Sri Asih movie (Indonesia, 2022)

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shevek
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The Indonesian superheroine movie which has been mentioned several times in Red5's Asian superheroine thread is now out!

It's based on the long-running superheroine character Sri Asih, created by the Stan Lee of Indonesian comics, R.A. Kosasih.
Here are a couple of comic book covers from the Bumilangit website (Indonesia's homegrown equivalent of Marvel).
One shows a solo adventure from Sri Asih, and the other a teamup with the heroes Godam and Aquanus.
(It should be noted that the Jagabumi cover is drawn by Ardian Syaf, the artist who was banned by Marvel for placing secret anti-Semitic
and anti-Christian messages in X-Men art panels. At this point, he can probably only get work in his own country.)
SRI-ASIH comic.jpg
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JAGABUMI syaf.jpg
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It stars Pevita Pearce, who (according to Jessica, our fantastic Indonesian actress in Heroineburgh) is one of the top actresses in her country,
well placed to make the movie a success in the way someone like Angelina Jolie or Scarlet Johansson would do here.

From what I can glean, she is the latest incarnation of the goddess Devi Asih, and thus inherits the powers.
The powers include: summoning the spirits of her ancestors to control space, multiplying herself, manipulating her size and power.
Sri Asih also has a magic scarf that she can bend its form and movements to her will.
The current incarnation of Sri Asih looks like it might be the third one, a girl named Alana. We'll have to see if that version winds up in the film.

She looks beautiful, it's a nice skintight costume, and the CGI effects are very much up to snuff with current Marvel and DC efforts, and can hang with movies like Shang-Chi. No idea if there'll be any actual peril or danger, or if she'll just be kicking ass relentessly.

For some reason, a lot of these scenes are either somewhat darkly lit, or lean heavily on a palette of browns and blacks. Maybe that's just the
Indonesian coloring preference, or maybe those scenes don't necessarily represent the lighting tone of the whole movie - we'll have to see.

It looks from the Bumilangit website that Sri Asih has quite a long list of villainous enemies, at least as many as Darna.
Indonesians who have been making reaction videos, as well the commenters who have been posting on these vids, have been pleasantly surprised
there will be not one but THREE villains going up against Sri Asih in this film. These are all part of the same "Bumlangit Universe" which contains not just Sri Asih but a previous male hero named Gandala. The villains are as follows:

Ghazul: https://bumilangit.com/en/characterspods/ghazul/ Criminal mastermind with robotic arms and a wish to control the world.
Doktor Setan: https://bumilangit.com/en/characterspods/doktor-setan/ Immortal spirit who can possess minds with evil.
and the one I'm looking forward to:
Dewi Api: The Fire Goddess. Not sure what her beef or why she's evil, but here's what she's supposed to look like in the movie, played by the lovely actress Dian Sastro.
dewi api.jpg
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I'm looking for a way to watch this now (it came out Nov 17), so if Red5 or anyone has any advice, please let me know in the messages.
(The method I've been using to watch the Darna episodes is no help, at least not yet. All I could find was a Sri Asih 'red carpet' clip from the premiere.)

Here's the trailer. A new dawn of Asian superheroines is on the rise!



Want more information on the heroines of Bumilangit? Here's the list of them at this link. They all look beautiful and have great comic-book appeal.
What a great way to market it - if fans have a particular interest in the female heroes, they can seek them out, all in one place.

https://bumilangit.com/en/women-of-bl/

Uh-on...I found peril! It's a martial-artist heroine named Tira, who is part of the Bumilangit universe. "Tira Dalam Pasungan" literally means "Tira in Shackles". With her tight red costume, black mask (attn Maskripper!) and thigh-high boots, let's hope a movie about her is coming soon!
web_Tira-dalam-pasungan-1981.jpg
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shevek
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Has anyone been able to watch the Sri Asih movie yet? I haven't found it anywhere. Red5, maybe you have the answer?

Meanwhile, superheroine fans can take heart, as the next installment in the Bumilangit Universe is Tira! (shown above, from the1980s)
If people are able to watch Sri Asih and things start to take off in this thread, I'll make another one for that movie, but for now here is
the Tira trailer for 2023. I'm a bit hesitant about that costume - it's not tight like her original uniform. But it does have the signature red.

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shevek
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Hey! I found and watched the Sri Asih movie last night. Took me four hours continuously stopping and starting.

I took a lot of notes, made a lot of stills, and I have a lot of questions because I got the gist of everything but I did not have the benefit of subtitles (it said English subtitles but they didn't turn on). So here we go. This entire plot is in spoiler mode in case you want to actually watch.
Spoiler
A pregnant woman and her husband are on vacation when a volcano erupts. They try to outrun the explosion in their car but the husband dies.
The woman has the baby in the car and then it's adopted by Catholic nuns in an orphanage. The baby is a girl named Alana, and she has a friend
named Tangguh who likes comics (he carries the Patriot comic). The girl starts to manifest powers in that she gets strong when she gets enraged
by injustice. But she's really not that strong.

