Audience Interpretation of the Film “Kamisama Wa Bali Ni Iru” Concerning Religiosity, Gender, and Economic Codes

Abstract

“Kamisama wa Bali ni Iru” is a film by a Japanese director released in 2015 in the comedy-drama genre. This article aims to interpret the film “Kamisama wa Bali ni Iru” according to the audience’s perception, whether the Bali expressed in the film reflects Balinese ethnic identity. The film is almost entirely set in Bali, which is the space where the events in the film take place. Through a review of the narrative of “Kamisama wa Bali ni Iru” on the diegetic aspect, three things are dominantly reflected in the events of the film in the Balinese ‘space’, namely religiosity, gender, and the economy of society. By referring to the audience reception method, the audience who acted as the giver of meaning to the film text were nine young adults of Balinese ethnicity. Audience interpretation is understood through interviews, with questions set through the codes that appear in the scenes of the film, namely the codes of religiosity, gender, and the economy of society. The results of the interviews with the nine viewers are a reproduction of meaning into a new text, and the results of the viewers’ answers are categorized according to three positions: “dominant”, “negotiated”, and “oppositional”. The novelty of this research is that it proves that the movie Kamisawa wa Bali ni Iru can be a medium to introduce Bali, although it needs to be supported by explanations to avoid misperceptions regarding codes of religiosity and economy.