West Java, the time of fairy tales: Pregnant Dayang Sumbi
(Suzzanna) and her husband Tumang have fallen out of favour with the king,
and he's only kept from killing them by his more understanding wife - but
to have his will, the king at least turns Tumang into a dog. Tumang the
dog later becomes the hunting companion of Dayang Sumbi's son Sangkuriang,
who's of course unaware of the fact that the dog is really his father.
Then one day while hunting, Sangkuriang accidently kills Tumang.
When Dayang Sumbi learns about that, she beats Sangkuriang half to death,
almost splits his head, and chases him away. Too late does she realize she
has made a mistake, but then Sangkuriang is nowhere to be found ... Looking
for shelter from a storm, Sangkuriang, who has lost his memory by his
mother's blow on his head, stumbles into a magic cavern, where he learns
all sorts of martial arts and a bit of magic as well. With all of his
skills, he becomes a legendary freedom fighter opposing the king (who
unbeknowest to him has once turned his father into a dog). Between all the
fighting, he meets a beautiful young girl, Dayang Sumbi (who hasn't aged a
bit in all these years), and the two fall in love. Since years have passed
since she has seen him last, Dayang Sumbi does not immediately recognize
Sangkuriang as her son, but gradually it dawns upon her there's something
eerily familiar about the young fighter - until she finds the wound on his
head stemming from her blow from all this time ago ... The
king, his men and a black magician have tracked Sangkuriang down to Dayang
Sumbi's hut and try to get rid of him once and for all, but instead, he
defeats and kills them all. Dayang Sumbi uses this opportunity to make a
swift escape since she knows she can't be lovers with the man who's her
son, but he tracks her down and tries to force her to marry him, upon
which she burdens him with the almost insurmountable task of creating a
lake for her and building a boat in just one night. Sangkuriang's magic
powers help him in getting the job done, but Dayang Sumbi does everything
in her power to keep him from succeeding - and eventually he fails only by
a hair. He still wants to force her to marry him, but right in front of
him, she turns into a bush. Enraged, he kicks his almost finished boat
into the air, and when it lands on the ground upside down, it becomes
Mount Tangkuban Parahu, while the lake he has created is now known as Lake
Bandung ... Enjoyable if trashy combination of the
Sundanese folk tale about the creation of Lake Bandung and Mount Tangkuban
Parahu and martial arts and violent fantasy cinema. All of this is mixed
together to a rather primal low budget stew full of primitive special
effects, crude gore scenes and rather basic martial arts - and in a way,
the unpretentiousness of the whole thing is simply wonderful in its
genuine naivity. Now don't get me wrong, Sangkuriang
is by no means a masterpiece in the traditional sense of the word, and
technically it could have been improved in pretty much every aspect, from
stunt- and effects-work to pacing and storytelling - and yet the question
remains unanswered, would this improvements have made the film better (as
in more entertaining) or
just slicker?
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