Gundala (film)

Sancaka is an astraphobic son of an Indonesian factory worker. One day, the workers protested and soon rioted on income inequality; it stopped as Sancaka's father is stabbed by an unknown man. Sancaka's anger makes him release lightning blasts from his body, and then faints. Sancaka's mother leaves to another city to find a job, and never returns. Sancaka became homeless in Jakarta, and met fellow homeless Awang, who taught him self-defense. They plan to freighthop, but only Awang is able to hop in the train.

Adult Sancaka works as a guard and mechanic in a printing factory. Most of Indonesia's corrupt legislature is controlled by crime boss Pengkor, who commands an army of orphans, who was once in his abusive uncle's orphanage whom they killed as a revenge, raised as assassins. Pengkor plots to poison rice supplies with a drug that makes the fetuses of pregnant women immoral. Many people them demand the legislative to release an untested antidote formulated by a pharmaceutical company to the public. The debate splits the legislative into two factions: one is led by legislator Ridwan Bahri and his colleagues who creates a bill to distribute it, and the other is controlled by Pengkor and his allies, who opposes it.

One day, Sancaka helps his neighbour Wulan fend off some harassing thugs. In a second fight, a bolt strikes Sancaka's body, awakening his superhuman powers. Sancaka is asked by Wulan to help her defend a thug-vulnerable market. Sancaka is unready, allowing the thugs to burn the market. With the help of Wulan, her little brother Teddy, and Sancaka's fellow guard Agung, Sancaka learns his powers and creates a DIY costume to harness his powers. With that, Sancaka starts fighting the thugs, including violinist Adi Sulaiman and Pengkor's nationwide orphan agents.

The legislature passes the bill on the antidote, but Ridwan soon discovers that the poison is non-lethal; it is the antidote that is poisonous, with the pharmaceutical company revealed to be owned by Pengkor's shell company. Ridwan asks Sancaka to stop the distribution, causing Pengkor and the team to attack Sancaka, seizing Agung, Wulan, and Teddy. Sancaka unleashes his powers, defeating most of the attackers, but Agung dies. Ridwan arrives and shoots Pengkor. Sancaka catches up with the distribution convoy and tries to stop them; he succeeds thanks to a mysterious woman stopping them, and uses his power to break all the antidote bottles.

Pengkor’s partner Ghazul breaks open an ancient tomb buried inside the walls of a museum and the seal of a container containing an old head, using Sancaka's blood he secretly extracted. He combines the body and the head, resurrecting Ki Wilawuk, a powerful medieval, and tells him of Sancaka, calling him 'Gundala' ('Thunder' in ancient Javanese). Ki Wilawuk orders Ghazul to gather his army, "for a great war is coming."

In a mid-credits scene, Gundala meets Ridwan and thanked him for giving an upgraded costume. From afar, the mysterious woman who stopped the convoy earlier observes them; it is the superhero Sri Asih.[13]

In 1981, the popularity of the Gundala comics in Indonesia reached the big screen. By purchasing a license from the author, PT. Cancer Mas Film visualizes the comic to a film titled Gundala Putra Petir (Gundala the Son of Lightning) directed by Citra Award-winning directorLilik Sudjio. The actor who was appointed as Ir. Sancaka or Gundala is Teddy Purba who was famous as one of the Indonesian action stars at that time. His mortal enemy, Ghazul was played by the character actor W. D. Mochtar, while Sancaka's lovers, Minarti played by Anna Tairas. Other actors and actresses involved in the film include Ami Priyono, August Melasz, Pitrajaya Burnama, HIM Damsyik, Gordon Subandono, A. Hamid Arief, Rini Ratih, Dewanti, and Ratno Timoer. Even though the setting was changed from the setting on the comics, the film remained faithful to storytelling based on comics written by Hasmi. It was told that an engineer named Sancaka managed to find the anti-lightning formula. Unfortunately this discovery resulted in Sancaka having to break up with her lover Minarti due to forgetting to attend her birthday. In the midst of sadness and heavy rain, Sancaka was struck by lightning and carried over to the world of Emperor Kronz. There, he was given the power and costume that turned him into Gundala. Meanwhile, the circulation of narcotics by a group of organizations led by Ghazul began to run rampant. That is when the battle between good against evil began.[15][16]

In 2010, Iskandar Salim, a photographer and graphic designer, created promotional material for a movie that was not being made about Gundala, because he noticed that there had never been a movie featuring an Indonesian superhero and wished to start a public debate on the subject. He created an official website, a Facebook page, posters, and staged photographs that allegedly showed the movie being made. As a result of the attention generated by the hoax, Gundala's creator, Hasmi became involved in negotiations to produce a real film based on the character.[17]

One of the soundtrack complementing this film was the 1962 song "The End of the World" by Skeeter Davis. The production team agreed that the lyrics represent the main theme of the film; when many people in a country do not upheld justice, they will head on towards the "end of the world".[13]

In order to raise public awareness regarding Gundala film, M&C! and Koloni publisher will publish two types of Gundala comics, remastering version of Gundala classic comics (published in July 2019) and Gundala comics adaptation from the story conveyed in the film (published in August 2019). The remastering version is targeting the original Gundala comics’ fans back in 1970s–1980s and collector of Indonesian old school comics, while the adaptation version is targeting Indonesian millennials who were not aware of Gundala character before.[24] Gundala comics will also be available in a digital form on WEBTOON, targeting Indonesian teenagers who frequently accessed the platform.[25] Koloni, along with Gramedia and Bumilangit, will also hold several roadshows around Indonesia. The Gundala film roadshow began on June 15, 2019 in Jakarta.[26]

Gundala had its local premiere on August 28, 2019, and released in Indonesia on August 29, 2019.[22] It had its International premiere at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival on September 11, 2019.[2][11] It was acquired by Premiere Entertainment Group, who began shopping the film to domestic and international buyers at the AFM on November 9, 2019.[27] On April 30, 2020, Well Go USA Entertainment announced it would be releasing Gundala via digital, Blu-ray, and DVD in North America on July 28, 2020.[28]

• Official website
• Gundala at IMDb
• Gundala at Rotten Tomatoes
• Gundala at AllMovie