My Thoughts on “The East 🇳🇱🇮🇩” (2020)

Foreword:

This was originally written and posted on December 26, 2021. I wasn’t sure what to post after posting my Jimmy Neutron vs. Jimmy Negatron review because I didn’t want to leave this month off on that review. I didn’t want to just leave it off at 3 posts, I want to leave off on at least 4. And I hadn’t seen any movies, old or new releases, or have I started of finished watching any shows, and I didn’t feel like reposting yet another Mortal Kombat 🐉 related post. I’ve done two Mortal Kombat 🐉 posts in the past few weeks, the first one I did recently was the one about the trailer to Mortal Kombat II 🐉 (2025), the one with Karl Urban, which I posted on July 22, 2025, and then the second one I did was a repost of my DeviantART journal talking about the female outfits ♀︎ in the Mortal Kombat 🐉 franchise as a whole, and how revealing or not revealing they are, and whether they constitute accusations of sexism, which they have gotten here and there from some select feminists ♀︎; mostly of the Anita Sarkeesian variety, which have been mocked over the years. 

Though Anita herself perhaps isn’t as bad as the Internet 🛜 back in the 2010s made her out to be; I don’t know, the jury’s still out on that; but, you know what kind of feminists ♀︎ I’m talking, the ones that only focused on video games, movies, and pop cultures, and didn’t talk about real issues, the things that are actually affecting women ♀︎ in a negative way. Given the result assault on and rolling back of women’s rights ♀︎ in recent years, coming not just from our government but from other governments around the world (even some in Europe), and the rise and normalization of misogyny in our societies (the resurgence of normalized and casual misogyny), the things that pop culture centric feminists ♀︎ focused and made videos about back in the early-to-mid 2010s seem trivial by comparison. 

Even if many of anti-SJW (now called “anti-woke”) content creators who facilitated this rise of misogyny and the systematic rolling back of women’s rights ♀︎ by governments around the world (including ours), got their start making videos criticizing and mocking Anita Sarkeesian and other feminists ♀︎ like her; either that or Gamergate. She was quite possibly the easiest target in the world at the time, because a lot of people weren’t tuned into politics, who were just tuned into pop culture, who watched movies or TV shows or played video games, already didn’t like Anita Sarkeesian and just saw her as a buzzkill trying to ruin their movies, shows, and games by suggesting that women ♀︎ be dressed a certain way or be portrayed in a certain way that she deemed acceptable; when really, all that’s really needed is for women ♀︎ in pop culture to be treated as human beings with dignity and not as objects to obtain with no autonomy or agency of their own; it’s really as simple as that, and people perceived Sarkeesian and other feminists ♀︎ of her ilk to be complicating things and being too nitpicky, focusing on things that ultimately don’t matter; when perhaps she was arguing for the former all along and people didn’t give her a chance. So, it was very easy for the anti-SJW/anti-woke crowd to come in and make a videos about her, critiquing her and ridiculing her, and frankly, to lie about her and her actual beliefs. 

Most people who know about Anita Sarkeesian have a very distorted view of her that is not entirely based in reality; one that was shaped and curated by these anti-woke channels over the years; some of which went onto get more involved in politics, whose content became more political, and more extreme and more overly right wing (not even trying to hide it anymore by hiding behind the labels like “libertarian” or “classical liberal” 😶‍🌫️); a good example of this phenomenon would be Sargon of Akkad AKA Carl Benjamin; forever ruining that name, so when you talk about Sargon of Akkad, people will inevitably ask, “Are you talking about the YouTuber?” and you have to clarify that you’re talking about the real Sargon of Akkad, the first ruler of the Akkadian Empire, not that asshole British political YouTuber 🇬🇧 (who BTW lied about being black, or at least lied about some of his family members being black, even though everyone could tell that he was as white as snow and didn’t have a single drop of black DNA 🧬 in him) 😒. 

I’m kind of exhausted 😩, I don’t feel posting yet another Mortal Kombat 🐉 post. I feel like I need a break from Mortal Kombat 🐉, at least until the movie actually comes out in October. I was actually contemplating reviewing the Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius console game, since LongplayArchives recently posted a new and improved version of their longplay of the game (specifically, the GameCube version of the game), but I haven’t watching it yet. I’m almost done, I’ve gotten halfway through watching it. I’ve gotten to the part where they’re in that mine ⛏️, I believe it’s on an asteroid ☄️ (because the music tracks that play during these parts are called “Asteroid Exterior ☄️” and “Asteroid Interior ☄️”), and it’s run by Yolkians. So, there are a bunch of Yolkian miners ⛏️ roaming around, and they are actual enemies that you can fight and “kill” in the game, even though you don’t actually kill them, you just destroy their robotic suits, their “shells,” they’re aliens 👽 that resemble eggs 🥚 (egg yolks specifically), which is why they’re called Yolkians. But, even when I do finish it and even if I do decide to review, it still kind of runs into the same problem. I don’t want to do yet another Jimmy Neutron post after I pretty much reviewed two Jimmy Neutron games in a row; both of which were made for PC, while this is a console game, but still. I feel like if I do decide to review the Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius console game, I should put a hold on the Jimmy Neutron posts until I actually review the Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius movie, for either my 99th or 100th post. Unlike Mortal Kombat 🐉 though, I’m not completely burnt out on Jimmy Neutron, I’m still interested enough to write about it, but I don’t want newcomers to my blog to think that the only things I talk about on this blog are Mortal Kombat 🐉 and Jimmy Neutron, when those are far from the only things that I write about on this blog. 

So fuck it, I chose to repost my review of this five year old Dutch war movie 🇳🇱, The East 🇳🇱🇮🇩 (2020). I haven’t posted anything political or history related in a while, and this seemed like a good fit for my Politics and History sections. Anything to get past Huey Li 🤦‍♂️. Known as De Oost 🇳🇱🇮🇩 in the Dutch language 🇳🇱, The East 🇳🇱🇮🇩 is a 2020 Dutch war movie 🇳🇱. It focuses on the Indonesian National Revolution 🇮🇩 AKA the Indonesian War of Independence 🇳🇱🇮🇩, which was a post-World War II and decolonization conflict where the Netherlands 🇳🇱 attempted to regain control of their old Southeast Asian colony, the Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱 after it was liberated by the Allies in World War II, and to put down a resistance movement that had arisen in the colony and wanted independence. It was also kind of a Cold War conflict too because the Dutch 🇳🇱 used the excuse that they were fighting against communism ☭ to justify their attempt to reassert control over their main colony, their main overseas territory, and it actually did involve communist insurgents ☭. The Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱 was extremely important to the Dutch 🇳🇱, it was pretty much the crown jewel in their colonial empire, just as India was for the British 🇬🇧. That’s why it was so devastating to the Dutch 🇳🇱 when the Japanese 🇯🇵 took control of it pretty early on in the Pacific War, in 1942 after Pearl Harbor, to take control of the oil and rubber supply 🛢️ so that they can fuel their empire. 

So that’s why when the Netherlands 🇳🇱 was liberated from the Nazis (because the Netherlands 🇳🇱 itself was invaded and occupied by the Nazis pretty early on in the war in Europe, in 1940, leaving the Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱 vulnerable to a Japanese invasion 🇯🇵), and Japan 🇯🇵 relinquished control of all the territory they had gained during the war (and hadn’t already lost to the Allies) after their unconditional surrender and adoption of a new constitution drafted by the Americans 🇺🇸 (though it wasn’t adopted until 1946 and didn’t go into effect until 1947), they quickly made moves to reassert control over their premier colony. But, the Indonesians 🇮🇩 didn’t want to return to Dutch rule 🇳🇱, they wanted independence. They wanted independence so bad that they self-proclaimed their independence in 1945 after the Japanese 🇯🇵 surrendered and before the Dutch 🇳🇱 had a chance to come back. They formed their own government called the Republic of Indonesia 🇮🇩, which the Dutch 🇳🇱 of course did not recognize, nor did the majority of the world. 

So, when the Dutch 🇳🇱 returned and tried to reassert their dominance over the Indonesian people 🇮🇩, they violently resisted. So, it became a war between the Netherlands 🇳🇱, the Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱 colonial administration, and this unrecognized (or partially recognized) self-reclaimed Indonesian state 🇮🇩 known as the Republic of Indonesia 🇮🇩; as well as communist and Islamic insurgents ☭☪️, which were also fighting against the self-proclaimed Indonesian government 🇮🇩. The war itself started in 1945 and last until 1949, making it a 4 year long conflict. The Dutch 🇳🇱 committed a ton of war crimes and atrocities during their attempts to defeat the Indonesians 🇮🇩, receiving international condemnation for doing so, and they were ultimately unsuccessful. 

