I finally watched it. It took me about three tries. God, that movie was so boring. It felt like that the whole movie runs on dream logic. It seems like it's based on a fairy tale. Okay, I don't have a problem with that but I get the feeling that the movie expects to the viewer to know what's going on. If you're Indonesian, sure you would get it. But Mr. Lai backstory for the rest of us.
It took me one try, aside from my first livebloggening. It was so bad for me that I just couldn't handle it. However, in both my first try and in my liveblog (at least I had an excuse for the latter), I actually survived it. Yeah, it lasts for about 50 minutes to an hour, but most of that is just stock footage. I even counted the number of times the 40-second tunnel sequence appears (read: three).
In between the first viewing and my liveblog, I tried to watch it again, but I couldn't survive it. But yeah, it's so boring that it will break your brain. (And I'm American.) But I agree that Mr. Lai should have written a backstory to cover all the Fridge Logic and Plot Craters.
Well, I'm Indonesian, who's a used to read all the folklore stories. And yes, It's still a mindfuck.
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Bring a Pillow. This is Torture.
Ah, Beauty and Warrior. I followed this one by Bile Fascination (see a pattern?). I watched it, and now I would wish that it wasn't made.
The plot was more confusing than pretty much every Mind Screw series, except for Alone in the Dark. One of the goddesses was banished because she married a human being. Okay...why? Next, one of her sisters followed her, which led to the only unintentionally hilarious scene in the entire film: the mom's "Oh, my child!" Why? Two words: bad acting.
Come to think of it, aside from suffering a bad plot, the film had tons of bad acting. None of them tried to emote. It was like, "eh, screw it, we're getting paid for this no matter what, so let's do it." Perhaps with a little bit more effort, it still wouldn't make a difference, even if one of the male characters was voiced by either Dan Green or Steven Jay Blum.
Where was I? Oh, the plot. After exchanging parts of dresses, I guess, Sari (the not-banished sister) went to some sort of palace. The official site stated that it was a water palace, but it definitely looked like it wasn't underwater. Two brothers mediated under a cave, and Bataan's spirit went to the water(?) palace. He defeated the demons, yawn, and he and Sari somehow had a baby. There was a sword, two brothers fought for it via obvious stock footage and nightmare-inducing music, and I stopped caring.
Did I mention the stock footage? Some scenes were used more than once. There was a tunnel scene that lasted who knows when, the scene with one of the dress(?) exchange happened twice, and the scene with the two brothers dealing blows happened numerous times.
Overall, don't watch it unless if you are fascinated by it and wish to see how bad it truly is. You'll get your wish, and then some. Those who claim that, say, Naruto is the worst anime ever can watch this (even though it was made in Indonesia) and see that it can be worse.