BIMYANA
Kim Zuniga
DONI MARMER, Indonesia
I was suprised that this movie fly 4 hours away (according to Cebu Pacific flight time) to my screen. But I can see that this movie is actually has universal purpose and impact to whoever the audience is (especially people from South East Asia and several countries) that basic education and the power of luminated knowledge for each future generations is important to fight for inequality and gain prosperity. But, let’s see, this movie is based on the main character’s name BIMYANA, and kids are Kim’s target audience. Then, she and her team briliantly brought this movie up with important issue to be noted to every kids in South East Asian countries. With animated visualization of Bimyana imagination, we were invited to Bimyana’s world. Indeed, I can feel the spirit of Bimyana that have the willingness to join the competition by finding out how to gain funding for the expenses with her friends and try to convince her mom to learn how to write and read, so she could gather courage and power (represented by the pencils turn into spears animation) to fight the monster of illiteracy and the lack of access to proper education and facilities for sub-urban kids.
In the other hand, I can say Kim is a great director for sure, because working with kids to act is pretty much to make them feel the character and bring the movie alive. And in Bimyana, I can see that the main character pretty much convincing, eventhought the other cast still have this awkwardness to express their dialogue. As from the cinematography perspective, all the pictures and ambiences captured beautifully with proper setting. Moreover, the soundtrack perfectly match with several scenes, eventhought there are several dialogs that weren’t clear enough to hear because of the noise and backsound. The animation itself completed the package of the story. But, the editing wasn’t tidy and the placement of the ambience sometimes aren’t right with the mood that this movie wants to bring. And sometimes there’s no expression coming out from the dialog. Anyway, all of this setbacks washed out by the best scene in the movie, the epilogue!
As Indonesian, this movie supposedly screened in every countries in this region because story about education for younger generations needed to be aired. This movie can raise people awareness about the importance of chasing a proper education for a better life and fight inequality. Good Job!