Niebla sin fronteras

"I don't understand why this film received such a poor rating. This is the first film that I find very realistic. It portrays the actual conditions of the Indonesia-Malaysia border region, where the culture and social dynamics are the same but the countries are different, depicted very well.

This is the work of the genius anthropologist Dave Lumenta, which describes the conditions at the end of the New Order era in Indonesia. Perhaps viewers or outsiders' expectations might not grasp this and assume it is merely fantasy."

"I have never seen an Indonesian film that is truly bold in presenting a very sensitive story, such as the Dayak tribal customs, communism, and mysticism, all within a single narrative."

Borderless Fog is a detective film with an interesting story concept. Themes in this film include power, honesty, guilt and corruption. The story of this film has actually been used a lot, but what is contained in it is quite complex even though there are still shortcomings. This film presents quite a lot of scenes that are considered gruesome, and provides a tense sensation throughout the film. The mystery of who the real killer is is not revealed at all and is closed with an open ending. Unfortunately, there is too much mystery packed into this film, and it ends up being a bit of a mess. The characterization of Ipda Sanja's character here, like in most detective films, is always haunted by events in the past that make her job difficult. The cinematography doesn't feel cheap, the movement and angle shots help to build a tense and mysterious atmosphere. The tone of this film is also quite dark, but it also has a neo-noir vibe from the coloring. The music scoring is the same, with the right timing, it makes the vibes even more scary. Putri Marino's acting is really cool as her character, and the acting of the other actors is also really good. Overall, this is a quite exciting film even though it is a bit slowburn.

The plot outline given above is quite misleading. Sanja is a female cop with skeletons in her own closet. Her father is a high official. She is sent to the border area of Indonesia and Malaysia to investigate serial killings.

Sanja is immediately up against a commander who feels threatened, misgivings in the community and an apparent presence in the woods. However, the killing continues.

What Sanja discovers reaches far deeper than the decapitations and bizarre displays of heads and bodies.

The film is not flawless and the very last flashback is baffling, but I suppose that's its purpose.

Very entertaining.

Wim Vorster.

I am very much for strong, professional female characters in movies. I feel we don't get enough of them in feature films (series might be different though). And this is especially true in Asian cinema where women are either strongly sexualized and/or are a shallow bloodthirsty revenge tool or a sidekick or mysterious love interest.

So this movie delivers in that regard, I really liked the actress and her character, her style, pretty much everything. The plot was ok for the most part, quite complex, I was having trouble following the opposing sides in the beginning, but the reveal was a little lacking. The build-up was ok, but I guess I was expecting a little bit more, and it ended somewhat illogically with the last head. Also I suspected the killer early on, there was something fishy about that guy lol... But I won't fault it too much for that, I just won't rate it as highly but I think it's better than most Asian movies on Netflix.

Also, I just realized she played the lead in Possessive. Which I also recommend. That was decent too. Good role also.

Borderless Fog: An Indonesian Noir serial killer film set on the border with Malaysia. It might well have fitted into Folk Horror as the ghost of a long dead freedom fighter is suspected by some as being responsible for the killings. Members of the Dayak ethnic minority on both sides of the border see him as their guardian. As so often happens, locals who campaign for autonomy, human rights and an end to land grabbing are smeared as communists. After a decapitated corpse is found it is soon discovered that the body and the head belong to different people, one of whom is an army officer. Sanja (Putri Marino) a detective from Jakarta is called in, she soon discovers that the local police are incompetent and corrupt. She also becomes aware of cross border human trafficking of girls, as the body count mounts; some of the deaths seem to be related to this. There is a parallel narrative where three girls are lost in the jungle when their trafficker is killed. The jungle is dark, eerie, this adds to the folk horror feel as do some of the many odd characters. Like so many Noir detectives, Sanja has her own past demons and this threatens to derail her investigation. Most of the violence and killing occurs off screen but there is enough gore here to disturb/satisfy serial killer film fans. Borderless Fog would have benefited from a 10 minute cut in its 112 minute running time and the ending is rather ambiguous with a sometimes confusing plot. It is worth watching though. Directed by Edwin from a screenplay by Edwin and Ifan Ismail. On Netflix. 7/10.