Eager to see this one as I feel Iko has serious potential as the new martial arts megastar. Iko also stars in Merantau and the upcoming Berandal. The U.S. release of The Raid is to be scored by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park.
The Raid Official Trailer-Mike Shinoda Linkin Park
The Raid has been leaked on YouTube, but I refuse to watch flicks on YouTube. I hear it premieres at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival.
Toronto buzz
Interesting about Gareth Evans. I look forward to seeing this film.
Indonesian martial arts star Iko Uwais kicks the silat out of his enemies
Aaron Lynett / National Post
Martial Arts star Iko Uwais
Melissa Leong Sep 14, 2011 – 12:30 PM ET | Last Updated: Sep 14, 2011 3:42 PM ET
Dressed in a light grey sweatshirt, jeans and white Pumas, Iko Uwais looks like a college student. He has this boyish innocence — whether it’s the way he talks about wanting to make his parents proud or his enjoyment filming a brief romantic scene in a movie.
But this is not the Iko Uwais that you see in The Raid. The person onscreen in the Midnight Madness favourite is a killing machine. He spends the entire movie breaking noses, dislocating shoulders, popping knee caps and stabbing torsos.
The 28-year-old Indonesian martial arts phenom plays Rama, a SWAT member who becomes trapped in a drug lord’s Jakarta lair. The run-down apartment is filled with drug dealers, criminals and murderers — all of whom know martial arts and can take at least a dozen punches each. And Rama must beat his way out. It makes Die Hard look like a cakewalk.
The Raid, which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival this past weekend to over-the-top rave reviews, is Welsh filmmaker Gareth Evans’s second action film featuring Uwais. The first, Merantau, was released in 2009.
About four years ago, Evans, a budding filmmaker, travelled to Indonesia to shoot a documentary about the culture and the combat style pencak silat when he discovered Uwais in a silat school.
“He’s very humble and quiet but then when he put his uniform on and started doing martial arts, he transformed,” Evans, 31, says in an interview in Toronto to promote the film. “He looked like he could do some serious damage.”
Uwais, who was working as a driver for a telecommunications company, had been practicing silat since 1993. “To me,” Uwais says through an interpreter, “he was just a white guy with a camera trying to make a documentary.”
But Evans wanted him to star in an action film. “I didn’t believe him. I thought it was too good to be true,” Uwais says.
The fighters trained for three months before filming The Raid. “On the shooting day, we had to precisely do the choreography. We were well prepared for the fight scenes,” says Joe Taslim, a national judo champion who plays Rama’s sergeant. “We’re both athletes so the action scenes are not difficult but the drama requires more focus.”
Funny enough, despite the fighting and falling Uwais had to endure, the thing that bothered him most on set was dust.
He rubs the back of his neck: “I really hated the dust they used in the movie. It would get stuck on my neck and it was so itchy. I’d take a bath four times and it was hard to get rid of. After it was all gone, Gareth would tell me that we needed to do another take.”
Evans, meanwhile, found the fight scenes especially challenging. There were a few injuries here and there, he admits. “Just before the shoot, Iko had fallen and twisted his knee. He couldn’t do anything for three weeks.”
There was the time a stuntman missed the crash mats and landed on concrete. And then there was the time that Evans thought an actor had lost an eye. In one scene, Uwais hooked his opponent with a baton and pulled him into a wooden knife; the other actor was supposed to move his head. On Evans’ monitor, he saw Uwais gasp and immediately hugged the actor.
“It was literally one inch away from his eye. After that, everyone was nervous. In the next shot, if you look closely enough, there’s a little plaster on his cheek.”
But at the end of the day, Evans succeeded in creating raw and realistic-looking brutality. “They’ve got SWAT team training,” he says. “They’re in a situation where it’s kill or be killed. All of the choreography had to be that if he’s not killing that person then they cannot be able to get up again to attack him later on in the film.”
Winner!
I didn’t activate the hyperlinks at the bottom of this article so you’ll just have to follow the link if you want to access those.
