"Tutur tinular" (1997) TV series

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Director:

Muchlis Raya

Writers:

Imam Tantowi (writer)
S. Tijab (writer)

Genre:

Action | War

Cast

Murti Sari Dewi	...	Sakawuni
Agus Kuncoro	...	Raden Wijaya
Nungki Kusumastuti	...	Nyai Jayakatwang
Piet Pagau	...	Jayakatwang
Candy Satrio	...	Nambi
Lam Ting	...	Lo Shi San
Anto Wijaya	...	Arya Kamandanu

Runtime:

Australia:60 min (70 episodes)

Country:

Indonesia

Language:

Indonesian

the best plot of Indonesia silat-movie

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

For the non-Indonesian readers, yup.. we have our own martial arts which is called as Pencak Silat or just Silat.

Most of the Silat movie have standard story. Most of them tell about young lad who had just finished their study and searched the murder of their family and had revenge on them. But that was not the story of Tutur Tinular. And when the other silat story are lack of history background, Tutur Tinular have accurate history background. You can compare the story to most wuxia written by Louis Cha or Jin Yong.

The story began when Kamandanu, a blacksmith's second son, was interested to an old sage, Ranubhaya who was an expert in martial arts. He started to study martial arts from Ranubhaya and learned that Ranubhaya was actually his father's schoolmate in weaponry. While Kamandanu's father chose to be a weapon supplier to government --at the time: Kingdom Singhasari, Ranubhaya chose to not cooperate with the government and isolate himself.

When the father learn the teacher-student relationship between his second son and Ranubhaya, he became angry and accused Ranubhaya as traitor and used the government army to attack Ranubhaya's shrine. The relationship between Kamandanu and his father became worse and Kamandanu wanderer as a warrior.

The story became more complex when Ranubhaya, which had survived from his house destruction, was kidnapped by Kubilai Khan's envoy who were amazed by his expertise in weaponry. Being a prisoner in China, he was forced to make a great sword, Nagapuspa (naga means dragon). Finishing the sword, he was murdered by the official who was afraid if Ranubhaya created another sword for rival of Nagapuspa. Before his death, he asked a warrior couple, Lo Si Shan and Mei Ling, to bring the sword to Che Po (Java Island, pronounced in old-china language)and give it to Kamandanu.

The story was continued by the involvement of Kamandanu in Raden Wijaya's troop, survivors of Singhasari kingdom after being attack by Kediri kingdom. The involvement repair the relationship between Kamandanu and his father, especially after his brother, Dwipangga betrayed them. Kamandanu helped Raden Wijaya created his own kingdom, Majapahit.

Tutur Tinular was started in Kertanegara's era (last king of Singhasari) and ended in Jayanegara's era (second king of Majapahit). It began when the main character was still young and ended when the main character had already old. It shows the development from an idealist young lad to a sage who didn't want to see the war again and isolated himself.

The development of other characters were also interesting. Dwipangga for example, was began his life in this story as a physically weak poet. Then, he tried to changed his life by betrayed his family for golds of Kediri. After being beaten and humiliated by his own brother in front of his wife and his son, he studied martial-art and became a scary warrior, called as Penyair Berdarah (Bleeding Poet). After beaten by Kamandanu for the second time, he disappeared and forgotten until his daughter found him as a pitiful helpless blind old man.

The picture quality of this TV-series wasn't good as you expected in America's TV series. The quality was as bad as old Hong Kong Kungfu TV series. The slow-motion made the fight scene worse.

However, the dialog and the story was the best among Silat movies. There were lot of philosophy and dilemma in here. There were some references to ancient Hindu-influenced Java culture such as Mahabharata.

The series was based on Radio drama. Before the series, there were adaptation in form of cinema movie (the movie was simplified the story too much) and another series (which started after Raden Wijaya's death). The 1997-series was the best adaptation.