Sweet couple: Despite living in poverty, Candra (Laura Basuki) and Onggy (Dion Wiyoko) keep trying to make it through the day.

There are too many stories to tell in one’s life in too little time.

Onggy Hianata was born to a destitute family in Tarakan, North Kalimantan, in 1962. He was a poor Chinese-Indonesian man. He grew up with eight siblings, which meant eight more mouths for his parents to feed. After working many jobs, both menial and promising, he moved to Surabaya, where fate wasn’t as kind. Debts began to pile up. Hope began to flicker.

The Onggy Hianata that we know of today is a life coach of considerable renown. He’s given motivational talks in Indonesia and beyond with his multi-level business Freedom Faithnet Global. To look into his past is to be reminded of one of those rags-to-riches stories. Think author JK Rowling or Chris Gardner. And biopics are the perfect avenue to tell that story. Remember that Will Smith movie The Pursuit of Happyness? You could examine a person’s struggle while being fully aware of how it ends — broke to rich. Watching these movies is sort of like hearing advice from a motivational speaker: Someday, you could be like them.

Unfortunately, director and writer Fajar Nugros’ Terbang: Menembus Langit (Fly: Across the Sky), his follow-up to films including Jakarta Undercover and Yowis Ben (Whatever), is a biopic that merely scratches the surface of life’s trials and tribulations. Built around episodic chapters of Onggy’s life, Terbang is oftentimes cloying and confusing in its messages. The frame Onggy’s life provides is enough for a straightforward film, but some of the chapters lack complexity and nuance; problems are resolved right after they are introduced.

Some of the themes that Terbang raises revolve around the Chinese-Indonesian experience. To describe Onggy (played by Dion Wiyoko) as a poor Chinese-Indonesian man in his early life is not an oxymoron because Chinese-Indonesians can also be poor. What is laudable in this film is the portrayal of normal life and conscious jettisoning of crass stereotypes such as how Chinese-Indonesians are no longer held up to strange standards when portrayed in a mainstream film, with no pelo accent (inability to pronounce the letter ‘r’). Another portrayal that we can relate to is Onggy’s former roommates who come from different backgrounds, from Batak and Sunda to Papua, reflecting Indonesia’s diversity in that 9-square-meter room.

In memoriam: Chew Kin Wah, who plays Onggy’s father, passes on wise words for his son to live by.

All Onggy has to do in front of his audience is just not give up. When he gets fleeced by a cracker shop, losing him devastating sums of money, he remains adamant and seeks out a new score. When he works a normal job at a thread manufacturer, he grows restless, certain of a better life outside the door. Onggy doesn’t need to answer to his tiger parents. His father, played by actor Chew Kin Wah, appears in flashbacks, where he gives wise words to his young son. One of them is the advice for Onggy to just “soar away”, lending the movie its title.

But it’s easy to tell that Onggy will come out of his plight victorious, though battered. Not just because the audience knows what Onggy ended up as, but because the movie glides with no climax in sight. Resolutions are just as plentiful as the problems. Onggy’s plight, as a result, feels half-baked, which doesn’t really make for an engaging drama.

What saves his storyline is the acting of Dion Wiyoko. Displaying a wide range of emotions, Dion salvages the script that was given to him and runs with it. Laura Basuki, who plays Onggy’s wife Candra, is also great in a movie that does so little with her character.

The dialogues are either too sentimental or too rousing for my liking. Terbang capitalizes a lot on the locations, from Tarakan, Surabaya to Jakarta. Speaking of Jakarta, there is a scene set in 1998, in which Candra and Onggy are left stranded in Jakarta on the cusp of the May riots. This is the part that finally showcases racism against Chinese-Indonesians.

Ultimately, Terbang: Menembus Langit forgets the nuance in the act of making it big. The biggest issue regarding the script is that it juggles too many of Onggy’s chapters, to the extent that the film becomes bogged down. As a result, the story of Onggy Hianata gets told, yes, but not in full, not with nuance.

Earning a living: Ever the entrepreneur, Onggy gets in the business of fruits, among other pursuits.

— Photos courtesy of Demi Istri Production

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Terbang: Menembus Langit
(Demi Istri Production; 111 minutes)

Director Fajar Nugros
Writer: Fajar Nugros
Cast: Dion Wiyoko, Laura Basuki, Melisa Karim, Chew Kin Wah