TIFF 2011: Yay! Martial-arts film The Raid wins Midnight Madness Award
September 20, 2011. 12:48 am • Section: The Cine Files
Posted by:
Liz Ferguson
The Raid, which stars Indonesian martial-artist/actor Iko Uwais, and was directed by Welshman Gareth Huw Evans, won the Midnight Madness Audience Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, which wrapped up on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2011.
So, I’d like to know, when will it come to Montreal?
It would be really great if it showed up at the Festival de Nouveau Cinema, which runs from October 12-23, 2011.
(Pssssst…..I’m talking to you, Julien Fonfrede…)
To backtrack a bit: At the 2010 Fantasia Film Festival, I saw a great martial-arts action film from Indonesia, called Merantau. (Though it was then spelled Merentau in the Fantasia program.)
In the movie, a good-hearted young man from the countryside, (played by Iko Uwais, who really looked like a good-hearted young man) who was trained in the Indonesian martial art Pencat Silat, travels to the big city, planning to live with a relative. But there’s a vacant lot at the relative’s address and no one knows where he is.
Hardship, adventure, friendship and lotsa jaw-dropping fight scenes follow.
Well, even at a wide ranging festival like Fantasia, it’s not every day that we see movies from Indonesia, learn of a new martial art, and witness the birth of a new star. Iko Uwais did indeed have star quality.
Based on what I’ve read, The Raid has many, many more jaw-dropping fight scenes. With gunplay. And various sharp objects, etc., etc.
This time Uwais plays a policeman with the official, paying job of fighting and trying to capture dangerous crooks. (As opposed to just defending women and children from bad guys as a righteous good-deed-doer.)
The police go to a building full of such crooks, planning to arrest them, but the element of surprise is lost. Needless to say, besides being well-armed, the criminals are also skilled martial-arts fighters. Pandemonium ensues.
In Screen Daily, Mark Adams writes:
Indonesian action flick The Raid is a bone-crunching bit of brutally cool entertainment that really delivers in terms of all-out action thrills. Martial arts action films tend to be niche films in terms of their loyal fan-base, but this stylish and smart film could well find an audience savvy to its well-staged and extremely bloody mayhem.
The Hollywood Reporter has two stories about it. In one, David Rooney writes:
For a movie with very little downtime, The Raid is remarkably well modulated in its succession of extended set pieces. Full of dynamic physical stunts and imaginative death blows, the movie balances moments of intense quiet with fresh crescendos of visceral violence. This kind of relentless noise and carnage can be numbing in less skilled hands, but Evans, who also handled the rapid-fire editing, brings elegance and imagination to the outrageously charged action, as well as unflagging energy.
In addition to Matt Flannery’s nervy, hyper-agile camerawork, Evans’ principal allies are his superb fight choreographers, Uwais and Yayan Ruhian. The latter also plays a stringy-haired killer who doles out the movie’s most vicious punishments. . .
In another, Borys Kit writes:
“Wow, what a kick-off. Literally and figuratively.
The Raid opened the Midnight Madness portion of the Toronto International Film Festival early Friday, and if you love action movies, you cannot miss this movie.. . . The midnight screening had people cheering, wincing and shaking their heads in disbelief. . .
Fights took two to three months to choreograph and days to shoot. A climactic throw-down between three men in one room took six minutes of screen time but eight days to film. Another sequence, a blood-rushing hallway fight featuring batons and knives and machetes, took a full three days to shoot.
Yells of “Action!” then “Cut!” were sometimes followed by the cry “Medic!” although most injuries were small-scale (though by no means pain-free).”
At HorrorMovies.ca Tim Hannigan writes:
(Iko) Uwais is an incredible martial artist with plenty of charisma and screen presence to add to his insanely fast fighting style. Comparisons in the genre are unavoidable, but in my humble opinion Uwais is every bit as good as the greatest martial arts legends from Bruce Lee to Tony Jaa. I can’t wait to see what he does next, and hopefully it will not involve doing American films which waste his talent!
I read some criticism of the film that the premise was not original or that there is not much story to it. This is an action film, not “Citizen Kane”! If you want intricate story lines or bold original visions go somewhere else.
A review in Twitch by Ryland Aldrich has the great headline: The Raid Will Kick You in the Head and Make You Like It
Aldrich writes:
But let’s be honest – you’re gonna go see this move to see some fighting – and you will not be disappointed. . . You have simply never seen anything this awesome.
