acid reflects

A famous movie once said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.” I would have preferred receiving a box of chocolates over this, but this drama from Java Indonesia, locally released as Traditional Kamasutra Teacher (International title: Gowok: Javanese Kamasutra), definitely served a mountain of surprises.

Don’t let the title fool you. One would immediately suspect a sticky show about sensuality education, or maybe a story about a book illustrator and a nude model. I was suspecting something of the former at the start of the press screening. Was I in for a wild ride.

In the beautiful province of Java, Indonesia, it was customary for the groom’s family to hire the services of a gowok to teach household and sexuality to the boy before marriage. It’s like an early bachelor’s party, but more religious ritual.

The family of Kamanjaya (the young Kamanjaya played by Devano Danendra, the older played by Reza Rahadian) arranges for the services of the local gowok Santi (Lola Amaria). On the morning of the presentation, the young Kamanjaya instantly takes note of the enchanting Ratri (Raihaanun) – Santi’s servant and gowok apprentice. A secret romance would bloom between noble and servant, despite Santi performing the ritual that bound her to the boy.

The first half hour was an endless exposition of rituals that I thought were going to bore me to death. To be fair, explaining where and how the gowok custom began, and the introduction to a few Javanese traditions were all interesting if slightly encyclopaedic. All the info dumps were welcome to a point.

Having completed his transition to adulthood, Kamanjaya is sent to the provincial capital and married off to the provincial princess, to Ratri’s devastation. Betrayed, Ratri throws her energy into becoming the best gowok successor to Santi, and at the same time, involves herself with the emerging women’s movement brought into Java by the communist Chinese. I didn’t know this film was about female empowerment, I told myself. Again, I was wrong. I should keep checking myself for giving things too much credit too soon.

Fast forward more than ten years, and the royal family descends into their little town to seek the services of the legendary gowok for the ritual manhood of the young prince, Bagas (Ali Fikry.) Out of spite for Kamanjaya, Ratri agrees to be the gowok of Kamanjaya’s son. In a private conversation, Ratri confronts Kamanjaya, but nothing is resolved between them. Worse, she casts a love spell on the young boy. The boy is smitten, to the point of violence. Thus, Santi says, the curse of the gowok continues. 

It’s at this point that the film takes the mantle of Shakespearean opera away and goes full-blown Bollywood-meets-Greek-tragedy (minus song and dance). Before the screening, I was suspecting a less violent but equally sleazy Jan Dara (2001), but it turns out Gowok was as narratively violent but without the sleaze. So I was only off by half. 

Like a roller coaster ride that has lost its brakes, Traditional Kamasutra Teacher made so many twists and turns that the audience in my screening began to laugh. More to its silliness and propensity towards the absurd, but after some time, the laughter was definitely because we were enjoying the ride, with all due respect to the filmmakers.

You see, the film was shot gorgeously – the tropical, lush Java landscape captured stunningly by cinematography and production design. The actors clearly gave it their all, especially Raihaanun. It’s a story that Filipinos can easily recognize: rich boy, poor girl, bad family karma. What was enjoyable was the melodrama that could have been a Pinoy film from the golden age of the 1980s – shouting matches, slaps and counter-slaps, adopted children, jealousy, revenge, over-the-top orchestral music, dictatorship, death and machetes – everything including the kitchen sink.

The film overpowers with its melodrama, that it was impossible not to succumb to its camp. I mean this as a compliment. It’s like a full season of twisted Pinoy teleserye in one movie sitting. I totally did not expect this to go batshit “reveal the missing diary stashed behind the ref” level (that’s a Pinoy soap reference).  So crazy fun. 

And so Traditional Kamasutra Teacher became an R-rated tropical Romeo and Juliet-turned full season of Days of Our-Lives set in the tumult of Martial Law Java. How’s that for a pitch?

Traditional Kamasutra Teacher shows exclusively in Ayala Malls Cinemas on September 3, 2025, as the first title under the new “A-REEL ASIA: Stories from the Heart of the East” program of Ayala Malls Cinemas.

Images and links courtesy of Ayala Malls Cinemas.