage troupes as a lenong stage performance.[b][5] The story was selected by Jo Eng Sek.[6] Several changes were introduced to the story. For instance, in the novel Lie A Tjip was a poor farmer, whereas in the film he was wealthy. Lie Gouw Nio, meanwhile, was not depicted as a poor Chinese woman, but the "a modern girl, dressed in a skirt, shoes, socks, and bobbed hair".[c][7]

The silent film was shot in

Westerns, then popular in the Indies.[6]

Release and reception

Si Tjonat was released in 1929. Although a work of fiction, it was advertised as based on a true story;[8] this had been common in works of Malay literature at the turn of the 20th century, including Tjerita Si Tjonat.[10] The film was one in a line of domestic productions targeted primarily at ethnic Chinese audiences, following Lily van Java and Setangan Berloemoer Darah (both 1928); film historian Misbach Yusa Biran writes that this was evident from the predominantly Chinese production team and cast.[d] Native audiences also enjoyed the film, particularly its action sequences.[4] Indonesian film critic Salim Said writes that it was of distinctly commercial orientation, meant only to turn a profit.[11]

Sales figures are unclear. Said writes that it was a commercial success,[12] while Biran – noting that Batavia Motion Picture was dissolved not long after Si Tjonat's release – suggests that returns were poor.[9] Reviews were mixed. In general the press criticised the emphasis on murder and crime, while in Panorama magazine, Kwee Tek Hoay wrote that the film had been "fairly well produced",[e][4] emphasising Sim's acting – particularly his martial arts skills.[9] Kwee concluded that what few mistakes were found in the film were, ultimately, insignificant.[7]

Although Si Tjonat was initially intended to be a

Si Pitoeng.[14] Ku Fung May did not act in another film.[15] Several films centred on bandits, including Lie Tek Swie's Si Ronda (1930) and the Wongs' Rampok Preanger (1929) and Si Pitoeng (1931), followed soon after Si Tjonat.[16]

Si Tjonat is likely a lost film. The American visual anthropologist Karl G. Heider writes that all Indonesian films from before 1950 are lost.[17] However, J.B. Kristanto's Katalog Film Indonesia (Indonesian Film Catalogue) records several as having survived at Sinematek Indonesia's archives, and Biran writes that several Japanese propaganda films have survived at the Netherlands Government Information Service.[18]

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ No relation
  2. ^ It remained popular until after Indonesia's independence in 1945 (Toer 1982, pp. 28–29).
  3. ^ Original: "... gadis modern jang berpakean rok, spatoe, kous, dan ramboet di-bob."
  4. ^ The Chinese and native ethnic groups were divided both legally and culturally. The Dutch colonial government enacted legislation which stratified the Indies population at three levels, with the Chinese as middlemen between the higher-class Dutch and lower-class natives. Culturally, peranakan Chinese tended to orient themselves with mainland China and not the various native cultures, such as the Sundanese or Javanese. Although the Chinese were a small minority in the Indies, they maintained a higher standard of living than natives (Sukma 1999, pp. 171–172).
  5. ^ Original: "... atoerannja loemajan djoega".

References

  1. ^ Filmindonesia.or.id, Si Tjonat; Said 1982, p. 18; Sen 2006, p. 123
  2. ^ Filmindonesia.or.id, Si Tjonat; Biran 2009, p. 234; Said 1982, p. 17
  3. ^ Biran 2009, p. 82.
  4. ^ a b c d Biran 2009, p. 93.
  5. ^ a b Toer 1982, pp. 28–29.
  6. ^ a b Sen 2006, p. 123.
  7. ^ a b Kwee, 1930, p. 10.
  8. ^ a b Filmindonesia.or.id, Si Tjonat.
  9. ^ a b c Biran 2009, p. 94.
  10. ^ Kwee, 1930, p. 9.
  11. ^ Said 1982, p. 18.
  12. ^ a b Said 1982, p. 19.
  13. ^ Biran 2009, pp. 94, 152.
  14. ^ Biran 2009, pp. 113–114.
  15. ^ Filmindonesia.or.id, Ku Fung May.
  16. ^ Biran 2009, pp. 105, 113.
  17. ^ Heider 1991, p. 14.
  18. ^ Biran 2009, p. 351.

Works cited

  • .
  • Heider, Karl G (1991). Indonesian Cinema: National Culture on Screen. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. .
  • "Ku Fung May". filmindonesia.or.id. Jakarta: Konfiden Foundation. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 9 June 2013.
  • Kwee, Tek Hoay (20 May 1930). "Film Si Tjonat: Kaloearan Pertama dari Batavia Motion Picture Company" [The Film Si Tjonat: The First Production of Batavia Motion Picture Company]. Panorama (in Malay). 4 (173): 9–11. (accessed as a clipping at Sinematek Indonesia)
  • Said, Salim (1982). Profil Dunia Film Indonesia [Profile of Indonesian Cinema] (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Grafiti Pers.
    OCLC 9507803
    .
  • Sen, Kreshna (2006). "'Chinese' Indonesians in National Cinema". In Sun, Wanning (ed.). Media and the Chinese Diaspora. New York: Routledge. pp. 119–136. .
  • "Si Tjonat". filmindonesia.or.id. Jakarta: Konfiden Foundation. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 21 July 2012.
  • Sukma, Rizal (1999). Indonesia and China: The Politics of a Troubled Relationship. New York: Routledge. .
  • .

External links