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In some corners they would like you to see this as a successor to Ong Bak, but perhaps the biggest shame about this cliché ridden film is that the lead Iko Uwais’ performance isn’t half bad…
Yuda (Iko Uwais), a skilled killed practitioner of Silat Harimau, travels from the small village he was brought up in to make his way in the big city of Jakarta. Naive and innocent, it’s not long before street urchin Adit (Yusuf Aulia) steals his wallet.
On retrieving it, he saves Adit ‘s older sister Astri (Sisca Jessica) from a local thug involved in human trafficing. The only trouble is the thug wants revenge, as do his Western bosses…
And there you have it. Well, no one’s going to accuse Welsh-born director Gareth (G.H.) Evans of originality. This film runs with every cliché under the sun. Smalltown boy, big city, check. Attractive young girl involved in sex trade (to suggest that’s all there is in an South East Asian city?), check. Western bad guys, check. Stupid reason to go back to the bad guys hangout, check. And so on…
Which is kind of a shame, as otherwise Evans actually comes across as sympathetic towards the Asian and tradition he’s portraying – my biggest concern with Western directors working on Asian films. He gets strong performances from his Asian leads too, but the same can’t be said for Mads Koudal as Ratger despite a reasonable amount of experience and Laurent Buson as his brother and lead henchman Lars.
On the whole Merantau is pretty well shot, it’s not as if comes across as in any way amateurish, yet some sequences seem too loose for their own good. The choreography is tight, the scenes high up on roofs and scaffolding are particularly thrilling, but there’s a noticeable ‘hanging back’ by some of the participants in fight sequences that a better choreographer or editor would be able to hide.
Adept as Uwais is, the Silat Harimau style of fighting seems repetitive and lacks the aerial acrobatics that the Ong Bak crew put into their version of Muay Thai. It very quickly becomes rather dull, and the inevitable drawn out finale between Uwais and the Western bad guys quickly becomes rather forgettable. This is not the spectacle of Ong Bak, there’s little of the outstanding stunt work that made that film so special, or the more gimmicky fight scenes that made follow-ups like Chocolate or Raging Phoenix so enjoyable.
The film too easily descends into an attempt to be a kung fu movie, when it’s initial premise (at least in terms of acting performance) held so much more. The real shame of Merantau Warrior is that Uwais is actually a far better actor than Tony Jaa. Which may sound like faint praise, but it’s plainly obvious that a role that concentrates less on kung fu and more of a real plotline could really turn him into a star.
Interestingly, the Indonesian cut runs at nearly 30 minutes longer than the international release, an amount not accounted for in the deleted scenes included on the UK DVD. It makes you wonder exactly which elements director Evans took longer over, the fight scenes (unlikely) or perhaps more the all-important character building scenes?
Ultimately Merantau Warrior is definitely not Ong Bak, but we may well have a future star in the making in Iko Uwais – let’s hope he get’s the right role next time…!
Merantau Warrior was released on DVD by E1 Entertainment on 7 June.
DVD details
Distributor: E1 Entertainment (UK)
There's a wealth of bonus features on here to make up for whatever might, arguably, be lacking in the film itself, including nearly an hour's worth of behind-the-scenes features and a making of featurette.
There's also a couple of deleted scenes, including a charming scene with Adit learning maths from outside a school with help from a friend. No mention of where it comes in the movie, though. (Why don't they do that!!!)
And there's that longer Indonesian cut. Now my curiosity's raised...
