A Garota do Cigarro

Definitely one of the best productions I've seen in a while. I mean, I am a very detail oriented person and there's nothing in life I enjoy more than accurate representations of things in a production like historical objects or fashion ect. Every detail in this series is very well thought&made in my opinion. My visual tastebuds were like "hell yeah." The development of the story and everything is good too except for the final maybe, because for some reason I was expecting a different ending. But still made me cry and throughout the series it was definitely worth to watch. Especially, shout out to the female lead! How beautiful she is and her acting was. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Enjoyed the whole package of emotional, romantic, heartbreaking story so much and finished it right away. Go go go!! Ps* I had no idea Indonesian sounded that good.

REVIEW GADIS KRETEK

I decided to watch this series because it was everywhere on X (formerly known as Twitter). Before that, I already knew the book, it was a hot topic once. The book-with the same title-was written by Ratih Kumala who happened to be Eka Kurniawan's wife. No wonder why I felt deja vu when watching the series, because it shares the same taste with Eka's plotting. They have historical writing style.

The series alone was mainly about cigarette. Dasiyah, as the main character, was a daughter of Mr Idroes, owner of Kretek Merdeka company, and she had a big ambition to make its sauce. But, women aren't even allowed to enter the sauce room. Then she met Raja when she was going to the local market with her father. Raja became one of their workers. Dasiyah and Raja fell for each other, but the universe seemed to not get their way. This, is when the story began.

I got to say the plot was really well done. It was a beautiful play, and well, the actors acted pretty natural, especially Dasiyah and Raja. Dian Sastro succeded to draw all the emotions. This series got all the romance, drama, and action in one.

I rate 8/10.

Allow me to start by saying I wish they cast a taller actor for the role of elderly Soeraja as the difference in height is rather striking, but this is a trivial continuity issue that in no way diminish what Kamila Andini and Ifa Isfansyah had successfully accomplished in this series.

I haven't read the book by Ratih Kumala, so I went into it with zero expectation, except maybe an assumption of many goofs as with other Indonesian series. I'm glad they proved me wrong.

After years of repeat force to watch the "so-called communist film", this feels like a refreshing portrayal, albeit from the other side of things. I'm surprised they didn't take out every single one of Idroes' family, though, despite them not being on the list. But I suppose then there wouldn't be a story to tell for the year of 2001.

Aside from the development of Arum and Lebas' friendship, which is rather hasty in my opinion, Putri Marino and Arya Saloka left people rooting for their characters. And of course, Dian Sastro did a marvelous job portraying the struggle of a smart, intuitive, and opinionated woman in a man's world, even years after Kartini paved the road. Ario Bayu also successfully represented a male feminist in that era. It's real, it's gripping, it's certainly not what you expect from an Indonesian series.

I will be checking out more work from Andini & Isfansyah for sure.

I heard this show was beautiful. I didn't expect anything when I decided to watch it. I'm glad I did. It was one of the best Indonesian shows I've ever seen. The emotions felt real. The setting was solid. The acting was phenomenal. My first motivation was because of Dian Sastrowardoyo, she's my favourite actress. I also know Ario Bayu in several other movies. All of the actors in this show were the A-list bomb. I'm glad I watched it and I did it in one sitting. It has 5 episodes with each one consuming 1 hour. I would recommend people to watch this show. It has some great vintage detail of the old Indonesian in 1960s and early 2000s. 10/10.

I can't get rid of this from my mind. It is a truly masterpiece. I just got amazed how they made such a good historical and romance in one classical movie. It was so simple but because of this, it is so epic and fabulous! Every characters showed their incredible qualities, in a way to give 100 percent efforts. Furthermore, the soundtracks were all matched with every moments in the movie!

Definitely a recommended movie to watch! Not only it gives us how Indonesian history and culture back in 60s but also how a passionate person (woman) on such a taboo thing. It was so good, I am not exaggerating it though!