One arrival that is gone underneath the radar to date among the many new Netflix motion pictures to reach in August 2024 is Borderless Fog, a homicide thriller set in Borneo, throughout the Indonesian and Malaysian border – it would not even have sufficient opinions to have a Rotten Tomatoes rating but. It follows Inspector Sanja (Putri Marino, who’s nice) as an immediately iconic new detective – unmistakeable along with her close-cropped curly hair and doctor-prescribed pink sun shades – as she investigates an odd decapitated corpse left on the border between the nations, which does have a head… simply the mistaken head.
What follows is an astoundingly dense and thematically fascinating thriller that has the darkish tones, character motivations and morally unclear vibes of a complete Danish homicide collection like The Killing or The Bridge, however squeezed into underneath two hours… and but in some way is not unimaginable to comply with. It would not fairly all tie collectively satisfying sufficient to make it into the greatest Netflix motion pictures checklist, however as a connoisseur of the mid-tier detective thriller style, I had a good time with it, and I would fairly fortunately watch a yearly Inspector Sanja film the place she appears moodily over lovely and ominous jungle landscapes.
Borderless Fog begins with a pleasant little ‘slice of life in Borneo’ scene, earlier than the corpse begins the thriller with a literal bang (on a tin roof), and falls onto the border between the 2 nations. The film will get straight into the themes that may underpin the entire story as two police forces argue that the opposite ought to need to cope with based mostly on the border placement, with the disagreement not solely reaching the purpose the place they measure its distance from the precise border, however then query the place the border actually is right here in the midst of the forest.
The film’s overarching theme is about issues that sit between two camps, by no means becoming fairly into both. The primary physique is a mismatched head and torso, which lands on the border between two nations, and might be investigated by a misfit metropolis cop struggling to suit into the countryside, partnered somebody who grew up with tribal radicals however grew to become a cop and is not full accepted by both facet… the film would not need any easy archetypes, which additionally helps to guarantee that anybody who appears extra merely good or evil immediately arouses your suspicion, as a result of nothing’s that straightforward right here within the fog, the place cutaway photographs of ominous native bushes watch over the forest like veiled gods.
This all additionally leads into simply what a dense collection of plots are occurring right here. As soon as we have had our introductions to the ideas above, we’ll need to cope with a criminal offense sufferer that could be sacrificial false flag homicide, a neighborhood crime boss, a communist hero residing in woods who might or will not be folklore, kidnapped kids on a survival hike by way of the forest, and Sanja confronting her boss about his seeming corruption or incompetence… and people aren’t spoilers, as a result of all of it occurs inside the first half of the film. Whereas I admit to dropping some threads, the truth that I might comply with the plot alongside when it is thicker than the Borneo jungle’s foliage is a testomony to stable filmmaking.
It is great-looking at occasions too, with a muted palette and theatening panorama photographs once more making it really feel like a Scandinavian crime drama transplanted to south-east Asia, whereas often including some break-out kinetic vitality – one quick sequence of boats feels straight from a Michael Mann film, and I want the film had introduced extra of that fashion, really. The director, Edwin, has received awards earlier than, and retains the film partaking it doesn’t matter what’s occurring.
As I discussed above, I’d name this an immediate traditional. The assorted threads do not tie collectively neatly and totally satisfyingly, although it definitely will get dramatic. And greater than that, regardless of there being a ton of labor to match the themes with the characters, it would not actually ship in your funding within the characters who aren’t Sanja – and you are feeling extra for her is closely as a consequence of Putri Marino being the strongest performer.
However even when it would not dig deep sufficient, it scratches the floor of so many various parts that it might probably’t assist however be fascinating on a regular basis, particularly in the way in which it revels among the many complexity of the characters’ relationships with the Dayak tribal individuals, with the historical past of communism, and with the connection between Indonesian and Malaysian officers. And like I mentioned, it in some way does all this in underneath 120 minutes. What is the excuse of all these way more primary motion motion pictures that may’t deliver themselves to return underneath two and half hours?