Kicking off TIFF’s Midnight Madness section in a big way, The Raid played to a feverish crowd. Gasps of delight were frequent and eager applause erupted after every set piece. This movie is an absolute crowd pleaser as Sony should discover when they release the film at a soon to be announced date. Let’s all hope they give the film the exposure it deserves as this is without a doubt the best action movie in decades.
Melissa Leong of The National Post talked to Gareth Evans and Iko Uwais when they were in Toronto,
Read the interview here.
For those who would rather watch than read, there’s a video interview with Evans at Tribute.ca.
Among other things, director Evans says that even when space is tight he wants the camera far enough away that all the moves can be seen well. (And appreciated!) He doesn’t want to be so close that viewers can’t tell what’s going on. Too bad some other directors can’t see the wisdom of that approach.
Evans was blown away by the warm reception he got at the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto International Film Festival. I think a bunch of us (us being Montrealers), should contact him to let him know that the audience at the Fantasia Film Festival is even warmer, wilder and crazier. At any and all hours of the day or night.
I have to say, it’s too bad that Sony wants to make a new soundtrack for the film. Do people there think it needs American music to find an audience?
Hope they don’t mess it up.
Iko! Iko!
I hope Iko doesn’t adopt a western name like Tony or Jackie… or Ike. He should remain Iko.
Sitges 2011: THE RAID Review
by Guillem Rosset, October 11, 2011 4:05 PM
A couple of years ago, Gareth Evans and Iko Uwais - director and actor respectively - introduced a breath of fresh air to the world of martial arts cinema with Merantau, showing off the art of Indonesian Silat in the process. After the spectacular downfall of Tony Jaa it wasn’t clear if someone would step up to occupy the seat as the new Asian action superstar. But now Iko Uwais, once again under the direction of Evans seems to pick up the challenge. The result of this new collaboration is The Raid, one of the best and most brutal action films I’ve seen in a long time.
In one of Jakarta’s poorest neighborhoods there is is a building where even the police don’t dare to go. Ruled by a powerful and feared crime lord, the building has become some kind of refuge for the most dangerous criminals in Indonesia. But an elite special force group has now received the order to end all this, to infiltrate the complex and bring down its ruler. As you can imagine the operation doesn’t go according to the plan and suddenly all hell breaks lose. The police wind up trapped inside the building, with no possible way out and surrounded by killers and gangsters. There seems to be only one option: to fight all the way the top.
The film’s setup is pretty straightforward. There are no unnecessary explanations nor does the director has any pretensions of overdressing the package. Gareth Evans knows very well what he wants to deliver and how he wants to do it. It’s a simple plot, it features a wonderful setting for an action film and delivers just the necessary dramatic weight for the audience to care for the characters without getting ridiculous nor burdening the action.
And action there is, I can assure you. The film’s got firefights, one on one fights, one on many fights, jawdropping stunts, you name it. One thing I found lacking in Merantau’s fights was that they didn’t feel as physical and raw as the likes of Ong Bak. That’s not the case in The Raid: you’ll feel every blow, thanks to the stunning choreography work and the good work of Evans capturing it on film. Iko Uwais has definitely stepped up to a new level, moving from young promise to consolidated star.
Being a martial arts flicks fan for a long time, it’s been quite some time since I experienced something like this in a movie theater. Let’s just hope this is only one more step in the career of this tandem, as I’m already eager for more. Tony Jaa may come to his feet once again soon, but for the time being I’m not worried. It’s pretty clear that the action superstar seat is solidly covered.
still film sounds really interesting and original!!!hell yes i wanna see it.
US remake?
The Raid Serbuan maut
Indonesia
Contemporary action
2011, colour, 1.85:1, 100 mins
Directed by Gareth Huw Evans
The Raid
By Derek Elley
Mon, 24 October 2011, 09:20 AM (HKT)
In-your-face, grungy martial arts action is good but not very original. Genre events, some theatrical, plus strong ancillary.
