Terang Boelan

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the song, see Terang Bulan.

Terang Boelan
A black-and-white poster
Theatrical poster, Batavia
Directed byAlbert Balink
Screenplay bySaeroen
Starring
Cinematography
Music byIsmail Marzuki
Production
company
Algemeen Nederlandsch Indisch Filmsyndicaat
Release date
  • 8 December 1937 (1937-12-08)
CountriesDutch East Indies
(now Indonesia)
LanguageMalay Indonesian

Terang Boelan (

keroncong music, which was popular at the time, and several actors from Balink's previous work Pareh
(1936).

Terang Boelan was a commercial success in both the Indies and abroad, earning 200,000

Malay audiences in Malaya, creating a formula of songs, beautiful scenery and romance that was followed for decades afterwards. The Indonesian film historian Misbach Yusa Biran described it as a turning point in the history of Indonesian cinema for its catalytic effect on the industry's growth. Like many Indonesian films of the era, Terang Boelan has been lost
since at least the 1970s.

Plot

Rohaya must separate from her lover, Kasim, so that she can marry her father's choice, the disreputable but rich Musa. The night before the wedding, Kasim plays the song "

drydock
and Rohaya keeps busy as a housewife. They discover that Kasim's old friend Dullah has lived in Malacca for some time.

Their life together is interrupted when Musa, who is revealed to be an opium dealer, discovers them. While Kasim is away at work, Rohaya's father comes and takes her back to Sawoba. Kasim, having discovered Musa's deeds, also returns to Sawoba and rallies the villagers to his side by telling them of Musa's opium dealings. He and Musa begin fighting. When it appears Kasim may lose, he is saved by Dullah, who had followed him back to Sawoba. The villagers and Rohaya's father agree that Kasim and Rohaya should be together, as they are truly in love.[b]

Cast

Background

During 1934 and early 1935, all feature films released in the

Hollywood productions, while the domestic industry decayed.[3] The Teng Chun was able to continue his work only because his films often played to full theatres.[2]

In an attempt to show that locally produced, well-made films could be profitable, the Dutch journalist Albert Balink, who had no formal film experience,[4] produced Pareh (Rice) in 1935 in collaboration with the ethnic Chinese Wong brothers (Othniel and Joshua), and the Dutch documentary filmmaker Mannus Franken.[5] The film cost 20 times as much as an average local production,[6] in part because of Balink's perfectionism, and was ultimately a failure. The Indonesian writer and cultural critic Armijn Pane wrote that Pareh had performed poorly with native audiences as it was seen as looking at them through European eyes.[6] Pareh bankrupted its producers,[6] and enabled The Teng Chun to dominate the industry – although with less traditional stories – for a further two years.[1]

Production

A grainy picture of a man with a video camera
One of the Wong brothers, c. 1947; the Wongs' collaboration with Balink on Terang Boelan was their second, after Pareh.

By late 1936 Balink had obtained financial backing from several domestic and foreign companies with which he, the Wongs, and Franken opened the Dutch Indies Film Syndicate (Algemeen Nederlandsch Indisch Filmsyndicaat, or ANIF) in Batavia (now Jakarta). Although this new establishment focused mainly on newsreels and documentaries, on 1 January 1937 ANIF announced that it would produce several feature films, one of which was Terang Boelan.[7]

The story for Terang Boelan was written by Saeroen, a reporter with the newspaper Pemandangan who had close connections to the theatrical community, shortly after the domestic release of the American-produced Dorothy Lamour vehicle The Jungle Princess (1936), which served as an inspiration.[8] The Indonesian film historian Misbach Yusa Biran wrote that this gave Terang Boelan stylistic and thematic similarities to the earlier film.[9] The Indonesian film critic Salim Said also recognised such similarities, describing Terang Boelan as reflecting the "jungle princess" works popular at the time.[10] Saeroen named the fictional island on which Terang Boelan takes place "Sawoba" after the crew: Saeroen, Wong, and Balink.[11]

Production had begun by February 1937, under Balink's direction and with the Wongs as cinematographers, only to be interrupted by the relocation of ANIF's offices. Filming had begun by May of that year.