The war had reached a partial stalemate, with the Netherlands 🇳🇱 being unable to achieve total victory despite having the military advantage, and they were ultimately forced to relinquish control of the territory, and transfer sovereignty over to the newly formed Republic of the United States of Indonesia 🇮🇩, which was a federal state that only lasted until 1950, when it was replaced by the Republic of Indonesia 🇮🇩 that we still have today. The Republic of Indonesia 🇮🇩 we have today is a unitary state, and not a federation like previous United States of Indonesia 🇮🇩 government of 1949-1950. The Indonesians 🇮🇩 had attempted to federalize, which the Dutch 🇳🇱 strongly supported, but it wasn’t working for them, so they decided against it in favor of a purely unitary state. 

They still hadn’t controlled Western New Guinea yet, as it was still a Dutch colony 🇳🇱 called Dutch New Guinea 🇳🇱, and it would remain so until 1962, when it was administered by the United Nations 🇺🇳 for a couple years, from 1962 to 1963, and then it was handed over to Indonesia 🇮🇩 (making up six provinces, Central Papua, Highland Papua, Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and West Papua; it actually used to be one province known as “Irian Barat” from 1962 to 1973, “Irian Jaya” from 1973 to 2002, and then “Papua” from 2002 to 2022; the province was split up into those six provinces I listed earlier in 2022). Much to the chagrin of the indigenous Papuan people (who are a Melanesian people), who have been fighting a violent resistance movement called the Free Papua Movement for decades, ever since Indonesia 🇮🇩 was granted control of the territory back in 1963. The Indonesian government 🇮🇩 for its part sees the Free Papua Movement, and the groups that make it up, as nothing more than a separatist movement, and has done everything it can to suppress it, especially after the Free Papua Movement’s tactics have been become more terroristic over time. Indonesia 🇮🇩 officially designated the movement as a whole as a terrorist organization. 

Most recently, back in 2023, they took a group of New Zealanders 🇳🇿 hostage, a pilot and a group of five passengers, they weren’t released until 2024, meaning the hostages had remained in the TPNPB-OPM’s captivity for a whole year. So, New Zealand 🇳🇿 and much of the rest of the world has taken Indonesia 🇮🇩’s position that it is a terrorist movement, or at least, the TPNPB-OPM is a terrorist organization. The fact that the TPNPB-OPM Chief of the General Staff, Terianus Satto openly supports Russia 🇷🇺 in the Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦 (under the false impression that Russia 🇷🇺 is anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist; it is not) shows that he and the organization as a whole are bad news. I mean, this is like the leaders and spokesmen of an armed separatist organization saying that they support Israel 🇮🇱 in their war against Hamas in Gaza; which grown way beyond just fighting Hamas, and has become a full-on Palestinian genocide 🇵🇸; just like the Russo-Ukrainian War 🇷🇺🇺🇦 has grown beyond just being a war between Russia 🇷🇺 and Ukraine 🇺🇦, and has become a full-on Ukrainian genocide 🇺🇦. 

I mean, there’s the Druze, they support Israel 🇮🇱 (or Israel 🇮🇱 supports them, or both), despite them trying to break away from Syria 🇸🇾 after the Assad regime fell, and the new government began persecuting Druze and Alawites (which is the ethnoreligious group that the Assad family was apart), based solely on the fact that Assad family was Alawite and the Sunni majority had effectively been under their thumb for decades, and the Druze no longer felt welcome in the new Syria 🇸🇾. This is despite Israel 🇮🇱 actively committing a genocide against the Palestinians 🇵🇸, and the Druze being ethnically Arab; they’re a esoteric ethnoreligious group, an offshoot of Islam ☪️ that broke away from the Islamic faith ☪️ in the 11th century, and became its own unique thing; the Druze don’t consider themselves Muslims ☪️ and the wider Islamic community ☪️ considers them heretics; but the Druze themselves are ethnically/racially Arab; just like the Alawites are ethnically/racially Arab. 

Also, it’s important to note that despite the Palestinians 🇵🇸 being an Arab group, not all of them are Muslim ☪️, some of them are Christians ✝️. That’s why more and more Christians ✝️ and Christian organizations ✝️ around the world (particularly in the US 🇺🇸) are becoming more critical of Israel 🇮🇱’s conduct during the war in Gaza because they’re not just killing Palestinian Christians 🇵🇸✝️, they’re also bombing Christian churches ⛪️; as well as mosques 🕌, but we’re focusing on Christians ✝️ here, not Muslims ☪️ since the common belief is that all Palestinians 🇵🇸 are Muslims ☪️, and I’m trying to make the point that they aren’t, some are Christian ✝️. A lot of the Israeli leadership 🇮🇱 (particularly the far-right members of the government and military) are Jewish supremacists ✡️, so they don’t like Christians ✝️ or Muslims ☪️; they just hate Arabs as a whole, and see them as nothing more than animals, beasts that have to be destroyed (basically, they see Arabs as subhuman)…and also Persians, but that’s a whole other issue. But, Israel 🇮🇱 opposes Syria 🇸🇾, especially the new Syrian government 🇸🇾 (they never even gave it a chance), and the Druze support whichever country, whichever government that opposes Syria 🇸🇾 and the new Syrian regime 🇸🇾 under Ahmed al-Sharaa. And they see Israel 🇮🇱 as their ticket to breaking away from Syria 🇸🇾 and getting their own state.  

The Free Papua Movement as a whole hasn’t gained anywhere near the same amount of notoriety or sympathy as the Palestinian movement 🇵🇸. No one in the West (or even Asia or Oceania for that matter; except for the select few Pacific Island nations that the Wikipedia page on West Papua/Western New Guinea doesn’t mention by name) is exactly calling for Indonesia 🇮🇩 to give up this territory and grant West Papua its independence. The only nation that officially supported the Free Papua Movement was Gaddafi’s Libya 🇱🇾, but you know, Muammar Gaddafi isn’t around anymore, he’s dead 💀; murdered by NATO-backed Libyan rebels 🇱🇾, though NATO didn’t officially support the extrajudicial killing of Gaddafi; they just wanted him to be arrested and tried for his crimes (possibly by the ICC ⚖️ at The Hague), and thrown in prison, possibly for the rest of his life. And his government, the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya no longer exists, and has been replaced by whatever the hell Libya 🇱🇾 has now. 

Though it has received a lot more support and sympathy than the Western Sahara 🇪🇭 independence movement/insurgency led by the Polisario Front. No body gave a single fuck about the Sahrawis 🇪🇭 and their struggle for independence (from both the Spanish 🇪🇸 and the Moroccans 🇲🇦), and that shit pretty much crashed burned, with the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic 🇪🇭 barely hanging on by a thread. The Sahrawis 🇪🇭 BTW, are a distinct ethnic group that live primarily in Western Sahara 🇪🇭, but also live in parts of southern Morocco 🇲🇦, much of Mauritania 🇲🇷, and along the southwestern border of Algeria 🇩🇿. They are descendants of Arabs and Sanhaji Berbers, as well as West African and other indigenous groups. They are distinct from the Arabs that make up the majority of the population in Morocco 🇲🇦; which is still a monarchy to this day, a semi-constitutional monarchy, but still a monarchy nonetheless; it’s official name is the Kingdom of Morocco 🇲🇦. Every country in the world supports (or I guess supported) Morocco 🇲🇦 in this conflict, and hardly anyone supported Western Sahara 🇪🇭, or the Polisario Front, even people who claim to support Palestine 🇵🇸 and Palestinian rights and sovereignty 🇵🇸, and other independence and sovereignty movements. The only countries that supported the Polisario Front or the Sahrawi nationalist movement as a whole are Libya 🇱🇾 (under Gaddafi) and Algeria 🇩🇿. 