Story
Jakarta, the present day. Rama (Iko Uwais) is a member of a SWAT team tasked with bringing down drugs lord Tama Riyadi (Ray Sahetapy) in a raid on the building he occupies in a slum area. For the past 10 years the building has been a no-go area for the police and is full of Riyadi’s men, junkies, and assorted criminal trash. As he leaves his seven-months’-pregnant wife on the day in question, Rama says to his father, “I’ll bring him back.” The team is led by the experienced Jaka (Joe Taslim) and is under the command of grizzled police chief Lieutenant Wahyu (Pierre Gruno). The plan is to fight up through the building, via the 9th floor drugs factory, until the team reaches Riyadi’s HQ on the 15th, where he controls operations with two sidekicks, crazed fighter Mad Dog (Yayan Ruhian) and operational brains Andi (Donny Alamsyah). All goes according to plan until some child spotters on the 5th floor sound the alarm, and the squad finds itself trapped on the 6th.
Review
After singlehandedly reintroducing the martial arts movie to Indonesian cinema with his second feature, Merantau Merantau (2009), local-based Welshman Gareth Huw EVANS ditches his interest in the archipelago’s lore with the out-and-out action movie The Raid Serbuan maut, again showcasing Merantau’s discovery, 28-year-old Iko UWAIS. Not called upon this time to do much more than what he does best, the boyish-faced Uwais acquits himself fine in the well-staged fights but is still overshadowed as a screen personality by the rest of the key cast (largely playing villains). As a wannabe Indonesian version of Thailand’s Tony JAA , Iwais still needs a vehicle tailored more closely to his metrosexual persona, and the answer may be something between the extremes of Merantau’s spiritual/physical journey and the western-style brutality of The Raid.
The pared-down “plot” is no more than a SWAT team fighting its way floor-by-floor through a drug lord’s dingy HQ — an idea that’s basically a finale stretched to fill a whole feature. It’s not original — Bruce LEE 's unfinished The Game of Death (1978) travelled up a building, while the French cops-vs.-zombies thriller The Horde (La horde, 2009) travelled down through one — but that doesn’t matter, as the idea is only a clothesline on which to hang a series of action sequences. For the first hour, the latter are good but nothing very special. The film finally comes alight when martial arts choreographer Yayan RUHIAN, playing a completely crazed sidekick of the drug lord, takes on SWAT team leader Jaka (played by local judo champion Joe TASLIM, from horror movie Karma Karma (2008)) in a ferocious fight.
Ruhian — who played the most interesting supporting character in Merantau but was robbed of his best fight scene in the film’s shorter international cut — is the main reason for watching The Raid. When his character and Iwais’ finally meet, it’s a superb showdown on every level; but it’s Ruhian, playing a rabid animal crossed with a fighting machine, who’s the centre of attention, not Uwais. Other roles are standard cut-outs: soap-opera veteran Pierre GRUNO as a bent police boss, movie veteran Ray SAHETAPY as the slobbering drug lord, and Donny ALAMSYAH (9 Dragons 9 naga (2006), Merantau) as his operational sidekick.
On a technical level the film deliberately goes for a grungy, muddy look in Evans’ regular d.p. Matt FLANNERY and Dimas Imam Subhono’s photography, plus grey-blue, underlit sets by designer Moti D. Setyanto (also from the team of the very different-looking Merantau). Editing by Evans himself is fine, recalling the best bits of Merantau (the roof chase, the lift fight) and letting the martial arts choreography breathe rather than rely on fast cutting. The perfectly serviceable score is for some reason to be replaced for US distribution.
Though a US remake is under discussion, Evans is wisely concentrating on making a sequel instead. Having proved he can do a dirty, in-your-face action movie that plays to the western gallery, he’ll hopefully come up with something more original and character-driven next time around. The film’s Indonesian title means Death Invasion.
We don’t want to see the U.S remake. We want to see the Indonesian original. :rolleyes:
so i watched the trailer and this movie looks pretty hardcore. have to try and find this somewhere.
Still buzzin…
Anyone seen this yet?
Welsh director of Kung Fu epics finds success with Asian audiences
by Nathan Bevan, South Wales Echo
Nov 28 2011
A UNIVERSITY of Glamorgan graduate has emerged as the hottest young director in Asian cinema – and his latest martial arts epic has already been snapped up for a Hollywood remake.
