Yesterday, I highlighted one of my more recent guilty pleasures, Timu Tjahjanto’s unhinged action thriller The Night Comes for Us, and today I highlight an action scene from an earlier film that helped propel Indonesia’s action film scene to most Westerners with a little sequence from Gareth Edwards’ The Raid 2. A sequel to his own earlier film, The Raid.
This sequence stars the character only known as Hammer Girl and played Julie Estelle who is also in The Night Comes for Us. I would’ve picked her scene from that film to highlight but it spoils a major part of the film so I decided on this scene in The Raid 2 that got her noticed with action film aficionados worldwide.
It’s a simple set-up. Girl with two claw hammers in a crowded train silently squares up against a train car full of yakuza members. What comes next is a masterclass in action choreography that induces many a visceral response form the viewer yet hard to look away from.
Some of the most inventive action films have been coming out of Southeast Asia these past 20 or so years. It was led by the very entertaining and brutal actions films headlined by martial artist turned action star Tony Jaa from Thailand then followed up by Indonesian action star Iko Uwais from The Raid series by Welsh director Gareth Edwards.
In 2018, Netflix bought the distribution rights for an Indonesian action thriller from director Timo Tjahjanto that starred the aforementioned Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Julie Estelle and a who’s who of Indonesia’s acting scene. At first glance, The Night Comes for Us looked to cash-in o the popularity of Gareth Edwards’ The Raid series, but one would be both mistaken and remiss to think such a thing.
The Night Comes for Us looked at Edwards’ The Raid duology and thought to itself that the action wasn’t brutal and visceral enough so decided to rectify that missed opportunity. Timo Tjahjanto took what he learned from his past work on horror films and decided to add some of those visual storytelling techniques to an action film that one would either have a hard time to sit through while viewing or just gobble with up with glee.
Guilty pleasure doesn’t mean the film has to be cheaply made or seen as being bad it’s good type of thing. I always thought that its something that one enjoyed despite knowing that there’s many out there who would look at someone askance for enjoying such a low-brow affair. The Night Comes for Us is both visually stunning in its production yet still has that low-down, grungy feel to it that harkens back to the hey day of grindhouse films of the 70’s and early 80’s. The only thing missing from this film was film grain imperfections such as film scratches and flaws to give it that 42nd street, NYC movie theater circa 1970’s experience (stale, days old popcorn and sticky floors included).
This film has it all and it has it in such abundance that one might just forgive Timo Tjahjanto for overdoing things when it came to the brutal violence that in years past would’ve earned it the dreaded XXX thus endearing it to the grindhouse crowd. The film actually opens up and ends in one of the few calm and introspective scenes with everything else in-between just straight up violence both hand-to-hand and gun variety. The Night Comes for Us is the film version of that saying “it woke up and chose violence.”
Joe Taslim headlines the film and he gives such a visceral and unhinged performance that one would be forgiven for mistaking his character as the villain if seeing the film in the middle after missing the beginning. Iko Uwais usually plays the reluctant hero in his previous films, but gets to let loose in a more antagonist role that more than matches Taslim when the two finally square off each other. The other stand-out performance to highlight would be Julie Estelle as The Operator who can throw down just as extreme as the men and, in fact, her fight scenes are pretty much the most brutal in the whole film and that is saying a lot.
So yeah, The Night Comes for Us, go see it and be horrified and/or amazed in equal measure. I guarantee that even if you hate the experience you won’t say that it was ever boring or bland.
So, just got back from watching The Raid 2: Berandal and I must say that I was left speechless. So, while I gather my thoughts in order to write up a review here’s a clip released by director Gareth Evans of a scene removed from the finished film due to pacing issues.
It’s a scene that took close to 6 days to set-up and film and quite a bit of money to do so. The fact that it’s a scene so heavy in action that it was still deleted from the film just goes to show just how awesome were the action in the film that this particular one was left on the cutting room floor.
The Raid 2: Berandal premiered today at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. We’ve already gotten two previous trailers and teasers. We now have a third one that just adds to the awesomeness of what I will now dub as the best film of 2014.
The Raid 2: Berandal will make it’s wide release in the United States on March 28, 2014.
In 2011, a little action film from Indonesia directed by Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans took the world by storm. The film was called The Raid (The Raid: Redemption in the West). It out-actioned every Hollywood blockbuster action film of that year and still manages to hold its own against other action films since.
So, it’s no surprise that a sequel was already in production by the time that film’s theater run was winding down in the West. Gareth Evans will return as director of The Raid 2: Berandal and so will the survivors of the first film.
With filming all pretty much done and the film moving on to post-production the first official teaser trailer for the sequel has been released and all I can say is…WOW.
The Raid 2: Berandal will be punching people in the face sometime around 2014.
Through the Shattered Lens 