While everyone seems to be sick and tired of Hollywood teen flicks, Indonesia churns out one which is top-notch. I’m Malaysian, and Bahasa Indonesia is pretty different from Bahasa Malaysia although they’re supposedly almost identical. I watched it in the cinema so there were subtitles, which helped a lot.

This is one teen flick that you’ll regret you didn’t take the time to watch. It revolves around average people leading average lives, which makes it so easy to relate to. It tells a story of the choices you’ve to make in your life. Choosing your friends or your boyfriend. Many people are faced with this challenge in life, and this movie excellently portrays Cinta’s (Love; the girl’s name) social life (involving her four best friends) and the boy whom she fell in love with.

She has two choices to make–choose her friends, or Rangga (the boy). She finally has to make this decision one day when Alya (who seems to be in a terrible state), her best friend, calls her and asks her out just when she’s about to go and see Rangga.

What makes this movie so memorable, so beautiful is that it is no where near shallow. It revolves around the problems that plague teenagers around the world today, as well as political problems that many countries currently face. It also promotes “karya sastera”, or literature, and poetry as well as music amongst teenagers. After all, it is literature that brings Cinta and Rangga together.

I watched this movie over and over, and each time I walked out of the cinema feeling strangely elated. “Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?” reminds you of how it was like being young and innocent and free. It reminds you of the beauty of young love, and the importance of friends. It reminds you of how the strangest circumstances can bring people together and forge a bond so tight that not even distance would never be able to separate them.