Hearing from a friend about how much they had enjoyed watching Gareth Evans 2011 film The Raid on DVD,I decided to take a look at Evans IMDb page,where I was thrilled to discover,that before directing The Raid,Evans had teamed up with future Raid star Iko Uwais in 2009 to make,what is now called the first ever " Silat Harimau" (a martial arts style) movie.
Being interested in seeing the beginnings of Evans and Uwais collaboration,I decided to join both of them in their journey through Merantau.
The plot:
Following is his brother and his late dad's footsteps,Yuda waves goodbye to his family as he leaves their small village behind,and sets off to a huge city so as to go through a rites of passage called Merantau,which will lead to him coming back to the village as a "man".
Getting off the coach in the city of Jakarta,Yuda is shocked to discover that the place he was hoping to stay in has not actually been built yet!,which leads to him having to search round Jakarta, until he finds a closed down building site which has large pipes that he can sleep in for the night.
The next day:
Deciding to buy some breakfast with what little money he has brought with him,Yuda's meal is interrupted when a pickpocket called Adit) enters the café and steals the bag containing all of his money. Chasing after Adit,Yuda follows Adit into his street,where he finds that Adit's sister Astri is getting pushed around by a pimp named Johni,who tells Astri that she owes him "pay".
Putting his stolen bag safely to the side,Yuda interrupts Johni's beating up of Astri by hitting him to the ground,and telling Johni to leave Astri alone. Seeing Johni run away,Yuda's expectation of being thanked for saving her are destroyed,when Astri tells him to get lost,due to him now having ruined her only source of income.
Ringing up his mum later that night at a payphone to tell her that he is thinking of giving up on his Merantau,Yuda suddenly hears Astri screaming from near by,and discovers that she is being dragged into a building by Johni and a gang of fellow thugs/pimps. Quickly putting the phone down,Yuda realises that his Merantau is going to be doing everything he can to get Astri free from the pimps and the thugs,and to also take out the lead gangsters such as Johni who rule the cities underworld.
View on the film:
Starting the film off on a spiritual note by showing Yuda's rural town,the screenplay by co-writer/director Gareth Evans and Daiwanne Ralie uses Yuda's arrival to the city as a way to slam the viewers face to the ground of a seedy,neon-lit,Neo-Noir world.Giving Yuda the wake up call of his life,Evans and Ralie show the places where Yuda is expecting to find hope are actually filled with fear and control,with everyone desperate to grab even a single penny of the cash hidden in the ruthless underworld of the city.
Twisting the rites of passage "Merantau" into a hard edge,Noir shape,Evans and Ralie subtly show that Yuda's quest to "become a man",has actually transformed into him trying to give Astri and Adit their childhood back,which was taken from them by the cities iron-grip gangsters.Along with the terrific screenplay,debuting actor Iko Uwais also displays the changing rites of passage route brilliantly,by showing the child-like innocence of Yuda's face fade,to be replaced by a harden face that is furious at the decaying city which he sees in front of him.
Complimented by Fajar Yuskemal's smooth acoustic strings and brittle Industeral drums score,Evans and cinematography Matt Flannery show a real elegance in the film's rough and gripping "Silat" fighting scenes by allowing the camera to pull back so as to allow the viewer the chance to see each technically stunning,bone crunching Silat move.
Contrasting the elegance shown in the fighting scenes,Evans and Flannery use tight,Neon-red corner streets to show the closed-in murky surroundings that Yuda finds himself drawn into,with the red intensifying as Evans delivers a hard Neo-Noir final punch,to declare that Yuda's blood-soaked Merantau has been completed.
Being interested in seeing the beginnings of Evans and Uwais collaboration,I decided to join both of them in their journey through Merantau.
The plot:
Following is his brother and his late dad's footsteps,Yuda waves goodbye to his family as he leaves their small village behind,and sets off to a huge city so as to go through a rites of passage called Merantau,which will lead to him coming back to the village as a "man".
Getting off the coach in the city of Jakarta,Yuda is shocked to discover that the place he was hoping to stay in has not actually been built yet!,which leads to him having to search round Jakarta, until he finds a closed down building site which has large pipes that he can sleep in for the night.
The next day:
Deciding to buy some breakfast with what little money he has brought with him,Yuda's meal is interrupted when a pickpocket called Adit) enters the café and steals the bag containing all of his money. Chasing after Adit,Yuda follows Adit into his street,where he finds that Adit's sister Astri is getting pushed around by a pimp named Johni,who tells Astri that she owes him "pay".
Putting his stolen bag safely to the side,Yuda interrupts Johni's beating up of Astri by hitting him to the ground,and telling Johni to leave Astri alone. Seeing Johni run away,Yuda's expectation of being thanked for saving her are destroyed,when Astri tells him to get lost,due to him now having ruined her only source of income.
Ringing up his mum later that night at a payphone to tell her that he is thinking of giving up on his Merantau,Yuda suddenly hears Astri screaming from near by,and discovers that she is being dragged into a building by Johni and a gang of fellow thugs/pimps. Quickly putting the phone down,Yuda realises that his Merantau is going to be doing everything he can to get Astri free from the pimps and the thugs,and to also take out the lead gangsters such as Johni who rule the cities underworld.
View on the film:
Starting the film off on a spiritual note by showing Yuda's rural town,the screenplay by co-writer/director Gareth Evans and Daiwanne Ralie uses Yuda's arrival to the city as a way to slam the viewers face to the ground of a seedy,neon-lit,Neo-Noir world.Giving Yuda the wake up call of his life,Evans and Ralie show the places where Yuda is expecting to find hope are actually filled with fear and control,with everyone desperate to grab even a single penny of the cash hidden in the ruthless underworld of the city.
Twisting the rites of passage "Merantau" into a hard edge,Noir shape,Evans and Ralie subtly show that Yuda's quest to "become a man",has actually transformed into him trying to give Astri and Adit their childhood back,which was taken from them by the cities iron-grip gangsters.Along with the terrific screenplay,debuting actor Iko Uwais also displays the changing rites of passage route brilliantly,by showing the child-like innocence of Yuda's face fade,to be replaced by a harden face that is furious at the decaying city which he sees in front of him.
Complimented by Fajar Yuskemal's smooth acoustic strings and brittle Industeral drums score,Evans and cinematography Matt Flannery show a real elegance in the film's rough and gripping "Silat" fighting scenes by allowing the camera to pull back so as to allow the viewer the chance to see each technically stunning,bone crunching Silat move.
Contrasting the elegance shown in the fighting scenes,Evans and Flannery use tight,Neon-red corner streets to show the closed-in murky surroundings that Yuda finds himself drawn into,with the red intensifying as Evans delivers a hard Neo-Noir final punch,to declare that Yuda's blood-soaked Merantau has been completed.