Creole-Chinese, Designer Style
Set in the Dutch Indies from the 1930s to the 1950s, this is a big-budget film with grand ambitions. Alas, good research and colorful costumes were not enough to transport the audience to the past.
February 26, 2002
The scene takes place in Batavia, during rainy season in 1944. A boat smuggling weapons from Siam sails into the Sunda Kelapa Harbor. Tan Peng Lian, a Chinese mer-chant from Semarang, Central Java, gets off the boat and dramatically staggers, then falls on his knees to kiss the earth. Gratitude is written all over his face: "Betawi, aku wis mulih (Batavia, I've come home)." That is one of the last scenes in the film Ca Bau Kan, a mai
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