The Raid: Redemption (2011)

The Raid: Redemption (2011)
aka: Serbuan Maut
Translation: The Raid Killed

Starring: Iko Uwais, Ananda George, Ray Sahetapy, Donny Alamsyah, Joe Taslim, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno, Tegar Satrya
Director: Gareth Evans
Action Director: Gareth Evans, Iko Uwais, Yayan Ruhian

A couple of years ago, during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had an idea for a book called Zen of Kung Fu Cinema: Reflections on the Canon. It was to be a collection of essays about the top 25 or so martial arts movies in “the canon” of the genre. I would attempt to forego the usual review format and shoot for a fresh take for each movie discussed. I also brought in a number of author friends to make a contribution. They included Scott Blasingame (TheNightDragon series); Kyle Fiske (Dragons and Boxers); Michael Lauck (The Grand Tournament); and Keith Allison[1] of Teleport-City, who has been reviewing kung fu movies (in addition to numerous other genres from world cinema) since the late 1990s. I even invited El Santo of 1000 Misspent Hours and Counting to do a write-up, but he eventually declined on account of not knowing enough about the genre to comment on it, even though I wanted an essay from a more casual fan and grindhouse junky.

So how I did I determine which movies were in “The Canon”? I basically started by combing the internet for about fifty or so Top 10 (or 20 or 50) Martial Arts Movies Lists and tallied up the results. That is, the more inclusions on these lists, the higher that film’s ranking. I was satisfied with the end results, a healthy mixture of old school and contemporary martial arts movies—with the exception of Kung Fu Panda, which I ignored completely on the grounds of my own “No Animated Movies” rule. In any case, I set about working on this project.

As is par for the course with me, I get extremely self-conscious when writing non-fiction, mainly because there are few approaches that haven’t already been done (and done better) by people with better academic credentials than me, and who have seen more than my own measly 780 Chinese movies. I eventually halted the project and moved on to something else, which itself got abandoned in favor me simply restarting my old site. You can see some of my unused essays at this site. See the reviews for Fist of Fury; Enter the Dragon; Way of the Dragon; Master of the Flying Guillotine; Fist of Legend; and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

The Raid: Redemption also made it to the canon at number 21, pretty good for a movie made only nine years earlier (as to when I started tallying up the results of the articles) competing against 50 years of genre history[2]. The question that stands is: what approach would I have taken to discuss this movie?

I suppose I could have discussed the stripped-down nature of the story. It is simplicity defined: in Indonesia, a SWAT team storms an apartment complex run by a drug kingpin. The locale’s tenants are mainly junkies, dealers, petty criminals, and the kingpin’s own personal army. It doesn’t take long for the SWAT team to get mowed down in a violent firefight inside a stairwell. With snipers surrounding the building and dozens of machete-wielding goons wandering the halls, the survivors have to fight for their lives. The story was more or less copied by the following year’s Dredd, which also pitted the superhero Judge Dredd and his new partner against a building full of drug dealers. I have also seen people compare the second Purge movie to The Raid, although the parallels are a bit sketchier. The story is arguably thinner than your average Jackie Chan film, although the storytelling is simply superb.

We can talk about the fight action, which most people will remember this movie for. There are five major fights, at least four of which are “certified classics.” The first major fight is set on the 7^th Floor, in which Iko Uwais takes on a dozen or so men armed with machetes with a knife and police baton. There is a certain Wow factor to the proceedings, as Uwais must fend off and dodge attacks coming from multiple angles, very much like a vintage Jackie Chan film. The choreography is suitably complex, mixing knife and baton attacks with “economical” kicks—most of which are aimed no higher than stomach level. There is also a certain “ick!” factor in the fights, notably as Uwais not only stabs several of his opponents, but often drags the blade across the limb in order to up the pain factor. After all, a huge gaping wound in your leg will definitely take away your will to fight.

After a suspenseful interlude in the apartment of an honest man (Ananda George) and his sick wife, Uwais finds himself face-to-face with an even scarier band of men brandishing machetes. This time, however, he is completely unarmed. Thus, we get the big fight on Floor 8, where Uwais has to contort his body in dozens of different ways, not to mention roll on the floor, in order to not get sliced to ribbons. Uwais gets off a lot of ground-based kicks in this sequence and the choreography is just astounding. The first time I watched this movie, I had wondered how the other fights were going to top that first one. I admit that I was a little afraid that the first fight was going to be the best of the entire film. That has happened too many times for my taste. Thankfully, director Gareth Evans and company knew what they were doing and kept the suspense only growing. The major “ick!” moment is when Uwais does a backward jumping takedown on a young assailant, ramming the broken shards of a door through the kid’s throat.

