Dian (Lisa Surihani) came to Istanbul in hoping to sort of persuade her long time boyfriend, Azad (Tomok) to propose for marriage... In a twist of events, Dian found herself stuck in a same apartment with Harris (Beto Kusyairy)... 


Maybe I was bored or maybe because there's no other movies to watch... Whatever the reason was, yes, I went out of norm and watched a Malay movie... A Lisa Surihani movie...

Despite my scepticism towards local movies, I had to admit that Istanbul, Aku Datang! was rather a good watch... You see, one thing I don't like about Malay rom-coms is that the characters tend to try so hard to be funny and romantic in a very spastic and exaggerated way... However, the actors and actresses in this movie are very subtle and relaxed in their performance, thus making the story more believable and real...

Lisa Surihani... I hated her in Ombak Rindu because her acting sucked big time... Nevertheless, the role she picked up for this movie seemed to fit her perfectly... As Dian, she's very cheerful, outgoing and chic... not to mention, very cute...

All those young fashionistas out there must really love Lisa in this movie because her wardrobe was very adorable... Those colourful skirts and dresses, matched with skinny jeans or leggings... Those fabulous high heels, and head decorations stuff she wore... Cute to the extreme...

Whereas, I really really disliked Tomok's acting... He's very wimpy... Beto was also kinda wimpy but he has a reason to be that way... The story required him to act a bit gay-ish... Maybe I hated Tomok because his acting worked? I don't know... Ntah...

The chemistry between Lisa and Beto is something to praise about... I enjoyed so much watching them together especially during the silent scooter ride... To show much emotion without saying much is something only natural actors can do...

I love the cute and artsy dialogue bubbles and blog drafts that popped up now and then...

The product placement was so so subtle... Maggie Asam Laksa? Brilliant...

The story was very predictable and typical through out most of the movie... When things got quite tense between the three characters, suddenly, BAMM! there's a twist... A nice trick there by the writer... There's so much obvious foreshadowing in the story that I thought it's gonna be predictable til the very end... That was until the ring was presented to Lisa... By who? Heheh... Can't spoil it to those who haven't watched...

Lastly, I would like to say, Istanbul was so visually beautiful... God, I loved to see the buildings and the culture presented in this movie... The Turkish extras were so good looking (I'm saying this in a very manly way)... Ngeoww~


I would like to say that there should be more Malay movies like Istanbul, Aku Datang!... We have enough gangster, horror, comedies and mixtures of those genres already... It's time to bring out something more serious and visionary...

To sum up, I recommend this movie because of Lisa Surihani's cute and subtle acting, the sweet sweet sweet storyline and overall setting and art direction... Brava!