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By  Will, on April 16, 2012, 5:20 am  The Raid [Serbuan maut] (2012)
AKA The Raid: Redemption
Starring Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, Doni Alamsyah, Yayan Ruhian, Pierre Gruno, Ray Sahetapy, Tegar Satrya, Iang Darmawan
Directed by Gareth Evans
Expectations: Super high. So stoked for this movie.
Before I get into more specific feelings about The Raid, I want to say that I really enjoyed it overall. I liked Merantau a lot more, but I think The Raid is the better made film hands down. With that out of the way, let’s get down to business. Iko Uwais and Gareth Evans, hot off of the success of Merantau, are back to bring you a bone-crunching, kick-ass martial arts film. If you went into The Raid cold, you’d never guess this was the case from the opening half hour or so, as there is very little, if any, martial arts at all during this time. It’s all police squads and machine gun fire, and while automatic weapons are always pretty damn exciting and entertaining, I was there for the punchy-punch.
There’s not a whole lot of story being told in The Raid, but that’s to be expected. The basics of The Raid are this: There’s an evil fucker on the top floor of a fifteen-story building. He must be taken down, along with all the other evil fuckers that he has rented rooms to in the building, not to mention his two evil henchmen fuckers. As one of the cops says during the opening scene, “Let’s clean up this city.”
Continue reading The Raid (2012) →
By Will, on April 12, 2012, 5:20 am  Merantau (2009)
AKA Merantau Warrior
Starring Iko Uwais, Sisca Jessica, Christine Hakim, Mads Koudal, Yusuf Aulia, Alex Abbad, Yayan Ruhian, Laurent Buson, Doni Alamsyah, Ratna Galih
Directed by Gareth Evans
Expectations: High. Heard some great things. Also heard it’s bad. We’ll see.
Told simply, Merantau is one of the most impressive martial arts débuts of all time. Iko Uwais, a practitioner of Silat since childhood, busts out of nowhere in his first film and literally annihilates the competition. He’s no joke, and he’s easily the next big thing in martial arts cinema. Watching Merantau gave me the same feeling I had when I first saw Tony Jaa work his magic on-screen in Ong Bak. Uwais comes off as a combination of Jaa’s hard-hitting brutality and Jackie Chan’s playful, “grab your surroundings as weapons” style, and it’s a true joy to watch. He’s doesn’t seem as athletic as Jaa, or as inventive as Chan, but he is a great amalgamation of the two distinctly different styles. There’s nothing in the world like watching a master martial artist at work, and Merantau is filled with stunning, thrilling examples of just that.
The merantau referenced in the film’s title refers to our hero’s journey from his small village to Jakarta. It’s his merantau, or the time in his life when he must leave his village in search of enriching experiences and success. It is Yuda’s dream to teach Silat to others and he hopes to do just that when he hits Jakarta. He does teach some baddies just how badass and effective a martial art Silat is along the way, but somehow I don’t think that’s what he had in mind. In any case, not much info is given on what the merantau entails before it begins in the film, and not much is needed. From the opening scenes it is clear that it is a perilous journey, and one fraught with danger and intrigue. It is a journey that every man in the village must endure, and we as the viewer will undertake it without prior knowledge, the same as Yuda.
Continue reading Merantau (2009) →
By  Stephen, on April 4, 2012, 5:20 am  The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? [超時空要塞マクロス 愛・おぼえていますか, Chōjikū Yōsai Makurosu: Ai Oboete Imasu ka] (1984)
AKA Macross: Do You Remember Love?, Super Dimension Fortress Macross the Movie, Macross: Clash of the Bionoids, Super Spacefortress Macross
Starring Mari Iijima, Arihiro Hase, Mika Doi, Akira Kamiya, Osamu Ichikawa, Eiji Kanie, Ryūnosuke Ōbayashi
Directed by Shōji Kawamori & Noboru Ishiguro
Here it is: Macross. The holy grail of sci-fi anime. It may not have as much mainstream recognition as some others, but within the industry, Macross is the preeminent giant robot anime. In America, it was turned into the first part of the Robotech series, one of the more popular cartoon shows of the 80s. It even impacted the Transformers. The character Jetfire was created from a Macross toy, and while Michael Bay and Shia LaBeouf have been using the Transformers franchise as their own personal commode lately, that Macross inspired character is still around today.
