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How about spicing up your day by watching Cigarette Girl/Gadis Kretek? Give creative pieces from the Southeast Asian region a chance, will you?

Watching this Indonesian period drama took some time to get used to due to the storytelling. The pace being a factor, some parts of the dialogue felt muffled. The sudden switching between the two timelines was also irritating. Yet, this same irritating feature compelled me to finish the series in two days. By the end of episode two, the purpose of this feature became much clearer.

While I do not smoke and do not intend to pick up the habit of smoking, I secretly wish I had the nose to make kretek or clove cigarettes/rokok cengkih. Dian Sastrawardoyo, who has made her mark on both the Indonesian music and film industries, plays this feisty and talented human being, known as Dasiyah, defying societal norms – in both her professional and personal worlds.

Others in the cast include Javanese Pritt Timothy and Putri Arino, who has Italian and Balinese roots.

While mainly in Indonesian and Javanese, the dialogue also contain bits of English and Dutch. I liked how these helped capture the essence of being Indonesian. I also liked how the series made me feel  as if I was travelling with these characters – though from my seat – as they unfold their past to make sense of their present.

As of 4 November 2023, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has given this slow-paced yet gripping tale a rating of 8.8 out of 10 and I can see why. Even though the scenes on the love story may appear cliché, they are part of what makes the series worth discussing. The other themes like womanhood and domestic life as well as business rivalry are fleshed out nicely. And if you’re looking for a window into the typical Indonesian lifestyle, this might just be what you’re looking for. Hello, bring me more tempeh, please?

This Netflix episodic series is based on a 2012 novel Gadis Kretek by Ratih Kumala, while fictional, gives insight into the tobacco industry. Episodes, with some written by the novelist herself, are around 60 minutes to 75 minutes.

In October 2023, a couple of episodes were screened at South Korea’s Busan International Film Festival.

The series premiered on Netflix on 2 November 2023.