The film stars Mel Gibson as Australian journalist Guy Hamilton, and Sigourney Weaver as British Embassy officer Jill Bryant.

[6] The film was shot in both Australia and the Philippines and includes Australian actors Bill Kerr as Colonel Henderson and Noel Ferrier as Wally O'Sullivan.

A Chinese Australian man with dwarfism, high intelligence, and moral seriousness, Kwan is deeply involved with and concerned for the people of Jakarta and their tribulations, even regularly providing for a destitute woman and her young son.

He receives limited sympathy from the journalist community, which competes for scraps of information from Sukarno's regime, the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), and the conservative, Muslim-dominated Indonesian military.

He hangs a banner with "Sukarno feed your people" from the Hotel Indonesia to express his outrage, but he is thrown from the window by security men and dies in Guy's arms.

Still pursuing his civil war scoop, Guy attempts to access the presidential palace where, having learned of the communist shipment, the army generals have taken over and unleashed executions.

Risking permanent damage to his eye, a bandaged Guy implores Kumar to drive him to the airport, where he boards the last plane out of Jakarta and is reunited with Jill.

"[10] To accomplish the role during production, Hunt shortened "her hair and dye[d] it black[,] wore padding around her waist, shaved her eyebrows, and carried something in her shirt pocket.

"[13] Death threats against Weir and Gibson from Muslims who believed the film would be anti-Islam forced the production to move to Australia.

The crew moved to Sydney in early April 1982 during its fifth week of the six-week Philippine shoot with only a few small scenes remaining.

"[16] The original score is by Maurice Jarre, and contains several period pieces, such as Tutti Frutti and Long Tall Sally by Little Richard, and Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On by Jerry Lee Lewis.

[21][22] Warner Bros. released The Year of Living Dangerously in the United States on DVD in June 2000 with a theatrical trailer as the sole extra feature.

[26] When released nationwide, the film ranked thirteenth in the box office grossing $1,716,040 on 690 theatres during the Presidents' Day weekend.

The site's consensus states: "Both a smart, suspenseful tale of intrigue and a sweeping romance, The Year of Living Dangerously features excellent performances from Mel Gibson as a journalist and Sigourney Weaver as a staffer at the British Embassy in Jakarta during the political unrest in Indonesia.

[33] However, Richard Corliss of Time wrote, "But in his attempt to blend his preoccupations with the plot of C. J. Koch's 1978 novel, Weir has perhaps packed too much imagery and information into his movie ...

[34] In his review for the Washington Post, Gary Arnold described the film as "a grievously flawed yet compelling tale of political intrigue, certainly a triumph of atmosphere if not of coherent dramatization".

[36] Weir was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival and Hunt won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.