News

Iko Uwais' debut movie Merantau poised The Raid films for success in several key ways. Released in Indonesia in 2009 and releasing internationally in 2010, Merantau follows a young man named Yuda (Uwais), who ventures from his tiny village to Jakarta and encounters a human trafficking operation. Armed only with his skills as a Silat exponent, Yuda must fight to stop the ring's overlords Ratger (Mad Koudal) and Luc (Laurent Busan) and save the captive Astri (Sisca Jessica) and her brother Adit (Yusuf Aulia).

Written and directed by Welsh-born filmmaker Gareth Evans, Merantau was a big hit, but it was his and Uwais's follow-up movie The Raid: Redemption that truly shot them both to stardom in 2012, with Evans and Uwais re-teaming again in 2014 for The Raid 2. Everything from the Bruce Lee-based series Warrior to Marvel's Daredevil has been influenced by The Raid's impact on action movies and fight choreography. However,...

Stars: Iko Uwais, Sisca Jessica, Christine Hakim, Mads Koudal | Written and Directed by Gareth Evans

Interestingly, although an Indonesian kung-fu film, Merantau was written, directed and edited by Welshman Gareth Evans, a man who should be very proud of his well-made second feature film.

Merantau is the name of the journey which must be undertaken by young men in order to come of age. We follow Yuda on his pilgrimage from his tiny village to Jakarta. His intentions are to teach martial arts to children, though his plan goes awry and he finds himself protecting Astri, a young woman who is being pursued by human traffickers and her young brother Adit.

As with many kung-fu films, enjoyment requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief – of course every thug Yuda runs into is an adept martial artist and of course, not one of these thugs carries a gun or a...

We’re back again with another Movie of the Day and this week, in honour of his follow-up The Raid coming to DVD and Blu-ray later this month, our recommendation is Garth Evans’ Merantau.

Merantau is the name of the journey which must be undertaken by young men in order to come of age. The film follows Yuda on his pilgrimage from his tiny village to Jakarta. His intentions are to teach martial arts to children, though his plan goes awry and he finds himself protecting Astri, a young woman who is being pursued by human traffickers and her young brother Adit.

From the lush shots of Yuda’s hometown to the grimy streets of Jakarta, the film looks stunning and the fluid, roaming eye of the camera gives the film a sense of purpose. This is compounded by the excellent editing of the film: far too often in action films,...

With The Raid: Redemption now in cinemas around the world or on the cusp or release, the names of its stars have been gaining traction, those names being Iko Uwais, the star and master practitioner of Pencak Silat, and the director, Gareth Evans, from the Welsh valleys, who grew up with a love of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Sam Peckinpah and John Woo. That love relayed itself into pursuing a career in cinema. Despite the misstep in 2006, with his little seen directorial debut, Footsteps, Evans never gave up on his dream until a moment of genuine serendipity when he found himself with the opportunity to direct a documentary about martial arts in Indonesia, an opportunity that lead from his Japanese-Indonesian wife. That lead to him making his next film, Merantau, where he started his work partnership with Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian, and the rest is history, as they say.

Though prolific in its own right, the Indonesian film industry have had a tough time penetrating markets beyond their own borders. The ones that receive international distribution—especially the United States—are often arthouse films with the limited target audience of festivalheads. The broader Indonesian films, for better or worse, tend to incite little interest. It's bittersweet that Merantau, which not only nabbed an Audience Award at the 2009 Fantastic Fest but also got picked up by Magnet Releasing for Us distribution, is written and directed by a foreigner.

Martial arts films used to be all the rage in Indonesian cinema, but for the past two decades, as the film industry itself waned, martial arts films disappeared, as well. Merantau is the first serious treatment given to one since the so-called new wave of Indonesian films in the 21st century.

As per Minangkabau tradition, young tomato farmer Yuda (Iko Uwais) goes on a "merantau,...

[Our thanks to Mark Popham for the following review.]

Hey, did someone order an "Ong Bak"? I mean, I think that's what they delivered- looks like a young man leaves his country home, goes to the big city, steps in to stop injustice using an elbow-heavy martial arts? I don't know, though, this isn't Tony Jaa, it's some other guy, and he doesn't have the same acrobatic skill as Jaa. On the other hand, some of these shots look pretty good...and the score works really well...man, these shots, and that editing...holy Shit, is that the bad guy?

This was pretty much my reaction throughout the first twenty or so minutes of "Merantau", an Indonesian film that I wasn't actually that thrilled to receive in my Nyaff packet. I had sort of pegged it as an "Ong Bak" clone, and the first five minutes- the protagonist, Yuda (Iko Uwais), doing alone-style martial arts in front of a...

Merantau [Warrior]

Stars: Iko Uwais, Sisca Jessica, Christine Hakim, Mads Koudal | Written & Directed by Gareth Evans

Interestingly, although an Indonesian kung-fu film, Merantau was written, directed and edited by Welshman Gareth Evans, a man who should be very proud of his well-made second feature film.

Merantau is the name of the journey which must be undertaken by young men in order to come of age. We follow Yuda on his pilgrimage from his tiny village to Jakarta. His intentions are to teach martial arts to children, though his plan goes awry and he finds himself protecting Astri, a young woman who is being pursued by human traffickers and her young brother Adit.

As with many kung-fu films, enjoyment requires a certain amount of suspension of disbelief – of course every thug Yuda runs into is an adept martial artist and of course, not one of these thugs carries a gun or a...

Just as bad business and worse storytelling conspire to rob us of the physical glory that is Tony Jaa, in steps Indonesia's Iko Uwais, bringing the martial art of silat to the big screen in a big way with Merantau.

Yuda (Uwais) leaves his small farming village on "merantau," a rite of passage meant to demonstrate a young man's independence from his family. However, life is tough once he arrives in Jakarta, and tougher still once he steps in to help Astri (Sisca Jessica) as she's bullied by first her boss, then the head of a European human trafficking ring (Mads Koudal).

Filed under: Action, Drama, Foreign Language, Theatrical Reviews, Fantastic Fest

Continue reading Fantastic Fest Review: Merantau

Permalink | Email this | Comments...

In Indonesian culture, a merantau is a rite of passage, the journey that every young man must experience before he can be considered a man. Think of it as an Indonesian Bar Mitzvah. And you can think of the film Merantau as an Indonesian Bar Mitzvah with loads of impressive ass kicking and a fantastic story that engages every second its on screen. Yuda (Iko Uwais) is a skilled Silat fighter who is heading from his family farm to the big city to try to make his way in the tradition of merantau. Instead of getting a job there, he saves a young girl named Astri (Sisca Jessica) from ruthless thugs and becomes her guardian as a pair of mob bosses attempt to kidnap her to sell her into sex slavery. It's movies like these that put me in an awkward position. As some of you may realize, my very first review here on Fsr was for...

It’s becoming something of a regular refrain around here now: another new behind the scenes reel from Indonesian martial arts film Merantau gives yet another reason to be impressed. The eighth installment of these behind the scenes reels features a fresh wave of production, this batch set in the actual streets and alleys of Jakarta. Yes, director Gareth Evans continues to impress with the way he’s balancing story and action and, yes, star Iko Uwais continues to show that he’s got the goods as a fighter but we knew all of that already. What impresses here are some very complex and effective camera rigs that show Evans has definitely got a few visual tricks up his sleeve. Very nice.

“Merantau” is an Indonesian martial arts action drama feature due for release April 2009. Written and directed by British filmmaker Gareth Evans the film showcases Silat Harimau, a branch...