Indonesia Malaise
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- Oemar
- MS Ferry
company
| Indonesia Malaise | |
|---|---|
 Advertisement | |
| Directed by | Wong brothers |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Wong brothers |
Production company | Halimoen Film |
Release date |
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| Country | Dutch East Indies |
| Language | Malay |
Indonesia Malaise is a 1931 film directed by the Wong brothers. It was the brothers' first sound film and one of the first such films in the Dutch East Indies. Billed as a comedy, the story follows a woman who is overcome by tragedy in her personal life. A commercial failure, it may be lost.
A woman is forced to marry a man she does not love instead of her current boyfriend. The marriage goes poorly, as her husband leaves her, their child dies, and her lover is imprisoned. She falls ill but is eventually healed by a man's singing. Meanwhile, a comedian romances a housemaid.[1]
Production
Indonesia Malaise was directed by the Wong brothers (Nelson, Joshua, and Othniel), ethnic Chinese who had studied film in the US. They also handled the cinematography and sound editing, using a single-system camera made in Europe and lent from a Bandung-based operator.[1] Like the Wongs' other films, Indonesia Malaise was primarily targeted at lower-class native audiences.[2] Only two of its cast members' names are recorded, MS Ferry and Oemar. The leading lady may have been a stage actress; the reporter Mohammad Enoh, who viewed Indonesia Malaise as a child, wrote in 1976 that she had been fairly attractive.[3]
The film was among the first sound films released in the Indies, and the brothers' first sound film.[1] The first such film, George Krugers' Karnadi Anemer Bangkong had been released the preceding year; The Teng Chun had followed with Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang (Rose from Cikembang) in 1931, although whether it preceded Indonesia Malaise is not certain. These early films had poor sound and much static, but through repeated experimentation the quality was eventually brought to acceptable levels.[4]
The film has also the particularity of being the first in history to have the word "Indonesia" in its title.[5]