Gaddafi’s Libya 🇱🇾 is understandable because Gaddafi supported pretty much every revolutionary movement or insurgency around the globe, just so long as they opposed the United States 🇺🇸 and its allies, or went against their interests. Like, Gaddafi infamously supported the IRA 🇮🇪 (Irish Republican Army 🇮🇪), the Irish terrorist group 🇮🇪 trying to gain independence for Northern Ireland 🇬🇧, to separate it from the United Kingdom 🇬🇧, and then combine it with the Republic of Ireland 🇮🇪; to create a fully unified Ireland 🇮🇪. The IRA 🇮🇪 was the one of the main groups behind the Troubles, which started in the late 1960s and lasted until 1998, and if you don’t know what the Troubles were, they were what that Cranberries song, “Zombie” was about. That’s how equal opportunity Gaddafi was, he even funded and armed an Irish separatist movement 🇮🇪 in Northern Ireland 🇬🇧. 

Morocco 🇲🇦 is a US ally 🇺🇸, as well as a French and Saudi ally 🇫🇷🇸🇦 (Morocco 🇲🇦 was supported by Spain 🇪🇸 in the Western Sahara conflict 🇪🇭 from 1970 to 1975 until the death of Francisco Franco, the fascist dictator who led Spain 🇪🇸 from 1936 to 1975). Algeria 🇩🇿 is the real surprise, it’s a close neighbor to Morocco 🇲🇦, you’d think they’d be on good terms. But, I guess Algeria 🇩🇿 has a government that is unsympathetic to Western interests, particularly those of the United States 🇺🇸 and France 🇫🇷 (Algeria 🇩🇿’s former colonial master). So, I guess it makes some sense that they’d support a separatist movement in Western Sahara 🇪🇭 because by going against Morocco 🇲🇦 in this particular conflict, they’re effectively going against the US 🇺🇸 and France 🇫🇷…and also Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦, but I really don’t know what Algeria 🇩🇿’s relationship is with Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦. 

I know Gaddafi didn’t like Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦, that’s why he did everything he could to undermine their interests as well as the United States 🇺🇸, but I don’t know what the Algerian government 🇩🇿 thinks of Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦, if they like Saudi Arabia 🇸🇦 or if they hate it. Also, Mauritania 🇲🇷 supported Morocco 🇲🇦 in the Western Sahara conflict 🇪🇭, in fact, they were directly involved in the conflict, sending troops into the region to help the Moroccans 🇲🇦 fight against the Polisario Front. But their involvement in the conflict only lasted until 1979 (it started in 1975 and ended in 1979). And that was still back when Mauritania 🇲🇷 had that all green flag, and they wouldn’t change it until 2017. So for most of the 2010s up until 2017, the flag emoji for Mauritania 🇲🇷 was that green flag, but ever since then, it’s been this flag 🇲🇷. I’d also like to briefly mention that Mauritania 🇲🇷 is a country where slavery is still legal. It’s hard to believe that there’s still a place in this world where slavery is not only legal, but seen as a legitimate business by the government. 

This perpetuation of slavery, as you can imagine, has been a source of controversy both in and outside the country, though no moves have been made by the government to actually ban the practice of slavery. The 2018 Global Slavery Index (didn’t even know that was even a thing) estimates that over 90,000 people are being enslaved in Mauritania 🇲🇷, a country with around 4.3 million people. The country has an extremely poor human rights record, not just because of the slavery thing, but of an authoritarian autocratic government that regularly violates human rights. It probably has one of the worst human rights records on the entire African continent, a continent that is chock full of poor human rights records. It’s also an extremely poor country despite its abundant natural resources, with most of its economy reliant on fishing 🎣 and agriculture. I also imagine slavery contributes to the Mauritanian economy 🇲🇷, otherwise the government wouldn’t be willing to keep around, other than to be cruel. Despite the fact that slavery being legal in that country, and being pervasive, makes Mauritania 🇲🇷 somewhat of a pariah on the global stage. I mean, why wouldn’t it? It also makes the country seem backwards, like it’s stuck in past, frozen in time, when slavery was not only more widespread and commonplace, but also seen as normal and ethical. 

The only places where this movement is well known are places that geographically close to it such as Indonesia 🇮🇩 itself, Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬, Australia 🇦🇺, and New Zealand 🇳🇿, which is why the TPNPB-OPM chose to take New Zealanders 🇳🇿 hostage. The only push back Indonesia 🇮🇩 has gotten is in the UN 🇺🇳. Back in 2017, during the 71st session of the UN General Assembly 🇺🇳, several Pacific Island nations called upon the UN 🇺🇳 to take action against alleged human rights abuses committed by the Indonesian security forces 🇮🇩 against Papua’s indigenous Melanesians, and some even called for the self-determination of West Papua. Indonesia 🇮🇩 denied these claims and accused these nations of trying to interfere in Indonesia 🇮🇩’s internal affairs and undermine its national sovereignty. 

During the 72nd session, those same nations again called for an investigation into killings and various alleged human rights abuses committed by the Indonesian security forces 🇮🇩. None of which was granted by the UN 🇺🇳. So, even if Indonesia 🇮🇩 was called out for its conduct in West Papua in the UN General Assembly 🇺🇳, the UN 🇺🇳 itself chose not take any action against Indonesia 🇮🇩. And while yes, the security forces have killed and tortured a lot of people inside of the territory, the West Papuan separatists have also been accused of a lot of the same violence. They’ve killed both Papuan and non-Papuan civilians, tortured and raped people, and attacked local villages; presumably those who don’t explicit support the movement. So, it’s not just Indonesia 🇮🇩 that’s committing human rights abuses and killing civilians inside of West Papua, it’s the Free Papua Movement too, or at least, the armed wing of the movement. 

In a lot of ways, the Indonesian National Revolution 🇮🇩 was like a smaller scale version of the First Indochina War, where France 🇫🇷 attempted to reassert control of their Southeast Asian colony, French Indochina 🇫🇷 (which made up modern Vietnam 🇻🇳, Cambodia 🇰🇭, and Laos 🇱🇦) , but ultimately failed (despite receiving military support from the United States 🇺🇸) due to facing a fierce resistance from the Việt Minh. The war was a sign of things to come in the Cold War, and was the first major decolonization conflicts in the aftermath of World War II and during the Cold War; as European empires fell like dominoes in their vain attempts at maintaining their colonial possessions, and their former colonial possessions becoming independent sovereign countries as a result of their failure to maintain or reassert control. But, unlike the First Indochina War, there was no big climatic battle that brought the war to an end and was a humiliation for the European colonialist side. There was no Điện Biên Phủ equivalent in the Indonesian National Revolution 🇮🇩, or at least, there didn’t seem to be one from what I saw on Wikipedia. 

The last major battle of the war was Operation Kraai (which is Dutch 🇳🇱 for Crow 🐦‍⬛), and the Dutch 🇳🇱 won that battle, the operation was a success. But, while it was a military success, it was a political and propaganda disaster because the Dutch 🇳🇱 violated the Renville Agreement in order to conduct this operation, which was a ceasefire agreement that the Dutch and Indonesian sides 🇳🇱🇮🇩 agreed to earlier that same year. And despite the Dutch 🇳🇱 defeating the Indonesians 🇮🇩, and sending their government into exile, they still faced resistance, as Indonesian rebels 🇮🇩 attacked them using guerrilla warfare. The whole thing just isolated the Netherlands 🇳🇱 diplomatically. 

The US 🇺🇸 even threatened to cut off economic aid for World War II rebuilding efforts if the Netherlands 🇳🇱 didn’t stop and continued on with their assault, and the Dutch 🇳🇱 knew they that couldn’t continue the war for much longer without US economic and military aid 🇺🇸. So, they were put in a position where they were left with no other option but to recognize Indonesian independence 🇮🇩 and leave the territory for good. The outcome of this conflict is more similar to that of the Suez Crisis, where the operation was a success, but it isolated the European side diplomatically and they were placed in a situation where they no choice to give up their colonial possession, in that case, the Suez Canal. Although it is important to note that not all belligerent nations on the European colonialist side of the Suez Crisis were European, as Israel 🇮🇱 joined the war to pursue its own territorial ambitions and national security interests, and received the least amount of backlash and punishment for its actions out of all three nations that were involved in the invasion of Egypt 🇪🇬. 

