To round out our little martial arts retrospective, this time we take a trip down to Indonesia—for a piece that decisively came to stand out amid the overly digitized scene of modern action films. It’s a showcase for all the kinetic grace of pencak silat, it’s a epitome of effectiveness through simplicity—it’s The Raid: Redemption.
Coming from Gareth Edwards, but with an all-Indonesian cast and choreographers, The Raid isn’t a complicated movie conceptually, but that’s part of the appeal. The storyline is straightforward, essentially a riff on the Die Hard scenario like many—we follow rookie Djakarta SWAT cop Rama (Iko Uwais), part of a team launching an assault on a high-rise owned by a local crime lord (Ray Sahetapy). Now, obviously, the film is not ten minutes of a police unit methodically handcuffing everyone and then going home, so as you might expect, things go very, very wrong. That leaves Rama and a handful of survivors desperately making their way out of an ambush prepared in advance to survive in the high-rise while being hounded by hordes of murderous crooks and, of course, the deadliest of the foe’s enforcers, Mad Dog—played by the effortlessly devilish Yayan Ruthain.
Rama may not be the most complicated character, but he has all the attributes you need—we off the bat see he has a family he loves, establishing stakes. Ike’s performance sells him as an intense and competent man who nevertheless is by no means invincible, and has to wring out every iota of cunning just to survive—so, efficiently and effectively, we’ve already got a lead who’s relatable but cool. Whether he’s hiding himself in walls or brawling through corridors, there’s no way you’re not going to be cheering him on.
But of course, the real highlight is the fight choreography. Many Hollywood productions will try to cover things up with CG or all sorts of disorientating rapid cuts, but there’s no such thing here. Each one is filmed elegantly and in full view—if there is any cheating, it’s seamless, and that leaves all you need to admire the ballet-like arrangements of kicks, fisticuffs, and more. Every impact feels bone-shattering, every move satisfying, and where others would toss in stunt doubles, there’s no doubt as to the physical prowess of the leads here. It all feels authentic—and that alone, as I’ve said before, is crucial even to something as straightforward as this one.
I also like the score, courtesy of Mike Shinoda--traditional percussions mixed with techno-like beats, which, while again not too complex, are all you need to get you hyped for the action.
Of course, that leaves the best part for when Uwais is up against someone of equal talent—when you see him and Yayan go all out against each other at the end, it leaves one of the most memorable one-on-ones in recent movie history. There’s no flashiness, there’s no extravagance, there’s just pure martial arts goodness, and that’s that perfect impression the film leaves you with.
In 2014, the film was followed by a sequel—which greatly expands the complexity of the plot, involving Rama going undercover in a crime syndicate, with various factions from cops to other cartels vying around him. At first I sort of preferred the straightforwardness of the original, but I have certainly warmed up to Raid 2 over the years that I can definitely appreciate it being all a sequel should—retaining the elements that made the first great, but changing things around while raising everything from stakes to scale. There are some aspects I think could’ve been better, but it’s something just as easily worth checking out as the first.
That leaves us with both very well executed modern examples of the martial arts genre, and a good a point as any to leave off on—but there’s one more very different sort of flick I’d like to look at next first…
Comments
Post a Comment