Fast forward two decades (no childhood, no teenage years) and Alana has become a mixed martial arts fighter who can somehow hold her own against men (although to be fair, her opponents don't seem huge or muscular). She wears gangsta cornrows during her fights, but somehow a few minutes later when she is celebrating her victories, her hair is straight, normal and gorgeous. Again, in the rings she's a comptent fighter but is really not inhumanly strong.

The initial villain is a very rich real estate mogul named Prayogo whose spoiled son Mateo (there's a spoiled villain's son Mateo in Superman & Lois right now! coincidence? probably) is humiliated in the ring by Alana. Some kind of cycle of revenge ensues, and Mateo is killed, although it's never really determined how or by whom? (which is weird, because there are police characters in this movie).

Eventually, the violent cycle results in Alana's female trainer beaten to a inch of her life. And then in the hospital, a bomb obliterates the trainer's room. But somehow, she is miraculously fine and relocated to a private care facility, how did that even happen?

Anyway, Alana is found by a rich old blind woman who acts as a mentor (kind of a Nick Fury type) and eventually recruits her for an Indonesian ritual ceremony. It's definitely a pagan ritual to invoke the powers of a goddess (Devi Asih) but it's a pretty tame ritual. There's lots of old women chanting, fancy dance and hand movements by Alana, but there's no sacrifice or blood or glowing objects of power. Alana just eventually enters the spirit realm where she meets Devi Asih and is imbued with incredible powers.

What powers are those, you ask? Good question. Well, the Wikipedia page for the movie says that she has the strength of 250 men.
She can throw a guy so hard at a metal door, that the metal door has some serious dents.
If that is the case, why does she need to do anything other than brute force every situation - she could crush people like bugs and is basically Superwoman.

But she has other powers as well. We eventually see that she can fly, although it's only implied until right near the end of the movie. Until then, we see some well choreographed superhero landings. She also has super speed and incredible agility.

She also can stop bullets, although it's not clear if she's bulletproof. She uses a total of four methods to stop bullets:
1) Wonder Woman style bracelets; 2) Super speed to avoid them; 3) Acrobatic agility to dodge them; 4) And putting a hapless thug in front of them so he gets shot instead. Yup!

But there's even more powers! She can whip out these magical silk ribbons that capture people and toss them around. I think this might be a nod to the Wonder Woman lasso, but I'm not sure.

And finally, she has the inexplicable ability to split herself into three. The only reason she has to do this is because the Big Bad puts her in a situation where she must be in two places at once.

But the most ubiqutious power is simply to not get hurt. I don't know if that's true invulnerability, but it's pretty close. She gets thrown through walls, tossed through a steel railing, and falls from a couple thousand feet in the air, and she's basically fine. Not even any scratches or costume damage, really.

Sure, there are a couple moments which look like "peril" (the most extended one is a series of throatlift shots from many angles) but they don't really gel as danger, because she can't really be hurt by them.

So, this is one seriously overpowered superheroine, kind of a Wonder Woman meets Captain Marvel combined with Javanese mythological lore.
(The gods invented for the Bumilangit Universe aren't from the actual Javanese pantheon. I'm not sure why they have to make them up. But I can say that although there's plenty of native mythology and a shout-out to Christianity, there's no evidence of Islamic content whatsoever or even any characters with Muslim names, despite 90% of Indonesians being Muslim. I wonder if that's a taboo - I mean, Ms Marvel had no problem saving her Jersey City mosque in the Marvel TV series).

Are there lots of action sequences? Yes. Essentially the last third of the movie is a long series of them, culminating in a battle with the Big Bad
in many different levels of an industrial warehouse which lasts quite a long time. What I said in my original post is unfortunately not true - there is really only one active supervillain in the movie (I won't reveal - it's part of the twist), and the evil goddess Api is just kind of a facilitator of the villain. She appears in CGI form in the background but doesn't do any fighting.

Is Sri Asih sexy? Yes. The actress looks moderately hot, and the costume is tight and moves well. There's no cleavage, but you can see her modest rack, her cute butt and gorgeous legs. She's got bracelets and bangles, as one might expect from an Asian heroine, as well as these pointy ear ornaments (let's call them Spock earrings) which are apparently standard appearance for the Sri Asih character.

Here are my disappointments:
1) Her boots are flat and they almost look like socks. They should have had at least flat heels, if only to make her look taller and walk sexier.
The actress does a ton of striding confidently through hallways and corridors.
2) Yes, the actress is beautiful, but not at all times and not at all angles, unlike say Gal Gadot. There are times especially when her face is scrunched up that she does not look that appealing. But then again, there are closeups with makeup that greatly enhances her appeal.
And as I said with the cornrow issues, her appearance is a bit inconsistent throughout. Minor quibble, though.