But, interestingly, even though they lost the war, and recognized Indonesia 🇮🇩’s independence, the Netherlands 🇳🇱 did try to maintain some sort of influence over Indonesia 🇮🇩 and keep it inside its orbit, by establishing the Netherlands-Indonesia Union 🇳🇱🇮🇩, which was a confederation or a personal union similar to that of the British Commonwealth 🇬🇧 and the French Union 🇫🇷. But unlike either of those, the Netherlands-Indonesia Union 🇳🇱🇮🇩 was not successful and only lasted 7 years from 1949 to 1956; whereas the French Union 🇫🇷 lasted 10 years, from 1946 to 1958, and the British Commonwealth 🇬🇧 (otherwise known as the Commonwealth of Nations) still persists to this day; the French Union 🇫🇷 ended after the fall of the Fourth Republic, and after France 🇫🇷 lost control of Algeria 🇩🇿, which wasn’t treated as a colony, but as a province of France 🇫🇷 proper, which is known as Metropolitan France 🇫🇷; Algeria 🇩🇿 gained its independence in 1962. 

The Netherlands 🇳🇱 would ultimately apologize to Indonesia 🇮🇩 in 2013, not just for the colonial rule over their country for 149 years, but also for their conduct during the war. And in 2022, a historical review carried out by the Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies 🇳🇱 (KITLV), the Netherlands Institute for Military History 🇳🇱 (NIMH; no relation to the NIMH from The Secret of NIMH), and the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies found that the Netherlands 🇳🇱 was guilty of carrying out systematic and excessive use of violence against the Indonesians 🇮🇩 during the war. The review is quoted as saying, “The use of extreme violence by the Dutch armed forces 🇳🇱 was not only widespread, but often deliberate, too,” and “was condoned every level: political, military, and legal.” On the same day the review was released, February 17, 2022, then current Dutch prime minister 🇳🇱, Mark Rutte (now the current secretary general of NATO) publicly apologized for the atrocities committed by the Dutch 🇳🇱 during the war against the Indonesian people 🇮🇩, and for past Dutch governments’ 🇳🇱 failure to acknowledge the atrocities and the full extent of them.

The reason why I even knew about this war to begin with is because Indy Neidell of the TimeGhost History network hosted a documentary series about the war on the TimeGhost History channel. The first video of which I included at the end of this review you’re about to read, though I also provided a link to the whole series that can click on here. He’s currently hosting an ongoing series on the Korean War 🇰🇵🇰🇷, which got its own YouTube channel dedicated to it similar to what he and the TimeGhost team did for World War I and World War II. And like the series they did on World War I and World War II, the Korean War 🇰🇵🇰🇷 series, covers the entire conflict on a week-by-week basis, as if it was actually happening in real time, and it even has these framing segments where Indy pretends to be someone living back then receiving photo calls about the latest updates about the war before getting into the main documentary sections, covering each development on the battlefield and in the diplomatic arena. 

This means that like the Great War channel and the World War Two channel before it, the Korean War 🇰🇵🇰🇷 channel is one of the most thorough and well researched documentary series about the war that you’re likely to ever see. If you’re ignorant about the war and you want to learn more about it, subscribe to the channel and watch the series from beginning to end. Even if you are familiar with the Korean War 🇰🇵🇰🇷, and know most of the big details about it, you’ll still learn something about the war that you didn’t before. It’ll take you a long time to finish it since they’re doing the war in real time as it lasted, three years, but it’s worth it. Hopefully, we get something similar from them about the Vietnam War 🇻🇳, if the Cold War channel doesn’t beat them to it. 

The series they did on the Indonesian National Revolution 🇮🇩, or the Indonesian War of Independence 🇳🇱🇮🇩 as they called it in their videos, isn’t as thorough or well detailed as any of those series since they didn’t cover the war in real time as a weekly episode and just covered the highlights, it is still worth watching if you want to learn about what is a pretty obscure conflict in the post-World War II era. Most people don’t know about this war, or know that it even happened. The only two countries where this war is known about and is still talked about is Indonesia 🇮🇩 and the Netherlands 🇳🇱; and also maybe Japan 🇯🇵, since Japan 🇯🇵 joined the Dutch side 🇳🇱 of the war alongside the United Kingdom 🇬🇧, and there were also some Japanese holdouts 🇯🇵 from World War II that fought on the Indonesian side 🇮🇩; and India 🇮🇳, but to a much lesser extent, it’s not like an Indian troops 🇮🇳 actually took part in the fighting, it was more likely diplomatic support than military support; they supported the Indonesian side 🇮🇩 as you might’ve expected, partly because the British 🇬🇧 were involved in the war and fought on the Dutch side 🇳🇱 and because it was an anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist struggle, and India 🇮🇳 was on board with any European colony gaining its independence since it too was a colony, of the British Empire 🇬🇧. 

It is my knowledge of this conflict that I was interested in this movie when I learned about it. I first became aware of this movie while watching the 2021 Brazilian action movie 🇧🇷, Yakuza Princess, which wasn’t very good in a honesty. The trailer to this movie played during the preview section before the main menu showed up. And when I saw that it was about the Indonesian National Revolution 🇮🇩, I immediately became interested and wanted to watch it. So, I did watch it and I was with it for most of it, until it got to the end and it lost me. I even say in the review, that I liked a lot of the war stuff in the film, all of the scenes set in Indonesia 🇮🇩, even if there aren’t extravagant battle scenes, it’s a much more subdued war movie, but the ending completely ruined it for me and it made me kind of dislike the movie a little bit. That’s my ultimate assessment was that it was okay. I said at the end of the review, “it was okay, not the best, there are better war movies out there, and I hope there are better war movies about this particular conflict in the future 😒.” Especially since we know so much more about this war now than when this movie was released. That historical review I mentioned earlier came out two years after this movie came out. So, while people did know the Dutch 🇳🇱 committed war crimes in Indonesia 🇮🇩, they didn’t know the full extent of it, they didn’t know how truly systematic it was. 

The movie focuses on a regular Dutch soldier 🇳🇱, a regular infantryman named Johan de Vries (Matijn Lakemeier) who was traumatized by the war in the Europe and the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands 🇳🇱, and by his father, who was a Nazi collaborator. His father’s loyalty to the Nazis during the war deeply scarred him and still troubles him, even after the war was won, the Nazis were defeated, and the Netherlands 🇳🇱. It also affected his and his family’s reputation as everyone sees them as traitors who supported the enemy during the war, and aren’t very trusting of them. I don’t exactly remember if Johan was already in the military before the war in Indonesia 🇮🇩, or if he joined the military after World War II and got sent to Indonesia 🇮🇩 to help the Dutch 🇳🇱 reestablish control over Indonesia 🇮🇩, with their colonial government, the Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱. I think it was a situation where he was too young to fight in World War II while it was happening, and by the time it ended and the Netherlands 🇳🇱 was liberated from the Nazis, he was now of age to join the military, and he did when given the chance. 

Not just because there was limited employment in the post-World War II Netherlands 🇳🇱, but also because he hears that they’re going to get deployed to Indonesia 🇮🇩 (still called the Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱) and he saw it as a potential great adventure. A Dutch boy 🇳🇱♂︎ getting the chance to go to Southeast Asia, and get paid while doing it (I don’t actually know if they got paid), of course he’d be up for that. That’s probably why a lot of the Dutch soldiers 🇳🇱 who enlisted after World War II were okay with going to Indonesia 🇮🇩, they saw it as an adventure, and getting the chance to experience what they felt they missed out on during World War II since they were mostly occupied during the war by the Nazis. 

And most of them bought into the propaganda and lies the Dutch government 🇳🇱 was selling them that they were there to protect the Indonesians 🇮🇩, the Indonesians 🇮🇩 accepted Dutch rule 🇳🇱 and wanted them back, and the president of the self-proclaimed Indonesian government 🇮🇩, Sukarno was communist ☭ and his government wanted to impose communism ☭ on the entire territory; including Johan. Johan is fully on board with this war when gets there, and fully believes in the cause, and believes that what he and the rest of the Dutch military 🇳🇱 are doing is right and the Indonesians 🇮🇩 want them here. 

But, as the war goes along, and as he starts seeing more and more war crimes and atrocities being committed by the Dutch 🇳🇱 against the Indonesian people 🇮🇩, and seeing the open hostility the Indonesian people 🇮🇩 have towards the Dutch 🇳🇱, Johan starts to become disillusioned with the war and stops believing in the cause. Seeing the contradiction and hypocrisy of a nation that was victimized by an invading imperialist power victimizing and trying to force its will on another. He slowly starts to understand that the Dutch 🇳🇱 are not the good guys in this war, and they’re behaving no differently from the Nazis that once occupied their country. What makes the Dutch 🇳🇱 any better than the Nazis that occupied them years before when they’re doing much the same shit in Indonesia 🇮🇩, a land that they colonized centuries prior and doesn’t belong to them (that never really belonged to them) and doesn’t want to belong to them again?

