Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Today We’ll Talk About That Day’ on Netflix, A Melodramatic Tale of Cross-Class Romance

For those who couldn’t get enough of One Day We’ll Talk About Today in 2020, there’s now a follow-up to the Indonesian romance called Today We’ll Talk About That Day (now on Netflix). This installment bills itself as a prequel to the previous film, but it manages to tell a story that both precedes that film and extends it. This has two stories tied together in the spirit of Mark Twain’s old adage that history doesn’t repeat itself – but it often rhymes.

TODAY WE’LL TALK ABOUT THAT DAY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: In 1987 Jakarta, Najendra weeps in a hospital after a car accident takes the life of his brother Wildan. While there, he crosses paths with Ajeng, who cries because her mother is in desperate need of a blood transfusion for emergency surgery. Despite being battered and bruised himself, Najendra drives Ajeng to a Red Cross to save her mom – and sparks the first flames of romance between the two of them. Unfortunately, she’s betrothed to Wirjawan, who’s been approved by her military general father. While Ajeng’s mother is willing to hear her daughter’s pleas for love, her father remains steadfast in his commitment to advance his own career through his daughter’s hand. The star-crossed romance won’t stop Najendra, though.

Elsewhere in 2023 Bali, Angkasa languishes in anguish following a panic attack that further estranges him from his wife Lika. His father – Najendra in the present day – tries to help, but it’s clear there’s a love triangle situation developing with another man. His son’s love story echoes his own, but Angkasa has no desire to heed that advice.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Obviously these are movies with very different senses of scale and spectacle. But a working-class young chap provides a great service for an aristocratically inclined woman who’s bristling at having to marry a man of her stature that she hates … and when she rebels, it invokes the ire of her parents who then seek to destroy him? Baby, that’s Titanic!

Performance Worth Watching: As the person who has to convey the most inner turmoil, Yunita Siregar gives the film’s standout performance as Ajeng.

Memorable Dialogue: “Love can be so much stronger if you have to fight for it,” a character says to sum up the whole movie quite tidily.

Sex and Skin: All very appropriate for a film that has such a mushy-gushy view of love and romance.

Our Take: Weird way to do a prequel. This isn’t exactly the kind of movie you could watch as an entrée into the “We’ll Talk About That Day” extended universe if you wanted to watch them chronologically. Mixing in the present-day storyline throughout disrupts the flow of the story and reduces the importance of the film’s 1987-set elements. Not that either is all that great, however. The most frequent subtitle in Today We’ll Talk About That Day might be “[soft emotional music playing]” because director Angga Dwimas Sasongko cannot trust a moment to play out organically without some heavy lifting by the score. It all feels artificial – insincere by virtue of being too sincere.

Our Call: SKIP IT. There’s no good day to talk about Today We’ll Talk About That Day. This limp film has neither romance nor drama to offer, just platitudes and pleasantries. Its nondescript nature is destined to inspire snores, not swoons.

Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, The Playlist and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.