Pengepungan di Bukit Duri

Despite its high-octane trailers, it falls flat as an action movie. The plot is thin, riddled with clichés, and never gives the audience a reason to care about the characters. It also attempts to borrow the mysterious mentor trope from Assassination Classroom, but the character falls flat. Ultimately, It feels like a checklist of tired tropes rather than a thrilling ride, making it more frustrating than fun.

It feels like the movie is too busy imitating better works without understanding what made them great in the first place.

It hints at the borrowed elements from Battle Royale and Assassination Classroom, while emphasizing the film's lack of depth or originality.

About a teacher named Edwin who searches for his sister's child, who was raped. It's set in a dystopian era with riots everywhere. Inspired by the racist riots against the Chinese in 1998.

The visuals are quite impressive, with Jokan's graphic, gory scenes. From beginning to end, we see slashings, stabbings, and burnings-all of them fantastically brutal. Personally, I was watching it with a shiver of joy and wincing.

Personally, i expected plenty of action. However, the transitions between the stories felt slow, and many of my expectations felt unfulfilled. Even so, Jokan managed to deliver another jaw-dropping ending.

In the end, this film successfully depicts and critiques all forms of racial issues that have occurred in Indonesia and also portrays the deplorable morality of schoolchildren. Whether it's violence or offensive language (ajg, bgst, ngentot)-it's all truly present here.

Anyway, keep this up, Bang Jokan!

Joko Anwar is bold enough to raise the issue of racial discrimination against Chinese Indonesians.

(Apologies) Without intending to discredit Gen Z and beyond, this film can be quite provocative if viewers don't filter or approach it with an open mind.

At the very least, it will prompt them to look up historical articles about the 1998 tragedy.

Morgan Oey + Omar Esteghlal = Boom!

Fatih Unru was quite memorable for me.

Minimal plot holes, but unfortunately it loses momentum from the middle to the end.

The layered plot twists were interesting, though one of them was predictable - minus 0.5 from my rating.

Joko Anwar is (still) the best director at the moment.

This film is like a roller-coaster because from the very beginning of the duration, everything is quite excellent. The tone, the characters, the atmosphere, the build up are awesome. But then eventually the escalation regarding to the theme and the substance is under my expectation, i kinda expect something more, something deep about racism, about discrimination, social-political-power-relation et cetera, because the brutality and harsh language is dominating all the way, it is a little bit repetitive but without quite deep cathartic solution. However, there are some redemption aspect in this movie that makes me still seeing a light at the end of the tunnel.

Pengepungan di Bukit Duri is one of those movies that had me hooked from the start. It's intense, emotional, and really makes you feel like you're part of the story.

The actors did an amazing job-everything felt so real, especially the fight scenes and moments of violence. It didn't feel like they were acting at all. You could see the fear, anger, and desperation in their eyes, and it just hit different.

The script was super well-written too. I found myself feeling all kinds of emotions: anxious, scared, even frustrated, just like the characters. Every line had meaning, and it all helped build the overall tension.

Honestly, the movie was so intense that I was literally shaking at some points. The dark visuals, the camera work, and the background music all worked perfectly together to build that pressure. Joko Anwar really nailed the mood.