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Drawing its cast from the silat schools of Malaysia, this action film is an enthusiastic celebration of the indigenous martial art, but ultimately fails to land its punches

Director Areel Abu Bakar celebrates Malay martial arts in this film about a humble family’s attempts to bring a wayward son back to the fold. Mat Arip (Fad Anuar) has been using his father’s property deed as collateral for his gambling debts, which gives loan shark Kahar (Azlan Komeng) an opportunity to exact long-desired vengeance against the father. It won’t be easy, since both Mat Arip’s brother Ali (Khoharullah Majid) and sister Fatimah (Feiyna Tajudin) are experts in silat seni gayong. This is the unarmed combat style brought to the Malay peninsula by 18th-century Bugis warriors, and still taught to the Malaysian police force.

Bakar has sourced most of the cast for his film from the silat training centres of northern Malaysia.

A scene from Silat Warriors: Deed Of Death. Courtesy of WellGoUSA

Silat Warriors: Deed Of Death (originally titled Geran) is a martial arts drama offering some novelty, in that Malaysian action films haven’t been widely distributed on this side of the Pacific. Here we get plenty of intense, though mainly bloodless, fight sequences, but not much in the way of protagonists to care about. I should qualify the last half of that sentence – some of the character-defining exposition may have been lost in translation, or cultural transition.

Mat Arip (Fad Anuar) is such an unrepentant gambler and party animal that it’s hard to care what happens to him as he continually burdens his peasant family to financial and physical harm from his debts. Fortunately, his mom, brother and sister are skilled enough at hand-to-hand combat that they keep their heads above water, and on their shoulders, longer than appearances would foretell.

When their younger brother brings a ruthless criminal gang to their door, a family must fight together against the threat in the action-packed martial arts epic Silat Warriors: Deed Of Death, which will debut exclusively on the martial arts streaming service Hi-yah! on June 4, before hitting Digital, Blu-ray and DVD July 6 from Well Go USA Entertainment.

In addition to actors Namron and Fad Anuar, first-time film director Areel Abu Bakar selected much of the talent from martial arts training facilities and competitions in order to give a sense of realism the exciting action sequences. His first-time actors include Khoharullah Majid, Feiyna Tajudin, Taiyuddin Bakar, Megat Shahrizal and Azlan Komeng.

In honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Columbia University is hosting a Free Zoom Discussion of the film with Director Areel Abu Bakar (winner of Nyaff’s action cinema 2020) and Megat Sharizal! In discussing their film, Areel and Megat will...

As we have mentioned before, the epicenter of (Asian) martial arts productions have moved from Hong Kong to the Asean countries for some time now. Malaysian “Geran”, which won the prestigious Daniel A. Craft Award for Excellence in Asian Cinema from New York Asian Film Festival is a proper testament to the fact.

“Geran” is Screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival

The film revolves around a family of five, with the father, Pak Nayan, being a teacher of silat Gayong, the local martial art, and his three offsprings, Ali, Fatimah and Mat Arip, his long-time students. The latter one, however, is the black sheep of the family, with his constant gambling in illegal fights and drag races, which have caused a number of problems for the family. The worst, however, occurs when he steals the deed of the family’s land and pawns it to the local loan shark,...

As we have mentioned before, the epicenter of (Asian) martial arts productions have moved from Hong Kong to the Asean countries for some time now. Malaysian “Geran”, which won the prestigious Daniel A. Craft Award for Excellence in Asian Cinema from New York Asian Film Festival is a proper testament to the fact.

Geran is screening at New York Asian Film Festival

The film revolves around a family of five, with the father, Pak Nayan, being a teacher of silat Gayong, the local martial art, and his three offsprings, Ali, Fatimah and Mat Arip, his long-time students. The latter one, however, is the black sheep of the family, with his constant gambling in illegal fights and drag races, which have caused a number of problems for the family. The worst, however, occurs when he steals the deed of the family’s land and pawns it to the local loan shark,...

The 19th New York Asian Film Festival (Nyaff) has announced the names of the recipients of its Rising Star Award and Action Cinema Award, as well as the international jury members who will select the winner of the Nyaff “Uncaged” Competition Award during the upcoming virtual edition, running from August 28-September 12 on the Smart Cinema USA app. Tickets for this year’s special virtual edition go on sale August 23.

The 2020 Screen International Rising Star Award goes to South Korean actress Lee Joo-young for Baseball Girl, making its international premiere and screening throughout the festival. The award recognizes her daring choice of roles across her already diverse body of work, as well as her fierce commitment to every performance, whether in indie cinema, where she already stands as a star, or the TV drama scene. These notable traits are exemplified by her tour-de-force turn as the eponymous underdog female athlete in Baseball Girl.