Dancing Village: The Curse Begins / Badarawuhi di Desa Penari - Movie Review

The Movie: Dancing Village: The Curse Begins / Badarawuhi di Desa Penari

The Director: Kimo Stamboel

The Cast: Aulia Sarah, Maudy Effrosina, Jourdy Pranata, Moh. Iqbal Sulaiman, Ardit Erwandha, Claresta Taufan, Diding Boneng, Aming Sugandhi, Dinda Kanyadewi, Pipien Putri, Maryam Supraba, Bimasena, Putri Permata, Baiq Vania Estiningtyas Sagita, Baiq Nathania Elvaretta

The Story: A shaman instructs Mila to return a mystical bracelet, the Kawaturih, to the “Dancing Village,” a remote site on the easternmost tip of Java Island.

The Rating: 6 / 10

The Review:

This story is a prequel to KKN di Desa Penari, a movie I haven't watched yet, which was the highest grossing Indonesian film in history when it was released in 2022. Being a prequel, it's not essential to have seen the first movie although I'll be watching it soon (as I'm writing this, KKN di Desa Penari is available in the US for Amazon Prime subscribers) because the story is very intriguing. 

Director Kimo Stamboel is very well known in Indonesia for his horror movies so I feel like he was a great choice to direct this feature, the first film made for IMAX ever produced in Southeast Asia. It definitely has the look and feel of a major production with beautiful locations and cinematography that draws you into every moment of the story. I do feel like movie is a bit long as it clocks in at just over two hours total run time. It's always hard to justify horror movies going beyond the 90 to 105 minutes window which for me is the sweet spot for this type of story telling.

It's easy to get bogged down in trying to explain everything to the audience and that is definitely what happens here. The story is redundant at times and there were more than a few moments where I just wanted it to get to the good stuff at the end. Speaking of the end, I was honestly quite confused when the story came to a close because I felt like big chunks of the climax were just straight up missing from the movie. I don't want to explain too much here so I don't spoil the ending but yeah, after all of that build up, it left me with a lot of questions about what just went down.

One thing I always love about watching mopvies from around the world is having the opportunity to explore places I may not ever have the chance to visit. This story is set and filmed in Indonesia and it is packed full of history, culture, and folk lore which for me was the most interesting part of the movie. In this case, it's not vertain where the mystical Badarawuhi originally came from. There are a few possible origin sources that I found online, but they may actually have been born out of the movie and not the other way around.

Either way, this is a very intriguing story that I wish would have been told in a more lean and complete fashion. The whole thing looks amazing but the story just isn't as engaging as I was hoping it would be and that ending just felt so incomplete. That being said, I'm still looking forward to checking out KKN di Desa Penari as soon as I have the chance.