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''Resia Boroboedoer'' (''Secret of Borobudur'') is a 1929 adventure film produced by Nancing Film Corp. Starring Chinese actress Olive Young, it followed a young woman on her quest to find
''Resia Borobudur'' was produced by the newly established Nancing Film Corp in 1928. It was the second film produced by Chinese conglomerates in the Indies, after '' Lily van Java'' (1928), and the first to be directly targeted at ethnic Chinese. The film was silent and shot in black and white.
Olive Young, a mixed-race woman from
Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),*
*
*
was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist lege ...
's ashes in the temple of Borobudur
Borobudur, also transcribed Barabudur (, ), is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, near the city of Magelang and the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indonesia.
Constructed of gray andesite-like stone, the temple consi ...
. The production cost of the film, which was panned, led to the collapse of its studio.
Plot
Young Pei Fen goes from mainland China toJava
Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...
. In her father's book ''Youn Lun Fah'', she has read that a jar with Gautama Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),*
*
*
was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist lege ...
's ashes is hidden in the temple of Borobudur
Borobudur, also transcribed Barabudur (, ), is a 9th-century Mahayana Buddhist temple in Magelang Regency, near the city of Magelang and the town of Muntilan, in Central Java, Indonesia.
Constructed of gray andesite-like stone, the temple consi ...
. The temple's guardian, Gandha Soewasti, unsuccessfully forbids her from looking. When Young is out searching, betel
Betel (''Piper betle'') is a species of flowering plant in the pepper family Piperaceae, native to Southeast Asia. It is an evergreen, dioecious vine, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white catkins. Betel plants are cultivated for their lea ...
juice drips onto her. Thinking that Gandha is behind this, she finds the guardian and beats her with a chair. Gandha's friend Koesoema tries to have vengeance on Young with black magic, but Gandha uses her own magic to stop him.
In the temple, Young finds a doorway leading down. However, she collapses after poisonous gas leaks out of the room. Gandha rescues her and reveals that she owed a life debt to Young's father, Lun Fah, who had rescued her from a bandit thirty years previously. Gandha had also given Lun Fah the book. Young decides to abandon her search for the ashes, and instead leads an ascetic
Asceticism is a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from worldly pleasures through self-discipline, self-imposed poverty, and simple living, often for the purpose of pursuing spiritual goals. Ascetics may withdraw from the world for their pra ...
life as a guard to the temple with Gandha.
Production
''Resia Borobudur'' was produced by the newly established Nancing Film Corp in 1928. It was the second film produced by Chinese conglomerates in the Indies, after '' Lily van Java'' (1928), and the first to be directly targeted at ethnic Chinese. The film was silent and shot in black and white.
Olive Young, a mixed-race woman from Shanghai
Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...
, was cast in the lead role and paid a large sum of 2,000 Dutch guilder
The guilder (, ) or florin was the currency of the Netherlands from 1434 until 2002, when it was replaced by the euro.
The Dutch name was a Middle Dutch adjective meaning 'golden', and reflects the fact that, when first introduced in 1434, its ...
s monthly for her work with the studio. She was widely known and reported for her sensuality, and not averse to kissing men in public, something considered unladylike at the time. This was reflected in the film, which showed Young in a bikini
A bikini is a two-piece swimsuit primarily worn by women that features one piece on top that covers the breasts, and a second piece on the bottom: the front covering the pelvis but usually exposing the navel, and the back generally covering ...
-like costume; this was the most skin yet shown in a film from the Dutch East Indies.
Release and reception
''Resia Borobudur'' was released in Batavia (modern day Jakarta) in July 1929. It was a critical flop, and generally decried as illogical and having poor image quality; viewers also described it as a "bastard" film owing to Young's crudeness. The film critic Kwee Tek Hoay questioned how a girl from Sumatra could have found a Chinese-language book, or how Young could communicate with the Javanese – who could not speak Mandarin. Nancing Film Corp went bankrupt after the film's release, from paying both Young's living costs and building a large studio in Batavia. Young went on to have a minor career inHollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood ...
.
See also
* List of films of the Dutch East IndiesReferences
;Footnotes ;Bibliography * * *External links
* {{Use British English, date=July 2012 Dutch silent feature films Dutch East Indies films Dutch black-and-white films Indonesian black-and-white films Dutch adventure films 1929 adventure films 1929 films Indonesian adventure films Silent adventure films