Based on a mythological creature recorded in several Malay and Indonesian accounts, the WWII-set Orang Ikan makes a bold foray into the creature film genre.
The Singapore-Indonesia-Japan-UK co-production is making its rounds on the international festival circuit, receiving its world premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival in the Gala Selection, before heading to the Trieste Science + Fiction Festival’s Asteroid Competition for its European premiere and then the Singapore International Film Festival in December.
“I’m a big fan of creature art and this idea of the fish man, or orang ikan came about,” said director Mike Wiluan. “This mythological creature existed in Malay mythology but it hasn’t really been explored. However, there were many stories of sightings by fishermen of these humanoid sea creatures, cropping up time and time again for over 100 years.”
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The film stars actor-musician Dean Fujioka (Fullmetal Alchemist) and Callum Woodhouse (All Creatures Great and Small). Wiluan also brought on Allan B. Holt as Orang Ikan‘s creature designer; Holt has worked on films like Jurassic World, RoboCop and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra.
Set in 1942 in the Pacific, the film follows a Japanese soldier named Saito (played by Fujioka) and a British prisoner-of-war named Bronson (played by Woodhouse) onboard a Japanese “hellship” before ending up stranded on a deserted island, hunted by a deadly creature known as the “Orang Ikan.”
Orang Ikan is directed and written by Mike Wiluan, who has helmed Buffalo Boys and Losmen Melati and co-produced Crazy Rich Asians.
Wiluan said that he wanted to create a blend of fiction and historical fact through Orang Ikan, setting the tone by beginning the film with real historical footage of soldiers and ships across Asia-Pacific during WWII.
“When I researched more into the orang ikan, even up till the 1940s, for example, in the Kai islands in eastern Indonesia, there was a group of soldiers that had sightings of this half man, half fish creature. When they went to investigate, villagers told them that there was indeed such a type of creature out there. They documented this although no pictures exist. The way these stories perpetuated through time made us very curious,” added Wiluan.
With Fujioka fluent in Japanese and English, Wiluan said that Fujioka helped to shape a lot of the nuance in the dialogue of his character, Saito.
“Dean helped out a lot and we had a very collaborative process. I would ask how his character would speak to someone if they were a different rank or seniority, how he would speak to someone else if he was suspicious of them, or how we can use something more formalized versus slang, since they were in the army,” said Wiluan.
The film’s ship sequences were shot at Wiluan’s Infinite Studios in Batam, while the outdoor scenes were shot in Sukabumi. A big draw were the number of cliffs and caves in the area around Sukabumi, as well as hills, mountains and huge waterfalls, which provided many opportunities to shoot the “orang ikan” moving and lurking amid a rich amount of lush natural features.
It was also important to Wiluan to depict the “orang ikan” in an “old school way,” with a human in a suit instead of computer graphics. He cited 1954 film Creature from the Black Lagoon as an inspiration.
“We were introducing the creature in small bits and pieces, from water to land, not shooting the scene with too much light, introducing it slowly, so that one would see small elements of the creature through time,” said Wiluan. “We did not want to show the creature in just scary moments, but also show what the creature is doing when no one is looking at it.”
On his next project, Wiluan said that he is working on Losmen Melati 2. The first film, Motel Melati, was initially greenlit as a series for Catchplay, before network leadership decided to release a theatrical film cut using footage from the series, and then the series itself, Losmen Melati.
“The first time I did it, the first season was a series that got turned into a film and it was a strategic decision made with our network at the time,” said Wiluan. “It did well enough for everyone in Indonesia for us to do the second one, so I’m really focusing on making that film and fulfill what I missed out with that first opportunity.
“There’s a style that I go for which is more genre, fantastical and a bit more conceptual. I’m also exploring different avenues where I can just push a little bit more, working with actors and stories that have more depth and meaning,” added Wiluan.
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