Killers

Two men from different cultures, a journalist investigating a corrupt rich man in Jakarta, and a banker turned serial killer from Tokyo meet in a chat room and form an unholy alliance. The Japanese man abducts and tortures women on camera and uploads them on to the internet. The Indonesian writer becomes fascinated by the videos, and through a series of events becomes a killer himself. The movie switches back and forth between the two characters in a fairly seamless fashion. The acting is excellent, with vivid camera work, but be warned of some explicit and bloody violence. It runs a bit too long at two hours and eighteen minutes, but I still recommend Killers as one of the better films of 2014.

The synopsis of this Japanese and Indonesian collaboration did have my interest grabbed, and I was somewhat excited to sit down and watch the movie. However, I had set the movie up on a pedestal of sorts, because it didn't impress me one bit, and I found it to be just a very mundane and mediocre movie at best.

The story is about two very different men, one in Japan and one in Indonesia, whom meet on a disturbing site that posts real videos depicting the moments of death of mutilated victims. While far apart, the two men have something in common; they are both killers. One kills simply out of sadistic pleasure and the other kills for a perverted sense of justice.

Right, well the story was good at certain aspects, but at other aspects it was just a muddled mess which made very little logic or sense.

What worked out for the movie was the acting, as the two main talents Kazuki Kitamura (playing Nomura) and Oka Antara (playing Bayu) really pulled their weight throughout the movie with their individual performances.

The effects were also working well in favor of the movie. And there is a fair amount of brutality and gruesomeness throughout the movie, so take that into consideration if you are easily offended by visual violence.

However, the movie just had very little entertainment value, aside from showing some brutal and deranged murder scenes. The storyline was just not functioning on a grander level. It was as if I was watching two different movies; one taking place in Japan and one in Indonesia. And directors Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto (known as The Mo Brothers) were not really successful in trying to intermingle and merge the two story lines into a coherent and fulfilling movie.

I found the overall result of the movie to be a tepid and mediocre one, and as such then I am rating it five out of ten stars.

Interesting psychological drama.

This movie had the potential to be brilliant. The first half, the set up, was excellent: Japanese killer contacts Indonesian journalist due to a common interest. Intense game of wits and a sort of mentor- student relationship, interspersed with some fairly graphically violent scenes.

However, given all this potential and a fine platform from which to build, the writer and director don't know what to do with it all. What develops from there is clumsy at times and the second half feels random, and the conclusion unprofound.

Even once we have a seemingly satisfactory conclusion, the movie doesn't end there. The writer and director didn't know when to stop the roller-coaster that is this movie!

Ultimately, a fairly good movie, but could have been even better.

This is not a critique to other people voting for this movie. This is me trying (hopefully succeeding too) to be funny. And all because of the Distributors and their insistence on making this or better connecting this to "The Raid". Obviously you can connect many movies with each other by producers, effect people and more (see 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon if you haven't heard of that). But this has nothing to do theme wise (or otherwise) with the Raid.

To wrap your head around that fact, you do have 2 hours. And while there is a lot happening, it's the ending that will stay with you (for better or worse). The movie is pretty violent (maybe one connection to The Raid) and very convoluted too. This is either a good or a bad thing, depending on your taste. One thing it definitely is, is strange

Following two storylines that gradually become entwined, 'Killers' represents another calculated effort from Timo Tjahjanto and his brother: a dark psychological thriller that follows a serial killer and a journalist and their murky psyches that lead to their violent actions.

Nomura is the charismatic but vicious psychopath who targets women, kidnaps them, and brutally kills them in a myriad of ways on film, then posts his kills online for the disturbing pleasure of voyeurs. Bayu is an ambitious journalist with issues of his own, and soon his dark side will be unleashed after encountering Nomura's footage online. So begins a descent into bloodshed for Bayu, who's vigilante crusade unlocks grimy secrets while sending him down a path that almost feels like his true calling as he begins to interact with Nomura in more ways then he's comfortable.

Despite the subject matter, the Mo Brothers are keen to keep a focus on their narrative and central characters. They understand what to show the audience, and what not to show, when to show it, and vice versa. This prevents the violence from becoming gratuitous for the sake of it, keeping the murderous acts horrifying and not nauseating for the inclination of viewer intensity.

The story runs of steam towards the end, unable to sustain its carefully maintained momentum in the home stretch, but its an entertaining ride nonetheless. The tone is dark, the kills are bloody, and the line between right and wrong is crossed and re-crossed. It's a film that looks at the nature of violence, the catharsis of controlled torture, and saddles the viewer with plenty to contemplate as the story careers towards an inevitable showdown between two very unique yet ultimately villainous killers.

7.5/10