This is the contradiction and dilemma that many European powers, and the people in their militaries, had to deal with after the war. How can you claim to morally superior to Germany and complain about how bad Germany was, trying to conquer all of Europe when you still own all these territories overseas and in other continents, and still control all these people, and you yourselves are guilty of many of the things the Germans did? But, while Johan is grappling with the morally dilemma of what the Dutch 🇳🇱 are even doing here in Indonesia 🇮🇩, he gets handpicked to be apart of this special forces unit headed by this Army captain named Raymond Westerling (Marwan Kenzari), who mostly goes by his nickname, “The Turk” for most of the film. I didn’t even know that this character had a real name, and I just kept calling him The Turk for the entirety of the review. That’s why it’s always good to have the Wikipedia page on the movie open while you’re writing the review; or the foreword to the review. Apparently, Westerling was a real person, and despite him being called The Turk, he was actually of Dutch and Greek descent 🇳🇱🇬🇷. But, he was born in the Ottoman Empire 🇹🇷, which is how he earned his nickname. 

That’s the weird about this movie, it does feature real historical figures like Westerling, but the story as a whole is not based a real account of the war. Like Johan is not a real person for what I can tell, and this whole story is mostly a work of fiction. It’s historical fiction basically, it takes place during real historic events, it features some real historical figures, but the story as a whole is fiction, the main narrative that the story tells and the main character that the story focuses on is totally fictional. Or the events and figures depicted in the film are real, but they’re highly fictionalized. Kind of like Titanic (1997) or Apocalypse Now, or Platoon, or Forrest Gump, or Pearl Harbor (2001), or A Gentleman in Moscow (2024), or Anastasia (1997), or 1917 (2019), X-Men Origins: Wolverine, X-Men: First Class, X-Men: Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse, X-Men: Dark Phoenix 🐦‍🔥, 300, Watchmen (2009), Legionnaire (1998), the upcoming Prisoner of War, The King’s Man, or any of the books 📖 written by Kristin Hannah. 

I know that this is historical fiction because the movie ends with Johan killing Westerling back in the Netherlands 🇳🇱, like he murders him by shooting him in the stomach, and then turns the gun on himself and then kills himself; committing suicide basically. Not just for revenge at what Westerling did to him and to the Indonesian people 🇮🇩 back in Indonesia 🇮🇩, but because of his own guilt and trauma over what he experienced and did in Indonesia 🇮🇩 (because Johan partook in some war crimes of his own during the war; he didn’t just witness them, he did some of them on his own), and also because of the guilt and shame he still felt over his father and his actions during World War II. 

He knew he was never going to live down what his father did during the Second World War, nor was he going to live down what he did in Indonesia 🇮🇩 during the Indonesian National Revolution 🇮🇩, and people always going to look at him with shame and suspicion, and he was never going to be able to return to a normal life. It was too much to bear, the guilt, the PTSD, the shame, he just couldn’t take it anymore. His hatred towards Westerling and his desire to kill him (and then subsequently end his own life) was largely due to the anger and shame he felt towards his father. He was taking it out on Westerling, since I assume he saw a lot of his father in Westerling. He didn’t go there to kill Westerling necessarily, but to kill his own father. And then, not being able to live with himself, he took his own life afterwards. 

Guilt and shame can lead to depression, and depression can lead to death, and that’s exactly what happened to Johan. He was the product of bad circumstances, things that were not entirely in his control, and of bad decisions, not just by those around him but also by his own. He did terrible things in Indonesia 🇮🇩, during his time there, and he knew it, and he had PTSD from what he experienced, just as most combat veterans from war tend to have. So, he decided to end it all right there, after killing the man ♂︎ that he saw as representing everything wrong with the Dutch government 🇳🇱, the Dutch military 🇳🇱, the Dutch society 🇳🇱, but most of all, his father. 

I know that this is all bullshit and didn’t actually happen because the real Westerling lived until 1987, where he died peacefully in his home in Purmerend at the age of 68, and faced no consequences for his actions during the war. While, the ending of this movie looks like it takes place relatively soon after the war, like a few months or even a year, or even takes place during the war, as both him and Johann returned home from active duty despite the war still raging on. Like, Westerling still looks pretty young and handsome during these scenes in this scene and in other scenes that he appears in set in the Netherlands 🇳🇱, not like an old man ♂︎ at all, and he’s acting in a play, which I’m pretty sure he didn’t do. I guess the excuse the filmmakers could use for this is that this was all in Johan’s imagination, he didn’t actually kill Westerling, and the real Westerling is still alive somewhere. But come on, that’s a bullshit excuse 😑. 

BTW, did you know the real Westerling led a failed coup against the Indonesian government 🇮🇩 after the sovereignty transfer was signed and went into effect? I didn’t know that until I saw the Wikipedia page on Westerling for this foreword. Apparently, he wanted to preserve the federal Republic of the United States of Indonesia 🇮🇩 because it still maintained Dutch support 🇳🇱, like it still supported the Netherlands 🇳🇱 and other minority elements within the government, while this new unitary government, the Republic of Indonesia 🇮🇩, did not. The coup failed of course, and all of the coup plotters and participants were arrested or killed by the Indonesian security forces 🇮🇩, including Sultan Hamid II (a known Dutch sympathizer and collaborator 🇳🇱), who lost control of West Kalimantan, which was a state under the federal system of the United States of Indonesia 🇮🇩, and became a province under the unitary system of the Republic of Indonesia 🇮🇩. The Wikipedia page about him doesn’t say what happened to him after he was deposed for his involvement in the coup attempt by Westerling, so I can’t say what happened to him afterwards, just that he died in Indonesia 🇮🇩, in 1978 at the age of 64. 

Crazy how both men ♂︎ died in their 60s, but I guess people dying in their 60s was more commonplace back then, whereas now, people tend to die in either their 70s or 80s. You have to be especially poor health to die in your 60s. I still don’t know why Westerling, or Hamid for that matter, thought that this coup was a good idea and that it would actually work. It was never going to work, the Netherlands 🇳🇱 had already accepted Indonesia 🇮🇩’s independence and agreed to transfer sovereignty to them, and chose to just let Indonesia 🇮🇩 manage its own internal affairs and not interfere or dictate what this new Indonesian government 🇮🇩 would do within their own borders. 

The only thing the Netherlands 🇳🇱 tried to do after the war was have a personal union with Indonesia 🇮🇩, which didn’t work and only last four years. There wasn’t the Netherlands 🇳🇱 could do to prevent Indonesia 🇮🇩, from not becoming independent, but also exercising its independence. It’s just like those Imperial Japanese military officers 🇯🇵 who tried to stage a coup against the government in the final months of the war in the Pacific, to keep the war going and fight to the bitter end like they wanted. It was all in vain, and was never going to work. Also, even the US Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense 🇺🇸 at the time, General George C. Marshall knew that Westerling was a war criminal and hated his guts, referring to him as a “Satan” or a “Devil” because of his conduct during the war in Indonesia 🇮🇩. 

The actor who played Westerling in the film, Marwan Kenzari, is a Dutch actor 🇳🇱 of Tunisian descent 🇹🇳. So, even it’s a white guy ♂︎, they still don’t get an actor who accurately represents the ethnicity of the character or person they’re portraying. Usually, it’s the other way around, where a non-white role is portrayed by a non-white actor, but that actor still doesn’t accurate represent the race or ethnicity of that character. You typically see this with Asian characters, where they’ll just cast any Asian actor in the role without any consideration of the national, racial, or ethnic identity of the character they’re portraying. Because hey, all Asians look alike right 🤪? 😑 Can you tell this sort of thing bothers me? 

The most examples of this sort of thing were in the voice acting realm. The first was Wylde Pak, which is about a mixed or blended Korean-American 🇰🇷🇺🇸. They have a character in the show that is supposed to be biracial, half-white and half-Korean 🇰🇷 named Lily Pak; she’s the daughter of William Wylde (a white guy ♂︎) and Min-ju Pak (a Korean woman 🇰🇷♀︎). But they didn’t get an actual Korean voice actress 🇰🇷 to voice Lily, instead, they got a Filipina actress 🇵🇭 named Nikki Castillo to voice her. Which was weird because they got actual Korean voice actresses 🇰🇷 to voice the other Korean roles 🇰🇷, like Min and the grandmother known simply as Halmoni (they’re both voiced by actual Koreans 🇰🇷), but not this one, even though this is the secondary lead of the entire show. You’d think that’d be the most important to get right, and make sure it was authentic, but I guess not. They didn’t care enough for that role. 