Tanjong Katong in Singapore.[17] The use of nitrate film may have been a factor in the film's later loss.[18]

The cast of Terang Boelan mainly consisted of actors who had appeared in Pareh. This included the

Portuguese influences); because Mochtar's voice was ill-suited to the task, the musician Ismail Marzuki – who also composed the film's score – sang while Mochtar lip synced.[19]

Release and reception

Terang Boelan premiered on 8 December 1937 at the Rex Theatre in Batavia, the capital of the Dutch East Indies; it played to a nearly full theatre.[20] Also marketed under the Dutch title Het Eilan der Droomen, the film was advertised as showing that the Indies were as beautiful as Hawaii, a popular island paradise in Hollywood films. Posters also emphasised the use of Indonesian-language dialogue.[21] William van der Heide, a lecturer on film studies at the University of Newcastle in Australia, notes that the film continued a trend of "Indonesianisation", or the application of a national (Indonesian) understanding to borrowed concepts; for Terang Boelan this indigenisation process involved the inclusion of "exotic local settings" and keroncong music. Such adaptations of foreign films had arisen several years earlier and continued long after Terang Boelan's release.[22]

The film was a commercial success, both in the Indies and nearby

US$ 114,470[24]) in two months.[25] Terang Boelan proved to be the most successful production in the area until Krisis (Crisis) in 1953, released after the Netherlands recognised Indonesia's independence in 1949.[26]

Despite the success, ANIF was displeased with the film and halted its other non-documentary productions; one of the studio's cameramen, an Indo man named J.J.W. Steffens,[c] suggested that ANIF's management preferred works of non-fiction as a more intellectual medium. Disappointed by the company's reaction, Balink left the Indies and emigrated to the United States in March 1938.[27] Terang Boelan's cast left ANIF not long afterwards and, after briefly touring Malaya, joined Tan's Film.[28] They made their first film for Tan's, Fatima, in 1938. Mochtar, who soon married fellow Terang Boelan actress Soekarsih, continued to be cast as Roekiah's lover; the two were a popular screen couple until Mochtar left Tan's in 1940 over a wage dispute.[29]

Legacy

A woman and a man, looking forward
Roekiah and Rd Mochtar (pictured in Siti Akbari) continued to be cast as lovers until 1940.

The success of Terang Boelan led to an increase in film production in the colony, many of the films following the same formula, including songs, beautiful scenery and romance.

Malay audiences, established Malay Film Productions in Singapore, where it became one of the more successful production houses.[36]

Heider considered Terang Boelan one of the two most important cinematic works from the Dutch East Indies during the 1930s; Balink's earlier film Pareh was the other. He notes that Terang Boelan "set the tone for popular Indonesian cinema", a tone that remained dominant into the 1990s.

Indonesian cinema, showing the possibilities of the medium and serving as a catalyst for further development.[11] Said concurred, describing the film as a milestone in Indonesia's history because of the widespread formula it introduced.[16] The repeated use of Terang Boelan's formula has been criticised. The director Teguh Karya, for instance, denounced films that used it without building on it, leaving the formula "undeveloped and static".[37]

Terang Boelan is considered lost,[38] as are most domestic productions from the era.[d] The Filipino film historian and director Nick Deocampo noted that productions made with nitrate film – such as Terang Boelan – burned easily and were thus easily lost, but suggested that copies of the film may have survived until the 1970s.[18] In a 1991 publication Said, Heider, and the American translator John H. McGlynn expressed hope that a copy of the film might be lying around in someone's attic or closet in Indonesia or the Netherlands.[38]

See also

Explanatory notes

  1. ^ Some sources, such as Anwar (2004, p. 84), incorrectly give the film's release year as 1938.
  2. ^ Plot summary derived from Said (1982, pp. 24–26) and Biran (2009, pp. 169–170).
  3. ^ Biran does not indicate his full name.
  4. ^ Heider (1991, p. 14) writes that all Indonesian films from before 1950 are lost. However, JB Kristanto's Katalog Film Indonesia (Indonesian Film Catalogue) records several as having survived at Sinematek Indonesia's archives, and Biran (2009, p. 351) writes that several Japanese propaganda films have survived at the Netherlands Government Information Service.

