Review for Merantau Warrior

Introduction

Time was, that all eyes turned towards Hong Kong for action cinema. In the seventies and eighties, they turned out kung fu classic after kung fu classic, made household names of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan, and thrilled us with stunning action sequences, awesome stunts, and a lack of risk-averse thinking that would send chills down an insurers spine, and all on budgets that wouldn't pay for a Hollywood star's trailer, in 1935. But slowly, that star mentality, the risk averse thinking, and inflated budgets have crept into Hong Kong, so that action now is watered down, CGI enhanced, and doesn't pack the same wallop that it used to. But where Hong Kong has faltered, other territories have taken the strain, mainland China, Japan, Korea, and most recently the nations of South East Asia, whose movie makers and actors show a casual disregard for life that would make Jackie Chan blanch, and Jackie Chan in the 1970s no less. It turns out that many countries have their own martial arts to showcase on celluloid, and fans have thrilled at the bone-crunching impact of Muay Thai in Thai films like Ong Bak and Chocolat. It turns out that Indonesia has a martial arts heritage too. It's called Silat, and Merantau Warrior is the Indonesian film that brings this exciting, vibrant fighting style to the masses. And Gareth Evans, a Welshman, directs it…


The Minankabau society in Sumatra has a tradition called Merantau. It's a rite of passage that all boys must undergo before they are accepted as men. It means leaving the village, and making one's own way in the world, and learning from nature how to live responsibly. Of course in this day and age it means going to the big city and establishing one's independence there. It's that challenge that Yuda is facing now, and he's leaving his farming community to go to Jakarta, where he intends to teach the martial art of Silat. Life in the big city isn't that easy, however. Yuda is soon homeless and alone, with no prospects. He's soon about to be pulled into Jakarta's underworld though, when he rescues a girl named Astri from an abusive employer named Johni. Astri's a dancer who's gotten on the wrong side of club owner Johni, and Yuda instantly makes some powerful enemies when he rescues her. Matters get worse as Johni's sideline is supplying young women to European human traffickers Ratger and Luc, and to teach Astri a lesson, she's also put on the list. When Yuda rescues Astri from Ratger's clutches he unleashes a cycle of vengeance that will tear the city apart.

Picture

Merantau Warrior gets a 1.85:1 anamorphic PAL transfer. It's clear, it's colourful, and it's sharp enough that you do see the odd moment of aliasing. But all of that pales beside just how colourful this movie is. It's extremely saturated, especially in the reds, and it makes it retina-searingly painful to watch at times. Detail levels suffer as a result, and skin tones can get a little nauseating. You'll definitely have to adjust your set before the film finishes.

Sound

The DVD case says DD 5.1 and 2.0 Thai and English, with English subtitles, but don't be fooled, it's actually Indonesian and English. It's not dubbed by the way, it's a release where the Indonesian characters speak their own language, and the European characters speak English. English subtitles are available, but only for the Indonesian dialogue. The English dialogue isn't subbed, which is a shame as some of the accents are pretty thick. But this isn't a film that you watch for the dialogue, and some of it is cheesy at any rate. This is a film you watch for the action and excitement, and the surrounds are put to good use conveying that action.

Extras

Merantau is a title that gets a surprisingly large number of extra features, although it's something of a case of quantity over quality. On insertion the disc autoplays with trailers for Fireball, Strength and Honour, Wrong Side of Town, and REC². The disc also gets some animated menus showcasing some of the film's fight sequences.

Top of the extras list is a Play All option, letting you just sit back and enjoy all 1 hour and 16 minutes of extra features in one go.

You get 4½ minutes of deleted scenes, some quite interesting, while the TV Making Of lasts 15 minutes and offers the usual EPK examination of the filmmaking process. There is a 3-minute theatrical trailer as well.


Everything else boils down to short behind the scenes featurettes, running to about 5 or 6 minutes each. Each follows the same format, the same opening sequence and end credits page, soundbite interviews with the cast and crew, and visits to wherever may be on the agenda for that particular featurette. There's an introduction featurette from the director, a little bit on the fight choreography, and an introduction to the cast, but seven of the featurettes are almost identical in that they take us to a location, and offers some behind the scenes footage of the film being shot. The locations vary, but what is said and done really doesn't, and my attention drifted long before I could watch too many of these featurettes in full.

Supposedly there are Easter Eggs on this disc, but I couldn't find any.

Conclusion

That was a blast! It's always intriguing to see what other nations can bring to the table when it comes to action cinema, and I must admit that the martial art of Silat certainly brought something vibrant, original and visually breathtaking. It doesn't hurt (well it probably does hurt) that the Indonesian stars and stunt people are even less concerned about life and limb than their Thai counterparts. The stunts and action sequences here are visceral, close up, and bone-crunchingly intense, while Silat has an elegance and flow to it that is visually more poetic than Muay Thai's more brutal immediacy. Merantau Warrior is definitely a film to keep an eye out for if you are a fan of action cinema.


Of course, if you're more into rewarding acting performances, and the intricacies of well-constructed plots, then you are barking up the wrong tree. The young man seeking his fortune, and winding up in the wrong neck of the woods is a staple of the genre, practically as old as Eastern action cinema itself, and Merantau doesn't particularly add much new to the story. I must admit that director and writer Gareth Evans did manage to throw a couple of red herrings and surprises into the mix though, with the story at some points developing differently to expectations. But these were short-lived diversions, and the film was very quickly back on its well-trodden path. The acting isn't exactly going to trouble the awards season, with the star Iko Uwais and many of the other characters coming from a martial arts background first and foremost. He has enough charisma to carry off the role, but it isn't a memorable emotive performance. The arse kicking more than makes up for it though.


If I do have an issue with Merantau Warrior, it's that it blows its action wad a little early. The end-of-level bosses are nowhere near as accomplished as the mid-level bosses. There is also the fact that the final confrontation is a face-to-face, knock down, drag out battle between the bad guys and our hero. The earlier confrontations gain from more inventive choreography, the use of props and scenery, and more equally matched combatants. With what has come before, and the level of ability that Ratger and his henchman Luc displayed, I would have thought that Yuda should be able to brush the pair off without a thought, but of course for the finale they have to be evenly matched, which is why the final fight doesn't quite look as accomplished, or as 'real'.


Merantau Warrior is a load of fun. As an introduction to the Indonesian martial art of Silat, it's a movie worth getting your hands on. But as a film in general, it's pretty average for its genre.