Inspired after watching Bruce Lee videos in Aberdare, Gareth Evans shot his first shoestring-budgeted short film about samurais in the woods around Treforest.
“Yeah, I used some Japanese students I knew from the University of Glamorgan, but it wasn’t very good and we got some very strange looks,” said the 31-year-old media technology graduate from Hirwaun, near Merthyr Tydfil,
“My dad’s weekend treat to me as a kid would be to get me the latest Jackie Chan or some old Bruce Lee classic from the video rental van when it came up our street,” he added.
But it was upon landing a gig several years ago to direct a documentary on an Indonesian martial art called Pencak Silat that Evans realised where the future lay.
“I knew straight away it would look spectacular in a movie, so when I met Iko Uwais – whose Silat school I was filming at – we decided to make one together.”
A champion national fighter, Uwais became Evans’ secret weapon in bringing the discipline’s intense and complex style to the screen and the pair found great acclaim for their first celluloid effort, 2009’s Merantau. “That was about a coming-of-age tradition they have in Sumatra where young boys travel to a big city like Jakarta in order to make a name for themselves,” says the Valleys ex-pat.
And Evans’ latest movie The Raid has already wowed audiences on the international festival circuit, its distribution rights being bought by Sony Pictures after rough footage was unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
The tale of a special forces team in Jakarta staging an assault on an impenetrable high-rise safe-house for some of the world’s worst thugs and killers, Evans said it’s been influenced by western cinema classics like Die Hard.
“I’ve always loved stories involving small groups of people going up against overwhelming odds, and The Raid leaves the audience totally in the dark about which character is going to make it through to the end.”
Evans is currently preparing to film a sequel to The Raid, thereby relinquishing directorial duties on its upcoming US remake.
Sony’s got it
Sounds like this is headed for theatrical release. Right on.
Sony Pictures Classics Releasing ‘The Raid’
By MIKE FLEMING | Tuesday November 29, 2011 @ 3:32pm ESTTags: Gareth Evans, Linkin Park, Sony Pictures Classics, The Raid
EXCLUSIVE: Sony Pictures Classics has been set to release The Raid, the Gareth Evans-directed martial arts film that won the Midnight Madness Award at the recent Toronto Film Festival. It is also rumored to be en route to the upcoming Sundance Film Festival, by which time it will have a new soundtrack from Mike Shionda of Linkin Park, with Joseph Trapanese. For SPC, the film is a departure from its current awards contenders that include Take Shelter and Midnight In Paris, but the film was certainly one of the most buzzed-about films at Toronto for the industry crowd. It would have been a bidding battle at the festival, but the domestic distribution rights had been smartly collared by the Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group back at Cannes, a buy made on partial footage that also gave Sony the inside track on remake rights. The remake was placed at Screen Gems, and now SPC’s Tom Bernard and Michael Barker will release the original next spring. As for Evans, he’s going back to Jakarta to shoot a larger-scale film that incorporates the actors and storylines from The Raid.
More
Wouldv’e been fun to see this in Jakarta.
Smashing Expectations With ‘The Raid’
Report Lisa Siregar | November 21, 2011
The Indonesian action film The Indonesian action film ‘The Raid’ directed by Gareth Huw Evans was publicly screened in Indonesia for the first time on Sunday night in Jakarta. (JG Photo)
2:21am Nov 22, 2011
As the Indonesia International Fantastic Film Festival at the Blitzmegaplex in the Grand Indonesia mall came to a close on Sunday night, the audience erupted in cheers when “The Raid,” which is set in Jakarta, came on screen. It was the first time the Indonesian action film by Welsh director Gareth Huw Evans was publicly screened in Indonesia.
As Evans made his exit, a flock of fans cheered him, among them notable film producers and directors including Mira Lesmana, Riri Riza and Joko Anwar.
The 31-year-old director said he woke up that morning feeling nervous but was relieved after the day ended successfully — about 500 viewers filled two theaters.
“The Raid,” tentatively scheduled to be released in local cinemas in March or April next year, has received high marks from foreign film critics after winning the Audience Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.