In the end, Sri Asih saves the day and earns the admiration of the populace, much like in the Darna epics. You have to crack a smile when
she officially introduces herself to the public. There are cellphones, so better be ready for a lot of posts on Instagram, girl.
In that respect of cheers from the people, the Filipino and Indonesian superheroine approaches are quite similar, and probably the Indian as well. They're all much more obvious extensions of indigenous mythology than in the West. I mean, I know Western superheroes are also modern myths but they go through more levels of obfuscation - like for example, Superman is a combination of the Indo-European sky-god (Dyeus Pater) with the Semitic patriarchal omnipotence (El/Yahweh).

With Asia, it's just more obvious since many of them are already called "Devi" (god). You can even look at the credit sequence where every single character in the movie is displayed as a stone idol, like an action figure from 2000 years ago. That sequence is excellent!

The movie also seems very "90s feminist", since there are a lot of women in major roles in the film: superheroine; trainer; rich woman; mentor; police chief; villain's girlfriend...without any postmodern preaching (the only political aspect is the evil developer trying to wipe out the poor slums). So if you are looking for a movie where females constantly play significant roles, this fills the bill.

I also see a whole level of "performative" superheroics from Sri Asih. She does a lot of acrobatic moves and combat flourishes she doesn't need to do, given how overpowered she is. There are also a lot of fancy hand movements. I could be wrong, but I wonder if the influence of Indonesian (and Southeast Asian) classical dance is in play. Maybe Indonesians see her as more authentically mythological if she does all of those movements.

If you like Asian superheroines, you should definitely watch this, as it is highly worth your time.
The teaser at the end of the movie confirm that 1) Gundala and Sri Asih will team up in a future film, probably the "Patriot" one,
and 2) before that, the Godam movie will come out in 2024. I've seen it billed as "Godam and Tira" so let's hope that Tira is included, as per
the preview for Tira that I've posted above.

Gorgeous photo stills follow. I was right about the film's overall palette - it's extremely brown, yellow and green for some reason.

Alana MMA knockout.
sri asih alana fight knockout.jpg
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Alana meets the goddess in her realm.
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The goddess Devi Asih who gives her the powers.
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The suit in the case. Very Arrowverse.
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Alana's first public appearance in the suit.
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Her first superhero landing in a warehouse. Boots should have had heels!
superhero landing in the warehouse.jpg
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More stills? Sure!

She stands over her defeated foe. She does that a lot. It's performative.
sri asih standing over defeated foe.jpg
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Alana and her apparently sidekick, Kala, at the evil developer's charity masquerade ball. Getting those Stately Wayne Manor vibes.
kala and alana at the charity masquerade ball.jpg
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Side view of heroine from hallway fight. I was trying to give a sense of her side profile.
side view of sri asih from hallway fight.jpg
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She faces nine guys in the hallway. She'll be up against a lot more later.
sri asih faces nine guys in the hallway.jpg
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Bullets and bracelets, one of two instances in the movie. She uses a bunch of other bullet-prevention techniques as well.
sri asih bullets and bracelets.jpg
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Close up showing the pointy-eared jewelry unique to the character.
sri asih close up with pointy ears.jpg
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Ok then, more stills.

The power to throw people at doors, really hard.
the power to throw people at elevators.jpg
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She ropes two guys at once with her acrobatic silk thingies.
sri asih ropes two guys at once.jpg
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She steps on another guy. Performative, but maybe Indonesians also have a fetish for it?
sri asih steps on a guy.jpg
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Bad-ass posing in a factory fight.
sri asih badass pose in factory fight.jpg
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Throatlift angle 1.
sri asih throatlifted in factory 1.jpg
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Throatlift angle 2
sri asih throatlifted in factory 2.jpg
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Someone ask for stills?

Throatlift angle 3.
sri asih throatlifted in factory 3.jpg
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Sri Asih when the spotlight goes on in the villain's lair.
sri asih in the villains lair.jpg
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The villain crushes her against the wall.
sri asih crushed against the wall.jpg
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She was tossed so hard, she bent the railing when she impacted it, and went over the edge.
sri asih tossed through a railing.jpg
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Close up of Sri Asih when she meets the evil Api.
sri asih closeup when she meets api.jpg
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Api the evil fire goddess.
api the fire goddess.jpg
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Just one more batch of stills!

Close up on Api the fire goddess, the Wicked Witch of the East.
api the fire goddess closeup.jpg
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Three Sri Asihs are better than one.
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Two of them tower over Roh Setan while one of them goes to do something else equally heroic.
two sri asihs tower over roh setan.jpg
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Even two sexy Sri Asihs are still better than one. Lots and lots of posing in this film.
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She's out cold for maybe a minute after falling from the sky. Not hurt or injured though.
sri asih knocked out after falling from sky.jpg
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A tiny taste of the Patriot film, in which Sri Asih and Gundala will team up. This was apparently filmed at a different time,
so she wears a whole different costume here.
a tiny taste of patriot.jpg
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VegaTaxeca
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Looks interesting.

I saw that you could get the movie soundtrack here on Amazon UK. Maybe at some point they will have the movie itself as well.
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It's now announced to to released on DVD later this month.
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