WHEN EAST MEETS WEST: American and Chinese Influences on Early Indonesian Action Cinema The List of Filmography of Early Indonesian Action Movies (1926-1941)

Abstract

The beginning of Indonesian Cinema has elicited debates ever since politics named the first day of Usmar Ismail’s Darah dan Doa (The Long March) shooting (30th of March 1950) as the official “birthdate” of its movie industry. There have been films before. Dozens of them. They might have been Dutch or Chinese productions, but all of them contributed to Indonesia’s unique cinema history especially in the action genre. Action movies are closely related to Indonesian cinema history since the first ever long feature Loeteong Kasaroeng (Enchanted Monkey) produced in 1926 was an action-orientated fantasy spectacle. It was followed by many martial arts movies during the late 1920s and 1930s and every drama had at least one fighting sequence to entertain the audience. This paper will take a closer look at the different foreign influences in the Indonesian cinema of the 1920s-1940s and which contributed to one of the most popular genres in the contemporary Indonesian film industry. A list of filmography is attached to complement this article.