Whipped or Bucin is an Indonesian comedy-drama film directed by Chandra Liow and starring Andovi Da Lopez, Jovial Da Lopez, Tommy Limm, Chandra Liow and Susan Sameh.
“Love slaves”
Whipped follows four men, Andovi, Jovial, Chandra and Tommy who join an “anti-whipped” programme to better their unfortunate love lives. However, things take a different turn from what they initially expected.
We have seen countless movies about “innocent” men in the snare of terrible women who are after nothing but their money. Whipped is that movie. It’s annoying as all hell, and is extremely problematic, not to mention not funny.
Andovi is a man who cannot stand up to his girlfriend, Kirana’s unfair demands, Jovial is in a loveless relationship with Cilla (the only redeemable character here), Tommy is going to get married with Julia and, thus, cannot do what he wants, and Chandra is a director who does not make much sense and is single. These boys take an “anti-whipped” class under the care of Vania, a psychology student running an experiment, and they slowly try to understand what is wrong in their lives. Except they don’t. Because what is wrong in their lives cannot really be found in other people, what is wrong is in them.
Every character in Whipped is one cliché after another and is so infuriatingly annoying that it gets difficult to watch. The boys, trapped in an escape room, try to reach a key in one of their pockets, except they have to do it with their mouths (hands and legs tied). However, actions, on a quest for freedom, become something overtly sexualised, although there is nothing sexual about it. It’s so cringy and in bad taste that you’d feel guilty for exposing yourself to it.
The movie also tries to get around to this trope that all women are horrible and that’s so funny. Women are materialistic and vain and do not think about anything other than shopping or marriage. The only one character in this mess, Cilla, who probably possesses the most redeemable qualities, is cheated on, which is, apparently, romantic. However, when Jovial realises that it’s not meant to be with the new girl, he promptly tells Cilla that he loves her. Five seconds ago, he’d said that he doesn’t.
Vania, on the other hand, betrayed by Jovial and seeking revenge is painted as the “crazy other girl” and her fate is left hanging. Jovial, inspite of cheating on Cilla (probably multiple times), is forgiven without any backlash for what he has done, because love is about forgiveness. I am sorry, love sure is about forgiveness, but you don’t get to get away scot free either.
The characters are vapid, without depth and one-dimensional. Most of them are present to be the comic relief, which is hardly found. There are scenes that drag on and are infuriating to watch, and instead of being funny, they simply add on to the runtime. You don’t particularly care about any of these characters because their problems seem superficial, which, in the long run, translates to not caring about the movie as a whole.
I am aware that there are people like these out there, and Whipped could’ve been a movie which highlighted the problem. However, it takes a comedic route and makes the whole thing very tactless, laughing about and demonising things that should not be.
Summing up: Whipped
Whipped is a problematic movie that takes a very dangerous approach towards cheating and relationships. It is not okay to cheat, and if you’re on the path to forgiving a cheating significant other, take your time and think things through. There has to be some repercussions of breaking someone’s trust – like what Andovi does with Kirana. However, the same standard is not maintained for everyone. Skip Whipped – there’s nothing funny about it.
Whipped is streaming on Netflix.
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