One arrival that’s gone below the radar to this point among the many new Netflix films to reach in August 2024 is Borderless Fog, a homicide thriller set in Borneo, throughout the Indonesian and Malaysian border – it doesn’t 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 a wierd decapitated corpse left on the border between the international locations, which does have a head… simply the fallacious head.
What follows is an astoundingly dense and thematically fascinating thriller that has the darkish tones, character motivations and morally unclear vibes of an entire Danish homicide collection like The Killing or The Bridge, however squeezed into below two hours… and but in some way isn’t unimaginable to comply with. It doesn’t fairly all tie collectively satisfying sufficient to make it into the greatest Netflix films record, however as a connoisseur of the mid-tier detective thriller style, I had a good time with it, and I’d fairly fortunately watch a yearly Inspector Sanja film the place she seems to be 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 international locations. The film will get straight into the themes that may underpin the entire story as two police forces argue that the opposite ought to must take care of primarily based 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 international locations, and can 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 isn’t full accepted by both facet… the film doesn’t 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 pictures of ominous native timber watch over the forest like veiled gods.
This all additionally leads into simply what a dense collection of plots are taking place right here. As soon as we’ve had our introductions to the ideas above, we’ll must take care of against the law sufferer which may be sacrificial false flag homicide, a neighborhood crime boss, a communist hero residing in woods who might or is probably not folklore, kidnapped youngsters on a survival hike by 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 throughout the first half of the film. Whereas I admit to shedding some threads, the truth that I might comply with the plot alongside when it’s thicker than the Borneo jungle’s foliage is a testomony to strong filmmaking.
It’s great-looking at instances too, with a muted palette and theatening panorama pictures once more making it really feel like a Scandinavian crime drama transplanted to south-east Asia, whereas often including some break-out kinetic power – one brief sequence of boats feels straight from a Michael Mann film, and I want the film had introduced extra of that model, really. The director, Edwin, has received awards earlier than, and retains the film participating it doesn’t matter what’s taking place.
As I discussed above, I might name this an on the spot traditional. The assorted threads don’t tie collectively neatly and absolutely 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 doesn’t actually ship in your funding within the characters who aren’t Sanja – and you’re feeling extra for her is closely as a consequence of Putri Marino being the strongest performer.
However even when it doesn’t dig deep sufficient, it scratches the floor of so many various parts that it may possibly’t assist however be fascinating on a regular basis, particularly in the best way 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 stated, it in some way does all this in below 120 minutes. What’s the excuse of all these way more primary motion films that may’t convey themselves to return below two and half hours?
