DRAGON roared in HER back

How do you picture a girl with a dragon tattoo,
playing with fire,
and kicking hornets' nest?

Picture Lisbeth Salander.

Right. I'm talking about those award-winning crime-novels : The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire dan The Girl Who Kicked Hornets' Nest. Novel-novel yang kemudian disebut Millenium Trilogy karya penulis dan jurnalis Swedia, almarhum Stieg Larsson.

Ketiga novel itu sudah diadaptasi jadi film. Semua produksi Swedia, berbahasa Swedia. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo rilis Februari 2009, The Girl Who Played With Fire rilis September 2009 dan The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest rilis November 2009. Maraton!

Novelnya belum baca satupun. Hanya secara tidak sengaja menonton 1 film adaptasinya, installment pertamanya, THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO. Translation aslinya adalah Men Who Hate Women.

So. The movie. It's Lisbeth Salander, the computer prodigy and Mikael Blomqvist, the critical journalist, team-up to find the missing girl of Vanger family. With all the murder based on race, religion and political belief. With all the sexual abusement. With all the grayscale old pictures. With all the secrets lay beneath.

This movie's definitely not the greatest crime-thriller movie ever. But it written well. The pace is neat, the mise en scene isn't excessive. And the way its horrid nailed in your mind was more than enough to tell that this is a good one. They said the novel is a page-turner kinda book. So this movie is a... screen-gazer? :)

I like the way Lisbeth and Mikael interacted. Lisbeth is a wild, wounded vixen. With all-black-suit, chocker, piercing, and a big dragon tattoo in her back. Mikael taking care of her although he had no idea who the hell is she. Lisbeth made a distance between them two, because it's hard to believe in someone after so many traumatic events happened in her life. But it's clear that she eventually fell for him. Premis yang banyak ada, tapi terasa berbeda karena karakter Lisbeth bener-bener bikin.. ngilu. Ga tau deh gimana definisinya. Pokoknya ngilu.

Anyway, the whole trilogy became a hit in Europe. And then.. Hollywood ingin me-remakenya. Biasa, big daddy tidak ingin ketinggalan barang bagus. Just like Death At A Funeral. Black comedy Inggris rilisan 2007 yang diremake Hollywood taun 2010 dan jadi bernuansa 'black' beneran, alias diperanin sama aktor Afro-American. Lucunya sih tetap lucu. Hanya saja terasa 'beda channel'.

Buat The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo versi US, konon bakal rilis 2011, with Daniel Craig for Mikael dan Keira Knightley for Lisbeth, gosipnyaaaa.. Yak, pro-kontra bermunculan. Bukan karena tidak yakin hasilnya bakal bagus. Tapi cita rasa film Eropa itu kan tetep aja beda sama Hollywood. Me myself found European cinema.. Exotic? :p The language, the color-tone.. it's just different. Jadi ya begitulah, akhirnya banyak pecinta Millenium trilogi, baik novel atau filmnya, yang protes. Kenapa sih mesti di-remake? Kalo emang alasannya supaya rilis lebih worldwide, tinggal kasih subtitle kan beres? It's european cinema, buddy, face it! But yeah, it's already loaded and locked.

Haaa. Ingin nonton installment kedua dan ketiga versi Swedianya sebelum muncul yang versi Hollywood. Pengen baca novelnya juga. Anyone? :D