The second example is the recent revival of King of the Hill, which many people just consider the 14th season; yes King of the Hill had 13 seasons before this revival came out. There’s a Laotian character 🇱🇦 in the show named Kahn Souphanousinphone (a refugee of the civil war in Laos 🇱🇦, who fled Laos 🇱🇦 after the communists ☭ took over), and while the character was voiced by a white guy ♂︎ named Toby Huss for the entirety of the original run, the voice actor chose not to reprise the role in the revival, citing discomfort with playing a character who isn’t white. So, they got an actual Asian guy ♂︎ to voice this character, but they didn’t get an actual Laotian voice actor 🇱🇦 to voice Kahn. Instead they got a Malaysian Chinese actor 🇲🇾 to voice the character, a comedian in fact, by the name of Ronny Chieng; who might recognize from movies such as Crazy Rich Asians 🤑, M3GAN, Shortcomings, Joy Ride, Vacation Friends 2, Kung Fu Panda 4 🐼, Unfrosted, Godzilla vs. Kong, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings; he was also in a couple of Old Spice commercials back in 2024, as apart of their Men Have Skin Too ♂︎ campaign. So, whether Kahn’s being voiced by a white guy ♂︎ or voiced by a Chinese guy ♂︎, it’s still not authentic to who this character is in the show. 

It’s the same here, with Westerling, except that he’s a white guy ♂︎. He’s as white as you can possibly get, he’s Dutch 🇳🇱 and he’s Greek 🇬🇷, can’t get any whiter than that. And for this film, they got a non-white actor, a Tunisian guy 🇹🇳♂︎ to play him. Not only that, but they gave him a mustache, something that Westerling didn’t have in real life. Something that drew criticism and controversy from various groups, particularly the veterans’ rights advocacy group, Veterans Platform and the Federation of Dutch Indos, who complained about Westerling being given a mustache that resembled Hitler’s mustache (the ol’ toothbrush mustache) in the film, and about the Dutch military 🇳🇱, the Netherlands Armed Forces 🇳🇱 and the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army 🇳🇱 (KNIL) being compared to the Nazi German military, the Wehrmacht and the Schutzstaffel (SS) throughout the film; seeing the movie was a one sided portrayal of the war in Indonesia 🇮🇩. Frankly, I find all of the Federation of Dutch Indos’s complaints about this movie to be stupid and unfounded. They come across to me as an organization that wouldn’t have been happy with any movie about the Indonesian National Revolution 🇮🇩, unless it portrayed the Dutch 🇳🇱 (and Westerling specifically) in as favorable of a light as possible. 

I’m guessing the reason why the filmmakers took this approach with the movie is that they wanted it to be an experience, to give audiences a general impression of the war and what it was like for soldiers that fought in it, especially if they weren’t familiar with this war beforehand. They could see this war through the eyes of a fictional character and could project themselves onto that character and see how they would react to this war, and see how they would react to the situations the character on screen finds themselves in. Rather than just focusing on one real person’s account and being beholden down to that account. It’s a lot different when you’re watching a real person on screen, a dramatized version of a person that actually existed, than watching a fictional character who never existed on screen. 

It also helped because it would avoid garnering backlash from the living family members or friends of the people portrayed, or from historians who nitpick or critique how you portrayed that person in the film. But, they still risked that by putting Westerling in the film, and having him get gunned down at the end; something that everyone who’s studied this stuff knows didn’t actually happen. I mean, just look at the reaction people had to the portrayal of William Murdoch in Titanic (1997), and him gunning down passengers before gunning himself down towards the end of the film. And it did happen because this movie did receive some backlash precisely because of how it chose to portray Westerling, portraying him in such a negative light (even to the point of giving him what some people interpreted as a “Hitler mustache”) and having him get killed off at the end, even though the man ♂︎ lived to his 60s, all the way into the 1980s. 

But, this ending that I’m talking about where Johan kills Westerling is what I was referring to when I said the ending let me down and made the whole movie being a disappointment for me. It was anticlimactic, it was not how I wanted this movie to end, and it completely took me out of the movie. It’s confusing too because there are these flashbacks throughout the film showing Johan’s family life back at home during the Nazi occupation, and then these other scenes set in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 with Johan as an adult, and I thought those were flashbacks too, showing what Johan was doing before he got sent to Indonesia 🇮🇩. But then the ending confirms that the scenes set in Indonesia 🇮🇩 were flashbacks, and the scenes set in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 with Johan as an adult were set in the present and were happening in real time, and that’s where the movie completely lost me. 

And now that I know how bullshit it actually is, I hate it even more. I mean, if you’re just going to make shit up anyway, why not have the movie have an Apocalypse Now style conclusion where Johan faces Westerling and kills him while still in Indonesia 🇮🇩. I think that would’ve been a much more satisfying than having him kill him in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 and then kill himself in sad boy fashion 😞. Perhaps it’s more realistic than the Apocalypse Now style ending, but it’s no where near as satisfying. It’s not even that based in reality, since like I’ve been saying over and over again, it’s all made up. None of this actually happened. There was no man ♂︎ named Johan de Vries, and he did not kill Raymond Westerling. 

I remember being so disappointed by this movie, and by the ending specifically. While I gave it a middling review at the time, I have a lot more of a negative opinion about it now. It’s a movie that kind of gets worse the more you think about it. Maybe, I would feel differently about it now if I were to rewatch it. I have the movie, I still own it on Blu-Ray 💿, along with Yakuza Princess. Don’t watch Yakuza Princess, it’s not very good, in fact, it’s pretty bad, and I kind of regret watching it, or buying it. But, I may consider rewatching for the sake of a review, because unlike this movie, I never wrote a review for Yakuza Princess when I was still on DeviantART; I mean, I’m still on DeviantART, I have an account there, I’m just not as active on there as I used to. But, that would require me to actually rewatch it, and I have no desire to ever watch this again. I can’t really recommend this movie in good conscience, because there are so much better war movies out there, and while this is the only major war movie about this particular war, if you really want to learn about it, you can just watch TimeGhost’s series on it. Or you watch The Cold War’s video on the war. Either one is a much better experience than this movie is. Like I said earlier, hopefully, there’s a better movie made about this war in the future because this ain’t it. 

There are a couple of things that I want to talk about before I finally wrap this baby up. The first is an epiphany I had about the 2021 Zack Snyder zombie movie 🧟‍♂️, Army of the Dead 🎰🧟‍♂️. I realized something about Army of the Dead 🎰🧟‍♂️, you’re not going to believe this, but the movie is like a video game where the bad ending is canon. What do you think? Does that sound convincing? Does that description fit that particular movie? I actually think people might’ve liked Army of the Dead 🎰🧟‍♂️ a lot better if it was a video game, and you could choose which ending you want: a good ending where everyone lives and they all succeed in their mission of getting the money 💵 out of the safe and escaping Las Vegas before it blows up 💥, or the bad ending where everyone dies and they all fail in their mission; which is pretty much how the movie ends. 

And each decision you make throughout will affect the outcome and determine whether you get the good ending or the bad ending. It seems practically designed for that sort of thing. I’m surprised Zack Snyder hasn’t tried to make his own video game yet. A couple of his movies have been adapted into video games, like Watchmen (2009), that got a tie-in prequel game called Watchmen: The End is Nigh, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about an original game made from scratch, with an original story that Snyder came up with himself. It seems like he’d be perfect for that sort of thing. Christopher Nolan has also talked about doing a video game someday, but so far, hasn’t done it. So, this could be Snyder’s chance to beat Nolan to punch on that.

The next one and last one is this reply to a comment that I left on a Taiwan Talks 🇹🇼 video that I saw earlier this week, on Monday August 25, 2025, about the recent bilateral meeting between India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳, and how Trump’s policies are responsible for India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 drawing closer together, in a time of greater tension and competition between the United States 🇺🇸 and China 🇨🇳, and the US 🇺🇸’s repeated attempts at courting India 🇮🇳 to be one of its closest allies in the region. The video also discussed how India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳’s warming relationship might affect certain issues that matter to Taiwan 🇹🇼, or to anyone that may oppose China 🇨🇳 in anyway, such as the still unresolved territorial disputes between India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳, the rivalry between India 🇮🇳 and Pakistan 🇵🇰, and of course, Tibet and Taiwan 🇹🇼. 

