A Welshman directing a foreign language Die Hard in Indonesia… really? This is the question most people will be asking before watching this film.
Let us assure you first that The Raid is no Die Hard, rather an homage to the great martial arts films from Hong Kong in the ‘80s/’90s. People with a phobia of subtitles need not worry too. This is a visceral experience and the poetry is in the action.
The story set up is a simple one and summed up best by the tagline: ‘1 Ruthless Crime Lord, 20 Elite Cops, 30 Floors of Chaos’. (Actually in this film, the chaos only goes to the 15th floor, where the crime lord, Tama (Ray Sahetapy), is hiding – perhaps there’s a bigger crime lord hiding on the 30th floor for a future sequel.)
Cops sent into a building to capture a target? What’s new, you say? It’s certainly not groundbreaking, but in the age of CGI, it makes a refreshing break from your alien attacks and giant robot stampedes. With its miniscule budget of around 1 million US dollars, any use of CGI in The Raid is minimal.
To dwell too much time on plot and character development is completely missing the point. This is a martial arts showcase, in this case pencak silat. The real star of the show is Rama (Iko Uwais), a rookie cop caught up in this mayhem of madness. His moves and athleticism are second to none in the martial arts genre at the moment – dare we say, even better than Jackie Chan, Jet Li or Donnie Yen in their prime.
Uwais also helped to choreograph the fight scenes alongside Yayan Ruhian, who plays the menacing Mad Dog in the film. The moves are slick and the action is kinetic, with noses broken and backs snapped.
For the squeamish, director Gareth Evans does cut away in most scenes before the climax of the violence. Evans has clearly done his homework on martial art techniques. The action borrows heavily from Yuen Wo Ping, the great Hong Kong choreographer hired to look after the action in The Matrix. However, he does adapt the action to make it relevant to the pencak silat style (Iko Uwais is a former national champion).
The shots are captured at their dynamic best with a welcome use of medium and long shots, allowing a fuller appreciation of the choreography than the Bourne-style close cutting typical in Hollywood’s 21st century action output. The distributor clearly believes in The Raid, having paid handsomely for the Linkin Park frontman, Mike Shinoda, to help re-score the international version of the film.
Hollywood has already brought the remake rights for this film, but we would heartily recommend watching the original before the inferior remake emerges. The Raid might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like martial arts, you will love this film. As the old adage goes, they don’t make them like this anymore.
Released in UK cinemas on Friday 18th May 2012 by Momentum Pictures.
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