The fight between the drug kingpin’s chief enforcer, Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian, of Beyond Skyline and John Wick 3), and Sergeant Jaka (Joe Taslim of Mortal Kombat), is pretty solid. It’s not exactly a classic, but it’s intense enough.

Not too long afterward, we have a big group brawl on Floor 15, where the kingpin keeps his drug lab. Rama (Uwais) and two other policemen—Dagu (Eka Ramahdia) and the corrupt Lieutenant Wahyu (Pierre Gruno)—fight off all of workers. The Floor 7 fight was weapon-against-weapon. The Floor 8 fight was unarmed-against-weapon. The Floor 15 is mainly unarmed-against-unarmed, although a few goons carry the standard machete. This fight is very Jackie Chan in its presentation, with characters fighting in, on and around tables, or using the scenery as weapons, including shelves and filing cabinets. The kicking is a bit flashier than in the other fights, both from Uwais and his opponents.

The climax is a long and brutal—no, that word is overused—long and feral two-on-one between Rama, his brother Andi (Donny Alamsyah), and Mad Dog. One great aspect of this fight is the subtle characterization of Mad Dog in this scene. The man is a ferocious, take-no-prisoners mob enforcer type, but he prefers the thrill of personal combat to the simplicity of a firearm. When Rama steps into the room where Mad Dog is torturing Andi, Mad Dog stops what he’s doing and lowers the chain that suspends Andi. He patiently waits as Rama frees his brother. Once Andi is mobile again, Mad Dog approaches them and gestures for them to give him a bit of space. From there, a blistering fight starts as the brothers double team Mad Dog. On one hand, there is strength in numbers. On the other, Andi isn’t quite the trained fighter his brother and Mad Dog are. Moreover, Andi is also injured and Rama is probably completely exhausted by this point. So Mad Dog, the superior fighter of the three, has the bigger advantage.

Both Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian are masters of the Indonesian Silat martial arts. Yayan trained in Pencak Silat, in addition to other styles, like Silat Harimau and Silat Minang. He was also a professional instructor before he started appearing in movies, so his fighting cred is pretty hard to argue with. Iko Uwais also started his silat training at age 10 and was a national champion at age 22. He was also running a martial arts school when he was discovered by Gareth Evans. I point this out because this fight becomes a pure silat clinic in the best sense possible. Ruhian and Uwais conduct this beautiful symphony of punches, blogs, throws, holds, breaks and kicks. Yayan does some very flexible kicks, reminiscent of the sort that Ken Low could do on his best days. One notable kick is where Ruhian throws a front kick, then switches it into a heel kick to his opponent’s head, and, missing his target, brings his leg down to a roundhouse to his opponent’s knee. Watch Ruhian as he uses his shorter stature to his advantage, performing spinning elbow strikes on his opponents’ knees. Or watch Ruhian get put in a strangehold from behind, only to jump and kick out with both legs, using the falling momentum to grab his opponent from behind and throw him over his shoulders. This is alone placed Mr. Ruhian on the short list to one of the best martial arts villains in cinema in a LONG time.

One of my observations about Merantau Warrior was that the fight sequences, as good as they were, were starting to feel a little repetitive by the end of the movie. Not enough to dampen my enjoyment of the film as a whole, but enough to make me wonder if future Indonesian movies might eventually lose their spark. Gareth Evans and company certainly learned a bit about action direction in the meantime, making sure to keep the fights varied and the difficulty progressively harder until the finale, when the protagonists took on a night-invincible little fighting machine (and adrenaline addict, it would seem). I have yet to watch The Raid 2 as of writing this review, but it is certainly the next movie on the list.

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[1] - Keith is so important to the fandom that he has been quoted on Brazilian DVD releases of Shaw Brothers films like The Shaolin Prince and The Crippled Avengers, the former of which he hadn’t even seen before I brought it to his attention!

[2] - Or in some cases, sixty or more as some lists included films like Yojimbo and The Seven Samurai.