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b Biran 2009, pp. 380–382.
  2. ^ a b Biran 2009, pp. 147–150.
  3. ^ Biran 2009, p. 145.
  4. ^ Biran 2009, pp. 155, 159.
  5. ^ a b c Biran 2009, pp. 160–162.
  6. ^ Biran 2009, pp. 165–168; Said 1982, p. 142.
  7. ^ van der Heide 2002, p. 128; Biran 2009, p. 169.
  8. ^ Biran 2009, p. 170.
  9. ^ Said 1982, p. 11.
  10. ^ a b Biran 2009, p. 169.
  11. ^ Filmindonesia.or.id, Kredit Lengkap; De Indische Courant 1937, Maleische Muzikale Film; De Indische Courant 1937, Een Film in Wording
  12. ^ Biran 2009, pp. 165–168.
  13. ^ a b Heider 1991, pp. 15–16.
  14. ^ Biran 2009, p. 146.
  15. ^ a b Said 1982, pp. 23–24.
  16. ^ Esha et al. 2005, p. 32; Filmindonesia.or.id, Terang Boelan
  17. ^ a b Deocampo 2006, pp. 1917–1919.
  18. ^ van der Heide 2002, p. 128; Said 1982, pp. 23–24.
  19. ^ Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad 1937, Terang Boelan.
  20. ^ Filmindonesia.or.id, Terang Boelan.
  21. ^ van der Heide 2002, p. 128.
  22. ^ van der Heide 2002, p. 128; Said 1982, p. 25; Deocampo 2006, pp. 1917–1919.
  23. ^ New York Times 1938, Foreign Exchange.
  24. ^ Biran 2009, p. 171; Esha et al. 2005, p. 33; Barnard 2010, p. 52.
  25. ^ Anwar 2004, p. 84.
  26. ^ Biran 2009, pp. 172–173; Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad 1938, Albert Balink
  27. ^ Biran 2009, p. 174; Esha et al. 2005, p. 33.
  28. ^ Filmindonesia.or.id, Terang Boelan; Biran 2009, p. 214; Filmindonesia.or.id, Pareh
  29. ^ Biran 2009, p. 25; Said 1982, p. 25.
  30. ^ Biran 2009, p. 87.
  31. ^ Biran 2009, p. 182.
  32. ^ Biran 2009, p. 205.
  33. ^ Said 1982, p. 27.
  34. ^ Biran 2009, pp. 383–385.
  35. ^ Khoo 2006, p. 90.
  36. ^ Heider 1991, pp. 6, 16.
  37. ^ a b Said, McGlynn & Heider 1991, p. 31.

Works cited

  • "Albert Balink". Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). Batavia: Kolff & Co. 14 March 1938. p. 3. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  • "Albert Balink". Encyclopedia of Jakarta (in Indonesian). Jakarta City Government. Archived from the original on 17 October 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  • Anwar, Rosihan (2004). Sejarah Kecil "petite histoire" Indonesia [A Short History of Indonesia] (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Kompas.
    ISBN 978-979-709-428-7
    .
  • Barnard, Timothy P. (February 2010). "Film Melayu: Nationalism, Modernity and Film in a pre-World War Two Malay Magazine". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 41 (1). Singapore: McGraw-Hill Far Eastern Publishers: 47–70.
    S2CID 162484792
    .
  • ISBN 978-979-3731-58-2
    .
  • Deocampo, Nick, ed. (2006). Lost Films of Asia. Manila: Anvil.
    ISBN 978-971-27-1861-8
    .
  • "Een Film in Wording: Interessante avondopnamen" [A Film in Making: Interesting Night Shots]. De Indische Courant (in Dutch). Surabaya. 3 June 1937. p. 6. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  • Esha, Teguh; Alhaziri, Wasmi; Fauzi, Muhammad; Donald W., Sabu; Sigarlaki, Erwin R. (2005). Ismail Marzuki: Musik, Tanah Air, dan Cinta [Ismail Marzuki: Music, Homeland, and Love] (in Indonesian). Yogyakarta: LP3ES.
    ISBN 978-979-3330-36-5
    .
  • "Foreign Exchange". The New York Times. New York. 8 June 1938. Retrieved 24 November 2012.(subscription required)
  • van der Heide, William (2002). Malaysian Cinema, Asian Film: Border Crossings and National Cultures. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
    ISBN 978-90-5356-580-3
    .
  • Heider, Karl G (1991). Indonesian Cinema: National Culture on Screen. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
    ISBN 978-0-8248-1367-3
    .
  • Khoo, Gaik Cheng (2006). Reclaiming Adat: Contemporary Malaysian Film and Literature. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
    ISBN 978-0-7748-1172-9
    .
  • "Kredit Lengkap" [Full Credits]. Filmindonesia.or.id (in Indonesian). Konfidan Foundation. Archived from the original on 19 February 2014. Retrieved 12 August 2012.
  • "Maleische Muzikale Film 'Terang Boelan'" [Malay Musical Film 'Terang Boelan']. De Indische Courant (in Dutch). Surabaya. 19 April 1937. p. 6. Archived from the original on 22 February 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  • "Pareh". filmindonesia.or.id (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Konfidan Foundation. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 23 July 2012.
  • Said, Salim (1982). Profil Dunia Film Indonesia [Profile of Indonesian Cinema] (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Grafiti Pers.
    OCLC 9507803
    .
  • Said, Salim;
    ISBN 978-1-879578-00-5
    .
  • "Terang Boelan". Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). Batavia: Kolff & Co. 9 December 1937. p. 3. Retrieved 22 January 2013.
  • "Terang Boelan". filmindonesia.or.id (in Indonesian). Jakarta: Konfidan Foundation. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2012.

External links

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