The comment that I left on that video was making the argument that any relationship between India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 will be fragile due to inherent contradictions and differences between the two countries that undermine any relationship they may try to build with each other. I said that if the “new” relationship between India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 falls apart, it’ll either be because of Pakistan 🇵🇰, because Pakistan 🇵🇰 is an ally of China 🇨🇳 and India 🇮🇳 has historically been reluctant to ally with any country that’s allied with Pakistan 🇵🇰, or because of the territorial disputes between China 🇨🇳 and India 🇮🇳 which stem back to the Chinese invasion and annexation of Tibet 🇨🇳 and the Sino-Indian War 🇨🇳🇮🇳, and India 🇮🇳’s support for Tibet and the Dalai Lama, who’s been living exile in India 🇮🇳 for about 66 years. 

This person responded to my comment disagreeing with what I had to say, saying that something to the effect of, “Well, India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 have been around for thousands of years, they’ll find a way to make it work,” and then said, China 🇨🇳 and India 🇮🇳 aren’t becoming friends, but rather “friends with benefits,” meaning their relationship is built purely on economic considerations and therefore more transactional, and then said, something to the effect of “it’s better to know the devil 😈 you know, than the angel 😇 you don’t know.” The devil 😈 in this case being China 🇨🇳, and the angel 😇 being the United States 🇺🇸. I didn’t reply back to that comment because I didn’t feel like getting into an argument, I felt I much better things to do, things that would be a much better use of my time, but I still had things to say about it. Things I wanted to get off my chest. So, I’m using this foreword as my opportunity to do it because this post is already political and historic. 

I hate arguments like this because it’s just a way to shut down discussion when the person doesn’t have a real counterpoint, so that they just say “Well, India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 have been around for thousands of years, I’m sure they’ll find some way to make it work.” Like, they use the fact that India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 have existed in some form or another for thousands of years, and are civilizational countries, to shut down the argument and not actually respond to any of the points you raised. Like, this commenter didn’t actually respond to any of the points I made in that comment, they just hand waved it away with the “civilization” argument I guess you could call it. Yes, India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 have been around for a long time, they’ve existed longer than the United States 🇺🇸, which has only been around for 249 years, but doesn’t mean that they’ll overcome the political realities of our current world. This is not the 3rd millennium BCE, or the 4th millennium BCE, or the 40th century BCE, it’s not the 11th century, or even the 19th century, this is the 21st century. Most of the problems that we’re facing today either started in this century or in the previous one, the 20th century. 

This includes India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳. Like, a lot of the problems India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 face today were started back in the mid-20th century, after India 🇮🇳 gained independence from Britain 🇬🇧 and after China 🇨🇳 fell to communism. Even the two states that control India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 today were founded in the mid-20th century. The Republic of India 🇮🇳 was founded in 1950 and the People’s Republic of China 🇨🇳 was founded in 1949, just two years apart. So anything that happened 5,000 years ago, or even just the 16th century with the Ming dynasty or the Mughal Empire, doesn’t really matter or really count. What matters or still counts are things happened in the 20th century and onward, as far as what we’re talking about today. If you really want to stretch it, we could extent to the 19th century since that’s when the Century of Humiliation began, and that period still shapes Chinese politics 🇨🇳 to this day. And from I can see, there are just too many things standing in a way of a relationship between China 🇨🇳 and India 🇮🇳 from being long lasting or anything more than transactional, whether it’s Pakistan 🇵🇰 and Kashmir, Aksai Chin and Arunachal Pradesh, Tibet, and of course, Taiwan 🇹🇼. 

Though that’s less of a consideration in the relationship between India 🇮🇳 and China 🇨🇳 because while India 🇮🇳 still does business with Taiwan 🇹🇼 and still treats it as an independent country (and not as a province of China 🇨🇳), it’s an important of an issue to India 🇮🇳 as any of the other ones that mentioned because Taiwan 🇹🇼 isn’t that geographically close to India 🇮🇳. It wouldn’t directly affected by any Taiwan Contingency 🇹🇼 that takes place, though it should still assist in any Taiwan Contingency 🇹🇼 that takes place (if China 🇨🇳 does the unthinkable) because it’s the right thing to do. And keep in mind, I’m saying this as someone who doesn’t like India 🇮🇳’s current government, I don’t like Narendra Modi, I think he’s anti-democratic and dictator adjacent, and I’ve disagreed with a lot of things India 🇮🇳 has said and done, especially in recent times, so don’t take any of this as someone who’s a big fan of India 🇮🇳 and agrees with and stands by everything India 🇮🇳 does or says. I’m not, I’m very critical of India 🇮🇳, especially nowadays. 

But, I still prefer India 🇮🇳 over China 🇨🇳, like their government is objectively better than China 🇨🇳’s government in every single way, even if they are experiencing democratic backsliding, even if they’re under the control of an anti-democratic populist leader who’s a wannabe autocrat. That’s really the only thing that unites China 🇨🇳 and India 🇮🇳, and the only thing have remotely in common, they’re both anti-democratic, they both suppress ethnic and religious minorities (despite calling themselves anti-imperialists and anti-colonialists), and they both face separatist movements. If India 🇮🇳 actually had a leader who genuinely cared about democracy and wasn’t an aspiring dictator, and if they didn’t oppress ethnic and religious minorities (or maintain a millennia old caste system) they’d have nothing in common with China 🇨🇳, and this relationship they’re trying to build in face of American tomfoolery (and douchebagery) 🇺🇸 would be even more tenuous. 

—

 

(This is the poster of the 2020 Dutch war movie 🇳🇱, The East 🇳🇱🇮🇩 AKA De Oost 🇳🇱🇮🇩 in the Dutch language 🇳🇱.)

 

 

I just finished watching the Dutch war movie 🇳🇱, The East 🇳🇱🇮🇩, after I stopped it, and watched The Matrix Resurrections again for the second time, and it was okay. The reason why I bought this movie and watched it was that I saw the trailer for it while I watching Yakuza Princess, like it was one of the trailers that played before the main menu came up, and I thought it looked interesting. It's about the Indonesian War of Independence 🇳🇱🇮🇩, which is a very obscure war that happened in the immediate post-World War II period (from 1945 to 1949) and rarely gets talked about or gets movies made about it, since it was a Dutch and Indonesian war 🇮🇩🇳🇱. So, I was interested to see this really obscure war be made into a movie, and after watching it, it was...okay.

It was good for the most part, but I felt it had a really anti-climatic ending. Maybe, that was the intention, but I didn't really like it. The movie does a good job at showing how shitty the Dutch 🇳🇱 actually were during this war. How brutal, murderous, and oppressive they were, murdering and torturing Indonesians 🇮🇩, just to hold onto these islands which were never really theirs to rule over in the first place, but they felt entitled to own and rule over regardless; as most imperialist colonial powers do. It's shown repeatedly that the Dutch 🇳🇱 had pretty racist views about the Indonesians 🇮🇩, calling them "monkeys" and stuff, which makes sense.

The Netherlands 🇳🇱 was a colonial power, the Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱 (modern-day Indonesia 🇮🇩) was their crown jewel just like India was for the British 🇬🇧, and colonial powers are usually pretty racist; I mean, you're colonizing another people's land and oppressing them, it kind of comes with the territory. So, it's not surprising that the Dutch military 🇳🇱 kind of drilled this racism, this feeling of racial superiority in comparison to the Indonesians 🇮🇩 that they were trying to maintain their rule over, into the minds of their soldiers. That's why the Dutch 🇳🇱 treated the Indonesians 🇮🇩 so badly during this war, and probably during their entire colonial rule, because they felt that the Indonesians 🇮🇩 were racially inferior to them 😔.

But, as this movie points out over and over again, the Netherlands 🇳🇱 was invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II, and the Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱 was invaded and occupied by Imperial Japan 🇯🇵, both of which were imperialistic, racist, fascistic invading forces. So, it was pretty ironic that the Dutch 🇳🇱 were acting just like the Nazis and Japanese 🇯🇵 were when they trying to maintain their hold over the Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱 and prevent the Indonesians 🇮🇩 from gaining their independence.

