General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

What's Up with Love?

What's Up with Love? (Indonesian: Ada Apa Dengan Cinta?) is a 2002 Indonesian teen romance-drama film directed by Rudy Soedjarwo, in which a popular Jakarta high school girl strains her relationship with her close-knit clique when she falls for a reclusive schoolmate who beats her in the school poetry contest.¹^•² Produced by Riri Riza and Mira Lesmana for Miles Films, it became a landmark of the revival of Indonesian national cinema and spawned a 2003 television series, a 2016 theatrical sequel, and long-running rumors of a third film.³^•⁴

Key fact	Detail
Original title	Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? (often abbreviated AADC)
Release	8 February 2002, Indonesia²
Director / producers	Directed by Rudy Soedjarwo; produced by Riri Riza and Mira Lesmana³
Writers	Jujur Prananto and Prima Rusdi²
Leads	Dian Sastrowardoyo as Cinta, Nicholas Saputra as Rangga⁵
Runtime / budget	About 110 to 112 minutes; budget US$295,000; box office US$10 million⁶
Reception	IMDb 7.7/10 from about 3.6K ratings; Rotten Tomatoes 84%⁷^•³
Sequel	Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? 2 (2016), directed by Riri Riza, drew 3.6 million viewers⁸

Spoilers

Plot and characters

Cinta (Dian Sastrowardoyo) is a confident seventeen-year-old senior in suburban Jakarta with popularity, supportive parents, and a tight group of four girlfriends: Maura (Titi Kamal), Alya (Ladya Cheryl), Karmen (Adinia Wirasti), and Milly (Sissy Priscillia). Her ordered life is upset when Rangga (Nicholas Saputra), a reclusive boy, wins the yearly school poetry contest she expected to take, and she is assigned to interview him for her bulletin board group.⁵^•²

Rangga's presence triggers jealousy among Cinta's friends, and the girls eventually pressure her to choose between them and him. The film follows the couple's growing infatuation, ambivalence, and near misunderstanding; one account of the plot adds that Rangga's father's political background is considered "dangerous" by the government and threatens Rangga's family, while Rangga and his father leave for New York.⁵^•⁹^•²⁰ MUBI's synopsis frames the same conflict as a popular girl straining her clique by falling for a lower-class schoolmate.¹

Production

The film was written by Jujur Prananto and Prima Rusdi and produced by Miles Productions and Miles Films, the company established in March 1995 and headed by Mira Lesmana and Riri Riza.²^•⁸ Riri Riza, who had directed Petualangan Sherina (2000) with Lesmana, again collaborated with her as producer on this film, continuing a partnership that later produced Gie (2005) and Laskar Pelangi (2008).¹⁰

A detail that entered popular culture independently of the film is Rangga's love poem: in 2002 the director Rako Prijanto, then an assistant director, was entrusted by Mira Lesmana to compose it. The poem became popular among young people, who recognized it as a scene from the movie.¹¹ The soundtrack was created by the musician Melly Goeslaw, who marked the film's twentieth anniversary by posting a clip from it in 2022.¹²

Reception and significance

The film is regularly credited with helping revive the Indonesian film industry. A study of national cinema notes that the success of Petualangan Sherina (2000) and What's Up With Love? triggered the development of the national film industry, visible in the expansion of the XXI cinema network and the emergence of the Blitzmegaplex chain in 2006; another survey calls it the film that "revived the Indonesian film industry" alongside later commercial successes.⁴^•¹³ Against a budget of US$295,000 it earned about US$10 million at the box office.⁶

Its afterlife has been long. An RCTI television continuation premiered on 7 December 2003, running 84 episodes in one season with Ririn Dwi Ariyanti as Cinta, picking up the story of Rangga's delayed return to Indonesia.¹⁴^•¹⁵ In 2016, fourteen years after the original, Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? 2, directed by Riri Riza for Miles Films, became the top box office Indonesian film of its release with 3.6 million viewers, and its depiction of Ratu Boko Temple was credited with increasing visits to that site.⁸ As of December 2023, Riri Riza said he and Mira Lesmana had discussed a third film and even created its logo, though plans had shifted; the 2016 ending was widely considered unresolved, keeping rumors of AADC 3 in public attention.¹⁶

The film also remains a touchstone in Indonesian cultural life and education. It is described in language-teaching material as a contemporary Indonesian teenage film about love and values with elements of classical culture and politics,¹⁷ and scholarship on Indonesian literature classrooms cites it, alongside Laskar Pelangi, as a film that conveys complex ideas and characters and helps students connect with cultural and historical contexts.¹⁸ Its protagonists' names are still used in advertising that trades on Millennial nostalgia, as when an Indomie campaign in 2025 invited viewers to "feel the story of Rangga & Cinta" in cinemas.¹⁹

Cast

Dian Sastrowardoyo as Cinta⁵
Nicholas Saputra as Rangga⁵
Titi Kamal as Maura⁵
Ladya Cheryl as Alya⁵
Adinia Wirasti as Karmen⁵
Sissy Priscillia as Milly⁵
Dennis Adhiswara as Mamet³

Several cast members built careers on the film's success: Adinia Wirasti won the Citra Award for Best Supporting Actress a few years after playing Karmen, and Dian Sastrowardoyo later worked as a producer and director as well as an actor.¹²

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026