Merantau (2009)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Very disappointing...

Must See Movie...

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

A boy named Yuda goes on an Indonesian traditional journey, called Merantau. He goes to a city, to go on his journey, trying to practice a martial arts style called silat. He finds a girl named Astri and a boy named Adit, who are siblings. Adit takes Yuda's wallet and tries to evade him, but Yuda eventually catches him in an alley. This is where Yuda first finds Astri. Astri is being whored out by a pimp, who is being ruled by a higher European pimp. Yuda beats up the pimp, freeing Astri from his confines. When Astri is kidnapped, Yuda goes on a mission, fighting bad guys to rescue her. There is a large human trafficking ring, that is being lead by the 2 Europeans, which Yuda takes down. When Yuda finally takes out all the human traffickers, the European stabs him with a metal pole, killing him. Astri wants to save him, but it is too far gone. Yuda gives Astri a necklace and tells her to take it to his family. Then Astri goes to Yuda's hometown, where she lives with Yuda's family with Adit.This film was a very cheesy, Asian, martial arts film. The plot was very tacky, deriving back to a warrior saving the princess. Without a happy ending, the only good parts about this film were the funny fight scenes, with bad sound effects and ragdolls. Another enjoyable part about this movie were the poor lip syncing, especially on Astri.

Minangkabau silat practitioner Yuda (Iko Uwais) leaves home for Jakarta (as part of his 'merantau', his journey into adulthood) where he finds his martial arts expertise coming in very handy after rescuing pretty dancer Astri from a human trafficking gang headed by evil Westerner Ratger (Mads Koudal).Merantau was the first film to team Indonesian Silat superstar Iko Uwais with Welsh director Gareth Evans, who, together, would go on to make two of the finest martial arts movies ever made: The Raid: Redemption (2011) and The Raid 2: Berendal (2014). Although not quite as completely astonishing or groundbreaking as either of those films, being a little too similar in style to Prachya Pinkaew's hit movies Ong Bak (2003), The Warrior King (2005), and Chocolate (2008), Merantau is still a very impressive effort, establishing Uwais as a charismatic and extremely athletic fighter and Evans as a force to be reckoned with behind the camera. The adrenaline pumping action features some very impressive stuntwork, lots of brutal hand to hand combat, and an extremely bloody shooting inside an elevator.Predictable plot aside, my only other issues with Merantau are a few unconvincing falls that look as though cables were used to slow down the stuntman, and the frustrating ending, which sees our hero paying the price for stupidly failing to finish off the bad guy.

Admittedly, I just bought COLD this for three reasons: a recommendation, I liked The Raid and damnit, Iko Uwais is so hot. Unfortunately, though, like The Raid's incredibly inferior sequel, this movie was so light on action, heavy on attempts at heart – though the climax worked perfectly and uninteresting and clichéd plot points, I'm going to have to watch The Raid again just to get my Gareth Evans/Iko Uwais action fix. (Luckily, I bought this plus The Raid on Bluray simultaneously.) On the positive side, the movie's very well shot – this man, Evans, knows what he's doing and when the action's on screen, it's fun. Sadly, it just takes way too long to get there. Worth one viewing and then just jump back into The Raid.

There are definitely problems with the pacing of the movie. But overall, I would call this one a success. We have a director that found the lead actor while shooting a documentary about the Indonesian martial art of Pencak Silat. The director scores some major props just by introducing this fighting style that I, and many others probably, have never even heard of. The director is also taking a chance by actually setting up shop in Indonesia. This to me shows he isn't trying to make big budget Hollywood movies but is instead trying something new. The movie could have been better sure, but lets give it up for some originality and freshness I say. The Raid: Redemption and The Raid 2 are both excellent films by the same director and cast of this movie. I for one am looking forward to some new approaches by this squad from Indonesia!