1 Brother, 7 Siblings (2025 film)

Category: Foreign language drama

Original Indonesian Title: 1 Kakak 7 Ponakan

Directed by: Yandy Laurens

Reminded me of: Wonder

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"Damo, Damo, you have to watch this - I heard it's really good!" said Mrs. Damo, right after Mr. Damo recovered from watching Siksa Kubur. And as soon as it started, Damo realised that he and Mrs. Damo have a VERY different taste in movies.

Apparently, this movie is an adaptation of a Sinetron titled (in English) "A Sister & Seven Siblings" from the 1990s, just with a gender-swap.

The plot:

The movie starts off with Moko (Chicco Kurniawan) who moves in with his heavily pregnant older sister and her husband, Agnes and Atmo (Maudy Koesnaedi and Kiki Narendra) to prepare for his thesis defence and graduation to a Masters program in architecture. Agnes and Atmo live with Woko (Fatih Unru), Nina (Freya Jayawardana, credited here as Freya JKT48) and Ano (Ahmad Nadif) who is Atmo's nephew.

Grave Torture (2024 film)

Category: Foreign language - supernatural horror

Original title: Siksa Kubur (Indonesian for 'grave torture')

Directed by: Joko Anwar

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So recently, it was a public holiday where I am in Australia. As a film buff, I decided to whip out the ol' Netflix and see what was available. A film called Grave Torture sounds kinda interesting - supernatural splatter horror, and with an R18+ rating. This better hit hard because anything with an R18+ rating isn't (and shouldn't be) a walk in the park!

And I can only hope it will be better in terms of Indonesian horror than Guna Guna Istri Muda, which in reality isn't a high bar to clear.

The plot:

The movie begins with siblings Sita and Adil (Widuri Puteri and Muzakki Ramdhan) working at their parents bakery. Their parent's (played by Fachri Albar and Happy Salma) are kindly people, but business is struggling. While standing behind the counter, Adil catches the attention of a man with a serious look on his face and wearing headphones. The man walks in, hands Adil a casette tape, talks about fighting the enemies of Allah and warns him to not go outside. Sita attempts to prevent a theft of cash from the till with the parents confronting the thief outside, but they all fall victim to the man Adil encountered before who turns out to be a suicide bomber.