Sabar Ini Ujian - First Indonesian Movie with Time Loop Element

When I started subscribing Disney+, I noticed there were quite a lot of Indonesian movies there, though mostly the ones that I was interested in I have already seen, while the rest were horror or typical romantic drama that I was not really a fan of. I actually saw the title of this movie but did not read the synopsis until I read in twitter that it has a time loop element. Obviously it intrigued me and therefore I decided to watch it last night. Well here goes more of the film.

Brief Story Line

Sabar (Vino G. Bastian - Wiro Sableng Pendekar Kapak Maut Naga Geni 212, Chrisye etc) had been out of relationship with his ex girlfriend Astrid (Estelle Linden - Darah Daging etc) for the past four years. So when he got the invitation to her wedding with one of their high school friend Dimas (Mike Ethan), Sabar was very reluctant to go despite the encouragement from his best friend Billy (Ananda Omesh - The Wedding & Bebek Betutu etc) and his mother (Widyawati - Mama Mama Jagoan, Critical Eleven etc).

On the day of the wedding, Sabar was totally upset to have to go through with it. And to his absolute surprise, on the following day, his worst day repeat again. Realizing he had the chance of a lifetime, he decided to do something to change his fate. However, he had to do everything right before he could avoid reliving the same day and continue with his life.

So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this intriguing drama comedy movie.

End of Brief Story Line

At first when I watched this movie, I thought it was quite fun. The color contrast made everything seemed cheerful and nice to see. The characters introduction were done quite smoothly, though the reliving day took longer than I expected (likely to give us proper context). The repeating day was definitely the interesting part in this movie. Something that I did not think I would see in an Indonesian film. For this, the director Anggy Umbara (Warkop DKI Reborn: Jangkrik Boss Part 1 & its sequel, Comic 8 series etc) with Erwin Arnada and Gianluigi Ch as the joint writers had to be given credit for doing something different.

The story itself was not that complicated. It was a pretty standard reliving day in a drama comedy, more like Groundhog Day instead of the more action/thriller like Edge of Tomorrow, Happy Death Day or Before I fall. There was no immediate mystery to solve, except for how to get through the day. For people who are unfamiliar with this type of story, it would be a fresh and very interesting thing to see. I also love watching what Sabar did during his frustrated times as it was funny and the best part of having to relive the day.

The comedy here were more like hits and miss for me. Few of them were OK but some of them were irritating and annoying. The worst for me were the two friends of Sabar i.e. Yoga (Riken Rakelna) and Aldi (Ananta Rispo). Sorry to say but their jokes were really not funny and I was tempted to stop watching after I saw them introduced for the first time. Luckily they were better at a latter stage. Sadly the only time they were really funny were during the gag reel shown in the closing credits. Oh there was no mid or post end credit scene except for those gag reels which was a nice touch and fun to watch.

The main cast, especially Vino Bastian and Ananda Omesh were very good. Their chemistry was convincing and their acting were natural. There were also brief appearances of well known names like Luna Maya (Filosofi Kopi 2, Suzanna: Bernapas Dalam Kubur etc) as artist Tiffany, Dwi Sasono (Mendadak Kaya, Dua Garis Biru etc) as Sabar's dorm friend Fido, Anya Geraldine as Sabar's high school friend Sherly and the late Adi Kurdi in his (I think) last appearance in a movie. Of all the large cast, my most favorite would be the senior artist Widyawati. It was a totally top notch performance from her, worthy of my highest praise. 

For me this movie represent something that I like in the Indonesian cinematic experience. Unique albeit not the most original. A different kind of drama comedy with few dramatic moments, few laughable scenes with good performance from several of the cast. There was even a touch of emotional scene and a really surprising ending (not sure why but it seemed that final scene was a bit out of character with the movie. Probably it was added at the last minute?). Oh the background songs suit the timing of the scenes nicely especially with the perfectly written lyrics by DAT Band.

Overall it was a nice and fun enough film. It could have been a better one if some of the not funny jokes were taken out and reducing the duration (2 hours 6 minutes felt a bit too long). But nevertheless I was still entertained. So if you want to watch an Indonesian drama comedy with time loop element, definitely give this a try. As long as you could disregard some of the humors, you should be fine. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars