Niebla sin fronteras

Borderless Fog: An Indonesian Noir serial killer film set on the border with Malaysia. It might well have fitted into Folk Horror as the ghost of a long dead freedom fighter is suspected by some as being responsible for the killings. Members of the Dayak ethnic minority on both sides of the border see him as their guardian. As so often happens, locals who campaign for autonomy, human rights and an end to land grabbing are smeared as communists. After a decapitated corpse is found it is soon discovered that the body and the head belong to different people, one of whom is an army officer. Sanja (Putri Marino) a detective from Jakarta is called in, she soon discovers that the local police are incompetent and corrupt. She also becomes aware of cross border human trafficking of girls, as the body count mounts; some of the deaths seem to be related to this. There is a parallel narrative where three girls are lost in the jungle when their trafficker is killed. The jungle is dark, eerie, this adds to the folk horror feel as do some of the many odd characters. Like so many Noir detectives, Sanja has her own past demons and this threatens to derail her investigation. Most of the violence and killing occurs off screen but there is enough gore here to disturb/satisfy serial killer film fans. Borderless Fog would have benefited from a 10 minute cut in its 112 minute running time and the ending is rather ambiguous with a sometimes confusing plot. It is worth watching though. Directed by Edwin from a screenplay by Edwin and Ifan Ismail. On Netflix. 7/10.

I am very much for strong, professional female characters in movies. I feel we don't get enough of them in feature films (series might be different though). And this is especially true in Asian cinema where women are either strongly sexualized and/or are a shallow bloodthirsty revenge tool or a sidekick or mysterious love interest.

So this movie delivers in that regard, I really liked the actress and her character, her style, pretty much everything. The plot was ok for the most part, quite complex, I was having trouble following the opposing sides in the beginning, but the reveal was a little lacking. The build-up was ok, but I guess I was expecting a little bit more, and it ended somewhat illogically with the last head. Also I suspected the killer early on, there was something fishy about that guy lol... But I won't fault it too much for that, I just won't rate it as highly but I think it's better than most Asian movies on Netflix.

Also, I just realized she played the lead in Possessive. Which I also recommend. That was decent too. Good role also.

Borderless fog gets a six from me, netflixs new thrirller which is set along the malysian indonesian border. I thought this film had a pretty good story but thats not to say it felt overlly muddled. Sanja is a detective. But like a lot she is dealing with things from her past and those things will come back to haunt her as she investigates a serial killer case. A series of grusome discoveries that start after a mans body is found decaptiated. But as the head is in a different country she is forced to work with another man who dosnt gel well to start with but they get there. The actual detecitve part of it just made the film go on to long and it felt like nothing actually got finished. Overall good watch but nothing to great.

This Indonesian killer thriller is so disjointed it's almost incoherent. In fact the only thing that keeps this movie from being completely incomprehensible is that it adheres so closely to genre tropes that you can fill in most of the blanks with inferences from standard Scandi-Noir. A plucky lady cop with a dark secret gets assigned to track a rural serial killer with a local motive in the steaming jungles of ... whoah! Is that a Predator?!? Get to da choppa! Wait, sorry, false alarm. So anyway there's some expected procedural stuff, red herrings, and character revelations; and then in the final act the script goes way off formula, leading to a confused and confusing finale. Don't waste your time.

The plot outline given above is quite misleading. Sanja is a female cop with skeletons in her own closet. Her father is a high official. She is sent to the border area of Indonesia and Malaysia to investigate serial killings.

Sanja is immediately up against a commander who feels threatened, misgivings in the community and an apparent presence in the woods. However, the killing continues.

What Sanja discovers reaches far deeper than the decapitations and bizarre displays of heads and bodies.

The film is not flawless and the very last flashback is baffling, but I suppose that's its purpose.

Very entertaining.

Wim Vorster.