“Bernafas dalam lumpur”: behind Indonesian soft porn movies in the 70s-80s
Written by Elma Adisya | Read in Indonesian
Supinah: Where to?
Budiman: Where is good?
Supinah: Up to you. There are Rp1,000 and Rp2,000 rooms.
Budiman: Haha, which one do you like?
Supinah: Up to you, for me they’re all the same, only using it for a moment
Many of us perhaps aren’t familiar with the dialogue above, which is a snippet from the movie “Bernafas dalam Lumpur” by director Turino Djunaedy who was also known for his movie “Si Manis Jembatan Ancol”.
The 1971 movie is a legendary piece among the movie community as it is deemed as the pioneer of Indonesian movies which highlighted uncensored sex scenes. With a duration of more than an hour, this movie tells the story of the struggle of Supinah (Suzzanna) who left her child in the village to find out the whereabouts of her husband in the city. When she found her husband, she discovered that he had remarried and even chased her away. The lonesome Supinah in the city wandered off and ended up as a sex worker.
The movie is labeled as a movie that highlighted sex scenes, but those scenes were actually packed elegantly. For example, by showing Suzzanna in lingerie or showing the characters taking off underwear as a “sign” of sexual activities. Not only the sex scenes, the movie is also famous for being the first movie that used crass and strong dialogues, such as the one said by Sapinah as follow:
“I had wanted to quit being a hooker but they laughed. Then, when are they going to stop laughing at women like me? How hypocritical, people who denounce immorality but secretly eat shit outside.”
The audience of the movie may have remembered the brilliant acting of Suzzanna, who oftentimes only clad in underwear in the movie. The movie promotion’s pamphlet even showed the photo of the half-naked Suzzanna with the caption “Suzzanna’s naivety and courage made people hot and cold and hold their breath”, an ambiguous catchphrase and, of course, made people think weirdly.
Actually, if we look at the plot, the movie raises several social issues, including the exploitation of women, which are packed nicely. The several sex scenes, to avoid censorship, were wrapped in scenes loaded with symbolism. From this movie, several directors at that time saw a new formula to compete with imported foreign movies which had started to gain popularity and drew local consumers.
The diverse backgrounds of steamy movies in each decade
Behind the creativity of Indonesian filmmakers at that time, the development of Indonesian movies in the 70s was closely related to the regime change from the Old Order led by President Soekarno to the New Order regime under President Soeharto.
In an interview with TFR, Rizki Lazuardi, Program Advisor for Berlinale Forum, highlighted the importance of examining steamy movies produced in each period more deeply, because each period has a different motivation and background. In the 70s, for example, “Bernafas dalam Lumpur” became the early benchmark because it artistically explored ideas of sexuality.
In the movie, sexuality became part of the social issue that was thoroughly and clearly discussed. The visualization of the sex scenes was also showcased with the awareness of an artistic exploration.
“The steamy movies in the 70s are different from the ones that appeared in the 90s. It can be said that when they first came out, these movies explored sexuality artistically. Because at that time the reference of eroticism in movies only entered Indonesia when imported movies hit the market in the New Order era. Sex references are indeed widely used in foreign movies,” said Rizki.
At first, this sex formula was a form of artistic exploration. However, along the way, it created a domino effect. Directors and producers found out that the audience have a great interest in sexuality, which was manifested in the high ticket purchase for those steamy movies. Inevitably, the sex formula started to be widely used as part of the plot, not as the main essence of the movies.
80s: when sex and violence intertwined
In the 80s, sexual elements grew and then combined with other formulas. The most common combination is with violence and supernatural elements, making this era popularly known as the era of Indonesian movie exploitation and the glorious time of B-movies.
How come they passed the censorship? Of course there is a reason. In fact, movies that are jam-packed with violence, sexual, and supernatural elements are closely related with the political condition of the New Order era, where the authorities closely monitored materials about politics or social criticism. Because the heavy censorship was focused on politics and social criticism, the government loosened the above-mentioned movie materials.
Cited in the VICE video titled “Blood, Guts, and Bad Acting: Inside the Indonesia B Movies of the 1980s”, Indonesian filmmakers at that time responded to the government’s strict censorship by making movies with absurd storyline and essence, and even beyond the public’s preference, by combining elements of violence, supernatural, erotism and others as a form of resistance.
In TFR’s dialogue with Rizki, we mentioned one exploitation movie which also became one of the pinnacles of exploitation movies in the 80s, “Lady Terminator: Pembalasan Ratu Pantai Selatan” (1989) by Tjut Djalil.
The story was so wild with the elements of Hollywood’s “The Terminator” franchise. The difference is that the main character (Lady Terminator) was not controlled by the villainous artificial intelligence Skynet, but instead by Nyi Roro Kidul!
“Usually the sex scenes were combined with violence, and for me this movie is the pinnacle; it incorporated violence a la Terminator and Javanese superstition, and then sex. But to say that this era is the transition to the purely ‘sexploitative’ 90s era, not really. For me it is a derivative artistic piece from ‘Bernafas Dalam Lumpur’,” said Rizki.
Basically, works that we often deem absurd or doesn’t make sense have their own reasons and messages they wanted to relay - albeit sometimes in an unorthodox way. This article is trying to give a little portrayal behind the creative process. What about the 90s and beyond? Especially as many argued that the 90s is the peak of Indonesian movie industry’s decadence.
Don’t worry, because this article is the first part of a two-part series discussing the course of steamy movies in Indonesia, so TFR will discuss more of the movies of the next decades. Look forward to part two of this series in December 2022!