They even have the gall to say that the Japanese 🇯🇵 poisoned the minds of the Indonesians 🇮🇩, and that's what made them into "terrorists" fighting against Dutch rule 🇳🇱. That claim is also pretty ironic because the Japanese 🇯🇵 were involved in this war (despite their recent, at the time, surrender at the end of World War II) on the Dutch side 🇳🇱. They were used by the British 🇬🇧 to help suppress the rebellion before the Dutch 🇳🇱 could come back and resume control; they were pretty battered by the war in Europe after all. But, speaking about the real life history after this war, it is pretty sad and ironic that the Indonesians 🇮🇩 would go out to invade and occupy Timor-Leste 🇹🇱 AKA East Timor 🇹🇱 decades later, and treat the Timorese 🇹🇱 the same way the Dutch 🇳🇱 treated them, maybe even worse.

But, this was a truly terrible war, the Dutch 🇳🇱 were absolutely horrible, they committed a lot of war crimes and treated the local Indonesian population 🇮🇩 pretty terribly, and they ultimately did not win. They lost to the Indonesian rebels 🇮🇩, and they were forced to give up their control over the Dutch East Indies 🇳🇱 and recognize Indonesian independence 🇮🇩 by the United States 🇺🇸 and other western powers (by threatening to cut off their post-war reconstruction aid). In a lot of ways, it was like the Dutch version of Vietnam 🇳🇱🇻🇳, or a precursor to Vietnam 🇻🇳.

Just like the Americans 🇺🇸 after them, the Dutch 🇳🇱 were a technologically superior force fighting against a predominantly guerrilla fighting force, in a harsh jungle environment they didn't really know but their enemy knew well. They harassed the local population (the very people who were trying to win the hearts and minds over), treated them like shit. They took prostitutes, who they would regularly go to pay to have sex with to calm their nerves and make themselves feel better, just like Americans 🇺🇸 in Vietnam did. They burned down villages 🔥, and killed people, sometimes indiscriminately, and they tortured prisoners just like the Americans 🇺🇸 did in Vietnam 🇻🇳 and in other conflicts afterwards like Iraq 🇮🇶 and Afghanistan 🇦🇫.

If you want to know more about the war itself, and how it transpired, I recommend watching TimeGhost History's series on it. It's probably the most comprehensive history series on YouTube about the war. I'll link the first episode down below.

As for the movie itself, it follows a Dutch soldier 🇳🇱 named Johan, who starts out as a regular infantryman, who is then inducted into a special forces unit run by a mysterious and unorthodox guy ♂︎ simply referred to as "The Turk." Johan kind of highlights the Netherlands 🇳🇱' recent bout with Nazi Germany, how they were invaded and occupied, and how that effected the way the Dutch 🇳🇱 saw themselves and how they would conduct themselves in this war in Indonesia 🇮🇩. Johan's father was a Nazi collaborator, a member of the Dutch Nazi Party, and that has deeply affected him, and has left a mark on his family and his reputation, especially in the Dutch army 🇳🇱.

At first, Johan is pretty on board with the war in Indonesia 🇮🇩, believing the lies and propaganda from the Dutch government and military 🇳🇱 that they are there to protect the Indonesians 🇮🇩, that the Indonesians 🇮🇩 accept and want Dutch rule 🇳🇱, and all the anti-Dutch Indonesian rebels 🇮🇩 are just "terrorists." He even engages in some of the activities that his fellow soldiers engage in, going to brothels and having sex with prostitutes, one of which he kind of becomes creepily obsessed with.

That is another thing that I like about this movie, the fact that they don't really try to make any of the Dutch characters 🇳🇱 likeable, they're all assholes pretty much, including Johan at first. That's good because the Dutch 🇳🇱 were the bad guys in this war. But, as the movie continues on, Johan starts to become disillusioned with the war and the mission, like he begins to doubt whether or not, the mission in Indonesia 🇮🇩 is worth it, especially when he joins that special forces group run by the Turk. They're basically like the Dutch Green Berets 🇳🇱, like they literally wear green berets just like the American Green Berets 🇺🇸.

The Turk is kind of made out to be a bit of an outsider at first. A guy ♂︎ who is in the Dutch military 🇳🇱, a guy ♂︎ who is fighting in the war, but doesn't really believe in the cause to maintain Dutch rule 🇳🇱. From what I understood, he just wanted to "restore order" in the country, and allow whichever force comes out on top to take control of the country, as long as it is not the Dutch 🇳🇱. I may have misunderstood that part, but that's kind of the gist that I got from that scene where he explaining his own motivations and his own reasons for fighting the war in Indonesia 🇮🇩.

But, later on, when the Turk recruits Johan and the other guys ♂︎ from his unit into his special forces type group, it's revealed that the Turk is nothing but a cold-blooded killer who just loves violence and loves killing. I mean, they go into these villages, force all the villagers outside, round them up, and then Turk calls out the names of supposed rebels and then when they get up and go to talk to him, he just shoots them in the head execution style. Then, when Johan stands his ground, and actually tries to stop the Turk from shooting this guy to death without trial, he literally threatens to kill him.

They tie him to a tree 🌳, they strip him of his uniform, give him his combat knife 🔪, let him go, and tell him to run to the beach to get a boat that's waiting there, while they all hunt him down to kill him. Then, when the Turk confronts Johan on the beach, he shoots him in the belly, and then presumably leaves him there. That's pretty sadistic stuff, and it's clear that the Turk really is just an asshole war criminal who uses the excuse of wanting to "restore order," and "rid the country of terrorists," to justify his horrific actions.

But, then, the movie ends with Johan going to see the Turk backstage after a play in the Netherlands 🇳🇱, after they returned home form the war, and Johann shoots him in the stomach to get revenge for what he did to him on the beach, and then he shoots himself. At first I was confused because I initially thought the scenes back home in the Netherlands 🇳🇱 were flashbacks from before the war, and the actual war stuff was in the present; that's why the aspect ratio changes from widescreen to full screen when it cuts to the Netherlands 🇳🇱 stuff.

But, this ending proved that it was the other way around. The war stuff was the flashback, it was all the Netherlands 🇳🇱 was the present time stuff; relatively speaking since this whole movie is a period piece taking place in the 1940s, so it's all in the past technically. A big reason why I was so confused was that during one of the Netherlands 🇳🇱 scenes, Johan is shown pursing the asshole guy ♂︎ from his unit who antagonizing and chastising him for having a Nazi father (who he doesn't even like or agree with) on the street with a gun.

But, then later on, during one of the war scenes, where Johan is being pursued by the Turk, he kills that asshole guy ♂︎ by slitting his throat and then takes his gun back since he confiscated his little revolver and kept it for himself.  So, I'm not sure what that was about, if that was even supposed to be the same character or not. But, soon my confusion was replaced with disappointment. I felt very underwhelmed by the way the movie ended, like "Really? That's how it ends? It ends with him shooting the Turk in the stomach, and then committing suicide by shooting himself in the mouth?" I mean, it makes sense why Johan did it.

The man ♂︎ was basically a ticking time bomb. He had hatred and resentment for his Nazi collaborating father, his life back home is completely ruined, his reputation is completely destroyed, and people hate his guts because of his Nazi father, he felt depressed from not getting the military benefits he was promised after his service in the war and losing his job, his mom died, he no doubt experienced PTSD from his experience in the war, and felt guilty for what he did, and he also felt hatred for the Turk and wanting to get revenge on him. He probably was going to lose his mind and kill someone before killing himself at some point after returning from Indonesia 🇮🇩 to the Netherlands 🇳🇱.  But, I didn't really like how it was handled.

Before the movie cuts to the backstage scene, it leaves off on that scene where the Turk shoots Johan on the beach, and then just leaves him to bleed 🩸. I don't why they ended the war stuff on that note, I felt that there could've been more to that, that they could've shown more of the war, shown what happened after that, and given it a better conclusion before showing the backstage scene where Johan shoots the Turk in revenge and then shoot himself. I just thought that it was really anti-climatic ending, they could've done something way better. The ending just completely ruined the movie for me.

All the war stuff was good, I like how it portrayed the Dutch 🇳🇱 and showed how awful they were in this war, that was all great, but that ending man...that ending brought it down for me. Give the movie a watch if you're interested in the Indonesian War of Independence 🇳🇱🇮🇩, but if you're not, just skip it because you won't get much out of it. There aren't even that many explosive or action-packed battle scenes in the movie, the poster and the Blu-Ray cover are a lie. But, it was okay, not the best, there are better war movies out there, and I hope there are better war movies made about this particular conflict in the future 😒.

 

Link to the first episode of TimeGhost History's series on the Indonesian War of Independence 🇳🇱🇮🇩: