Merantau (2009)

Merantau (2009)
aka: Merantau Warrior 

Starring: Iko Uwais, Cisca Jessica, Christine Hakim, Mads Koudal, Alex Abbad, Laurent Busson, Yayan Ruhian
Director: Gareth Evans
Action Director: Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian

This film never got an official release here in Brazil. In 2010 or 2011, when São Paulo was having one of its annual “Cultural Weekends,” there was one porn theater that changed its venue to martial arts films for 48 consecutive hours and this film was one of the movies shown. There was the Cultural Center of São Paulo that also showed it last year, but I was in the middle of moving, so I didn’t get around to seeing it. It was thanks to a friend in the States that I finally got a copy of it to watch..

The film, in many respects, is literally Ong Bak transplanted from Thailand to Indonesia. Iko Uwais plays Yuda, a tomato picker somewhere in rural Indonesia who’s a devout Muslim (yes, Indonesia houses the largest Muslim population in the entire world, not in part because it is also one of the most densely-populated countries in the world, period) and like his predecessors Tang Lung and Ting, spends much of his free time practicing martial arts, mainly Silat. The time has come for his “merantau,” or wandering, where he must head off to the modern world to live and decide what he’ll ultimately do with his life.

While chasing down a young pickpocket, Adit (Yusuf Aulia), Yuda stumbles across the kid’s sister, a stripper, being manhandled by her employer, Johni (Alex Abbad, of The Raid 2). Yuda comes to the girl’s rescue (whose name is Astri and is played by Triangle the Dark Side's Cisca Jessica). This results in Astri being fired from her job. And if that isn’t bad enough, we soon learn that Johni does freelance work for a pair of Eurotrash white slavers who need one more girl for their next shipment. It looks like Johni isn’t finished with Astri after all. But now, he’ll have to deal with her knight in shining armor: Yuda. Things get bone-crushingly violent fast.

In many respects, this film is better than Ong Bak and many of its Thai contemporaries, even if the film initially follows the same story template. Much of it has to with how Gareth handles the story, which is simple, but focused enough to know which buttons to press and is infinitely more compelling (especially in this post-Weinstein environment) than “bumpkin goes after a severed Buddha head.” It also helps that Iko Uwais is a better actor than Tony Jaa and is a lot more charismatic than his predecessor, who would spend large swaths of film not saying a word, lacking the experience to emote through his facial expressions. The villains, played by Danish actor Mads Koudal (Copenhagen Ninja) and French actor Laurent Busson (who had a small role in Silver Hawk), are an interesting pair, having some sort of deep personal friendship that isn’t explored, but frequently hinted at. I would’ve liked to have seen more interaction between them, just to know what that relationship actually was.

Most importantly, there’s the action. I’m guessing this is one more purer showcases of the Indonesia martial art Silat on film. I like how the early fights show Uwais trying to use his skills more defensively, as if to only subdue and neutralize his opponents without doing major damage to them. After that gets him a beating in an alleyway fight, he switches to the offensive and goes all Tony Jaa on everyone. Obviously, I prefer the latter to the former, although it helps set the early fights apart from the later ones. Interesting is how Silat influences not only Uwais’ fighting style, but seeps into the way the guy moves in otherwise ordinary situations. Much like Yuen Biao in Dragons Forever, Yuda can’t even walk without doing some bizarre sidestepping movements that are probably associated with the style. What’s especially impressive, is how Silat employs a lot of low, deep stances, and yet those never seem to keep Uwais from moving quickly and delivering lightning-fast footwork (compare with Jet Li’s lecture on traditional stances in Fist of Legend).

The fights are staged without editing tricks and wires to “assist” the actors’ abilities, which it seems that even Hong Kong and China can’t avoid anymore, even when working with top-tier talent like Tony Jaa and Wu Jing. There are some wince-inducing moments, mainly when Uwais takes on contingent of hired stooges in, on and around a series of shipping containers at the end. But that’s only an appetizer for the real finale, where he does a one-on-two against the European villains, in a fight whose setup is reminiscent of the finale of Who Am I? Mads Koudal does mainly hand-based attacks early on, where Laurent Busson is very obviously a talented kicker, and gets nice moves in, including what seems like a killer axe kick. The choreography here is stunning, and even the characters are on the ground, they get off some great ground-based kicks as well. Then the two chase Uwais into the network of containers armed with lead pipes and we get something out of Blonde Fury.

I can see the print of 80s Hong Kong films in the fight, with the Silat style being used to set things apart. It works fine for the most part, although there are some moments when it feels like the action could be varied more. However, that final fight makes the film worth watching by itself. Add to that some credible acting by the leads and good action design all around and you have a little gem worth checking out.