There is no Robotech version of this film, which is an adaptation of the original Macross TV series, but because of the various copyright conundrums, it never got a proper American release. It did get an English dub under the title Macross: Clash of the Bionoids, but one version going by that title was edited into oblivion. (If someone makes a list of the most confusingly published movies, this one better be on it.) I didn’t have much trouble getting a DVD of the original Do You Remember Love, but it is an all region disc, so I think it’s an international release that somehow sidestepped the copyright problems. Sadly, that “perfect edition” is far from perfect. While it does have some good quality video, the subtitles are abysmally timed. The worst part is the karaoke subtitles, which cannot be turned off under any circumstances. Maybe someday we’ll get a good remastered Blu-ray edition in America, but don’t hold your breath.
Continue reading Stephen reviews: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984) →
By Will, on March 30, 2012, 5:20 am  The Invincible Fist [鐵手無情] (1969)
Starring Lo Lieh, Li Ching, David Chiang, Fang Mian, Ku Feng, Chan Sing, Cheung Pooi-Saan, Wu Ma, Cheng Lui, Cliff Lok Kam Tung, Wang Kuang-Yu, Lau Gong, Chui Chung-Hok
Directed by Chang Cheh
Expectations: Moderate. Chang Cheh is always fun.
In Chang Cheh’s memoir he talks a lot about the period of creative soul-searching that was 1969. As I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, he became fed up with straight wuxia films after Golden Swallow and wanted to find himself a new niche that would excite creatively. He had tried a contemporary picture, The Singing Thief, which I enjoyed immensely but is generally looked down upon by most reviewers and even Chang himself. He tried to subvert the wuxia genre by focusing on an anti-hero in The Flying Dagger. Again, I thoroughly enjoyed that film, but Chang felt it to be a disaster. He tried an over-the-top action sequel in Return of the One-Armed Swordsman, which was incredibly successful, but Chang writes it off as a mere variation on a theme in his memoir. The Invincible Fist, though, he expressed a love for, and a sadness that the box office didn’t reflect the quality of the film he produced. Looking back at the many Chang Cheh films released in 1969, The Invincible Fist is by far the best made of the bunch, and definitely worthy of your time and praise. I’d never even heard of this movie until I embarked on this review series, and that’s a crying shame for a film this good.
Again Chang Cheh seeks to do something different within the wuxia swordplay genre with The Invincible Fist, but it’s not the hand-to-hand fighting you might expect from a title such as The Invincible Fist. Instead, the figurative invincible fist refers to our main character, a bounty hunter played by Lo Lieh, on the trail of a skilled team of bandits. Lo commands a small group of his own (with his brother played by none other than David Chiang in his first major role), but it’s really all about Lo Lieh and his incredible skills as both a martial performer and an actor. He plays the hard-nosed, detective-like character with a badass calm that’s both impressive and chilling. He’s no one to fuck around with, striking fear and admiration in the hearts of all that pass his way.
Continue reading The Invincible Fist (1969) →
By Stephen, on March 28, 2012, 5:20 am  Ninja Scroll [獣兵衛忍風帖, Jūbē Ninpūchō] (1993)
Starring Kôich Yamadera, Emi Shinohara, Takeshi Aono, Daisuke Gôri, Toshihiko Seki, Shûichirô Moriyama
Directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
Despite the title, Ninja Scroll doesn’t have much in the way of scrolls. There’s only one, and while it is important for a minor plot point, it certainly isn’t title worthy. But if the film doesn’t deliver the kind of ancient literary action that you were hoping for, let me tell you, it certainly keeps its word about the ninjas. In fact, it has so many to spare that it kills off a dozen of them in the first ten minutes. The poor guys don’t even stand a chance, as their opponent is a gigantic ninja made of rock with an equally gigantic two-bladed sword that he hurls around like a boomerang. He’s one of the Eight Demons (or devils, depending on the translation) of Kimon who all have a different magic power. In fact the only major character in the movie that doesn’t have some kind of magic ability is Jubei, the main character, who has only his badass sword skills to keep him alive.
Jubei gets hired, or rather blackmailed, by an old ninja to fight against the demons. And of course, the old man has powers, too. He can stretch into strange shapes and change color like a chameleon. They also wind up working with Kagero, a female ninja with her own power, who helps in order to repay Jubei for saving her from being raped. The sexual content is pretty graphic, so anyone squeamish about the rape scene may be getting more than they bargained for.
Continue reading Stephen reviews: Ninja Scroll (1993) →
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