SYNOPSIS:
In
Minangkabau, West Sumatera, Yuda a student of Silat Harimau
is in the final preparations to begin his "Merantau"
a time honoured tradition that will see him leave the comforts
of his village behind to make a name for himself in the bustling
city of Jakarta. Arriving in the city alone and homeless within
his first night, a chance encounter leads to Yuda defending
the orphaned Astri from becoming the latest victim of a European
human trafficking ring led by the wildly psychotic Ratger.
Forced to go on the run with Astri and her younger brother
Adit, Yuda's introduction to the city is a baptism of fire
as all the pimps and gangsters that inhabit the night hound
the streets chasing their every step.
MOVIE REVIEW:
While
Asia action stars such as Jackie Chan, Jet Li are near to
their retirement days and Tony Jaa is still busy doing his
Ong Bak routines and tending to his elephants, in comes a
potential action star from nearby Indonesia, Iko Uwais to
fill in the gap.
The boyish-looking ex-truck driver and silat
expert in real-life stars as Yuda, a silat student who leaves
the comfort of his village to travel to the bustling city
of Jakarta hoping to earn a living by teaching silat. But
nothing in life goes as planned and Yuda finds himself wanted
by pimps and gangsters after saving a young girl, Astri and
her brother from the clutches of a European human trafficking
ring.
It
comes to no surprise that "Merantau Warrior" fairs
like another generic action movie with a conveniently 'fish-out-of-water'
protagonist with exceptional martial-arts skills on the loose.
Remember Tony Jaa’s character that traveled to the city
to look for his poached elephants in "Tom-Yum-Goong"?
Iko Uwais’s Yuda is the serviceable hero here as he
fights his way out of many dire situations including a fight
in a pub, on an overhead bridge, at a construction site and
the finale at a container wharf.
All
the above painstakingly choreographed action pieces allowed
Iko to showcase his silat skills and the daring stunts execute
by the stunt team. To be fair, for any viewers who are familiar
with those hyper-adrenalin Jackie Chan/Sammo Hung/Yuen Biao
action flicks in the eighties, "Merantau Warrior"
fairs along somewhat similar along this line if you take out
the locale setting, language and the martial-arts displayed.
Things start to get heated up after the 36 minutes mark and
from then on, it’s one action setup after the next,
never mind the amateurish-looking editing, cinematography
and even choreography at times.
Welsh director Gareth Evans who makes his
feature debut here isn’t shy from giving viewers the
thrills and violence they are craving for which explains the
cheesy, predictable Caucasian villains normally seen in Asian
productions. Played respectively by Danish actor, Mads Koudal
and French stunt-choreographer Laurent Buson, both clearly
knew what they are in for given their limited expository but
Koudal turns in a passable performance mouthing some cringe-worthy
dialogue while Buson finally gets to kick Iko’s ass
in the finale.
Sisca Jessica on the other hand who plays
the damsel-in-distress, Astri is definitely easy on the eyes
though there isn’t much for her character to do except
getting slapped and dragged around the sets. Of course, the
spotlight is on Iko Uwais who proves he is a natural in front
of the camera and this young lad can high-jump, moves lightning
fast than any of us and his silat skills without doubt serves
as an eye-opener to most of us who are not so acquainted with
this form of martial-arts.
"Merantau
Warrior" isn’t going to win any awards for acting
or original screenplay to be honest but more importantly,
action fans who want to spin a disc into their players to
kill an hour or two can consider "Merantau Warrior",
a guilty pleasure that comes direct from our not-so-far-away
neighbour, Indonesia.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
None
AUDIO/VISUAL:
This local DVD comes with subtitling options including
Chinese and Malay. Like Raging Phoenix, Merantau Warrior comes
without English subtitles so I guess you have to give this
title a miss if you are not proficient with the available
options. The Dolby Digital 2.0 is sufficient for a title that
doesn’t come equipped with a lot of fancy surround sound
effects.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by Linus Tee
Posted on 18 February 2010
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