Aruna & Lidahnya (2018) Review: Food, Friendship, and Romance Reveal the Flavors of Complicated Feelings

 

Aruna & Lidahnya (Alternate title: Aruna & Her Palate) | 2018 | 1h 46m
Genre: Drama/Romance | Country: Indonesia
Director: Edwin | Writers: Rifki Ardisha, Laksmi Pamuntjak, Titien Wattimena
Cast: Dian Sastrowardoyo, Nicholas Saputra, Hannah Al Rashid
IMDb: 7.1
My Rating: 9/10

Aruna faces challenges in friendship, love, and her career while embarking on a journey to rediscover her passion for food and reconnect with her own sensitivity toward life.

Warning:

Contains scenes of alcohol consumption, strong language, and violence.

Can food really tell us something about the problems we are trying to ignore?

That is one of the reasons I enjoyed Aruna & Lidahnya (2018). At first, the film looks like a light culinary romance filled with attractive food and a group of friends traveling together. But the more I watched, the more I realized that food is not simply something to be enjoyed in this story. It becomes an analogy for friendship, love, work, and the complicated feelings that Aruna is trying to understand.

Aruna (Dian Sastrowardoyo) is a food lover who draws a lot of her energy from food. She works for an NGO called One World and is assigned to visit several locations to investigate rumors of an avian flu outbreak that may have affected humans. The project is a collaboration between One World and the PWP2 organization.

From the beginning, Aruna is already suspicious of the project. Some of the data she receives does not seem convincing, and several things make her question whether the investigation is really as serious as it should be.

So Aruna decides to turn the trip into something more enjoyable.

She invites Bono (Nicholas Saputra), her close friend and a chef, to join her. Bono sees the trip as a chance to find new culinary inspiration, while Aruna wants to use the journey to look for a fried rice recipe she has been searching for.

The plan becomes more complicated when Farish (Oka Antara), a man Aruna used to have feelings for, suddenly joins the trip. Farish now works under PWP2 after leaving One World, and his responsibility is to make sure Aruna is doing her job properly.

Bono also invites Nad (Hannah Al Rashid), his close friend and the woman he likes. Nad works as a food writer, making her another natural companion for their culinary adventure.

Suddenly, what was supposed to be a fun trip becomes much more complicated.

Aruna continues finding strange things during her investigation, but Farish does not believe her suspicions. He also becomes increasingly uncomfortable with Bono and Nad's presence because he feels that Aruna is not taking the project seriously.

The irony is that Aruna may want to enjoy the food along the way, but that does not mean she is ignoring her work.

As their journey continues, problems and misunderstandings begin appearing one after another.

Will Aruna succeed in finding her way back to the sensitivity and enjoyment she once had for food—and perhaps understand what is happening in the other parts of her life as well?

What I like most about Aruna & Lidahnya is how many different subjects it manages to combine without feeling completely disconnected. The film brings together food, politics, friendship, and romance, which may sound difficult to balance.

But somehow, they become one story.

The film is adapted from Laksmi Pamuntjak's novel of the same name, and one of the things I find particularly interesting is how food becomes a metaphor for the problems the characters are facing. This is not necessarily an easy thing to do because the food could easily become nothing more than decoration.

Instead, the film repeatedly connects flavors and meals with the characters' emotions and situations.

I really enjoy that approach.

The film also introduces viewers to many kinds of food that they may not have encountered before. The presentation makes the dishes look very tempting, and I found myself paying attention not only to the story but also to the food being shown.

Another thing that I find interesting is the way Aruna occasionally looks directly at the camera and speaks to the audience.

For me, this creates a different relationship between the film and its viewers. Instead of simply watching what happens from the outside, I feel as though Aruna is inviting us to become part of the journey. She tells us what is happening through her expressions and words, almost as though she is sharing the experience directly with us.

The acting is also one of the film's strengths. Dian Sastrowardoyo, in particular, has some moments where she has to communicate an idea to the audience only through facial expressions.

There is no dialogue, but I can still understand what she is feeling and what she is trying to tell us.

I think that is not easy to do.

The cinematography, camera movement, and color composition are also handled well. Some scenes that require detailed shots are presented nicely, especially when the film wants the audience to pay close attention to the food or the expressions of the characters.

What I appreciate is that the film does not become too heavy even though it discusses work, politics, friendship, and romantic feelings at the same time. It remains a relatively light and enjoyable story.

The scene that stayed with me the most is when Aruna decides to eat rujak soto by herself after seeing how close Nad and Farish have become.

While eating, Aruna compares what she is feeling with the taste of the food.

She suggests that sometimes two different kinds of food do not necessarily need to be combined, because putting them together can create a taste that does not match what we expect.

I really like this analogy.

The scene manages to communicate Aruna's feelings without needing her to explain everything directly. She is dealing with jealousy, disappointment, and complicated emotions, but instead of simply saying what she feels, the film lets the food speak for her.

For me, this is one of the best examples of how the film uses food as more than just a visual attraction.

The dialogue, “Some dishes are never passed from one hand to another,” also stays with me because it fits the film's way of connecting food with human relationships.

Sometimes we try to combine things simply because we think they should work together. But just because two things are good individually does not mean they will always be right when combined.

I think relationships can be like that too.

People can be good people and still not necessarily be good for each other. Friendships can be meaningful without becoming romantic relationships. Feelings can be sincere without guaranteeing that two people will end up together.

That is probably what I find relatable about Aruna's journey. She is not simply trying to understand food again. She is also trying to understand what fits into her life and what does not.

Overall, I think Aruna & Lidahnya (2018) is an enjoyable film, especially for viewers who like light romance with food, friendship, and a little bit of political context. The story combines different themes quite creatively, and the use of food as an analogy gives it a distinctive quality.

I also like that the film does not need to make every feeling dramatic. Sometimes a meal, a look, or a simple expression can say enough.

And perhaps that is what the film leaves me thinking about: in our own lives, how often do we keep trying to combine things simply because we want them to work, when perhaps they were never meant to be mixed in the first place?

(Aluna Uwie)

Previously published on Alunauwie.com.

"This article was originally written in Indonesian and has been adapted into English for international readers."