The hype has only grown since Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions acquired distribution rights for “The Raid” in the United States during the Cannes Film Festival. The film will get a Hollywood remake with Linkin Park frontman Mike Shinoda providing the music.
Evans has learned a lot since his first film “Merantau” with martial arts star Iko Uwais in 2009. In “Merantau,” Evans only used the traditional martial art of pencak silat as a cheeky addition to the story of West Sumatra’s tradition of leaving the homeland to seek success. In “The Raid,” Evans also uses martial arts to captivate the audience.
Evans met Iko when he was filming the documentary “Mystic Arts of Indonesia: Pencak Silat” in 2008. Iko was the student of the silat guru that was the subject of Evan’s film — Evans told his wife Maya Barack-Evans, who also serves as his producer, that Iko would be a rising star. A year later, Evans released “Merantau” starring Iko.
“In terms of acting, if you can’t act, you can’t,” said the director. “Iko can act. It’s just a matter of getting him into the right moment.”
In “The Raid,” an elite SWAT team raids a 30-story building in a slum, which is controlled by an influential drug lord. Choreographed by Iko and Yayan Ruhian, the action-packed fighting that ensues features kicks, stabbings, throat-slitting and point-blank gun shots. Along the way, Iko’s character is transformed from a gullible villager in the big city trying to save a girl to a SWAT team member who can take down more than seven men with his bare hands.
After “Merantau,” Evans struggled to make his next film, “Berandal” (“Scamp”), and spent more than a year wrangling with investors who were skeptical about spending $2 million to produce the film. Along the way, Evans decided to start working on “The Raid,” which only required a budget that was half of “Berandal.”
It was a worth while investment. The film was screened at the Cannes Film Festival, ultimately leading Sony Pictures to acquire its US distribution rights. Evans began shooting “The Raid” in May, finishing in late June, after which he rushed to make another film to be submitted at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“Before Toronto, I had only a solid two months to finish the post production for ‘The Raid,’ ” he said.
Evans declined to direct the Hollywood incarnation of “The Raid” because he feels he has already played his part by completing his version of the film. Consequently, he assumed the role of executive producer and promised he would give the new director complete freedom to remake it.
“I think what the film needed is a fresh mind to see if there’s more in the story to develop,” he said.
For Evans, winning recognition at big international film festivals has been critical to his career, and he believes continuing to participate will ultimately be beneficial in the future, despite the risks.
“It’s a very risky way to promote though, because if we get bad reviews, we need to find a way to sweep it out.” he said.
Because the market is unpredictable, Evans still thinks festivals are the best way to promote his films.
As a filmmaker, he is also worried for the future of Indonesian films, which have not attracted big box-office sales since “Laskar Pelangi” (“Rainbow Troops) in 2008.
“After ‘Laskar Pelangi,’ everyone was excited because we thought the market was there,” he said.
But as Evans has learned, good reviews don’t always translate into a large audience in Indonesian film market.
Evans grew up watching martial arts films with his father, a computer science teacher who is also a fan of the genre. As a boy, Evans was fascinated by Bruce Lee, and he and friends would reenact martial arts scenes from the movies in his backyard.
“We didn’t have a camera, so I’m glad there’s no evidence of that,” Evans said, laughing. “But at that point, I knew I was not good at acting.”
In college, Evans explored other aspects of filmmaking as a script writing major at the University of Glamorgan in Wales in 2003. He made a Japanese short film entitled “Samurai Monogatan” because martial art films were enjoying a resurgence.
As a child, Evans never actually thought he would grow up to make action films, yet now he is looking forward to directing “Berandal,” which he expects to begin shooting in mid-2012.
While “The Raid” progresses at a medium pace, “Berandal” will dive full speed into the action, with a “shocking” opening and nonstop action during the last 45 minutes of the film. He will also team up with Iko in his next movie.
After four years of working together, Evans, Iko and Yayan have built a strong rapport. Evans said he had finally learned to work with Iko in basic Indonesian, something he could not do while filming “Merantau.”
In the future, Evans said he also hopes to direct non-martial arts films, including dramas and musicals. “If there’s something I don’t want to do, it’s a comedy film,” he said. “I cannot imagine sitting during the premiere and hearing no one laughing.”
More on Evans
Posted: Fri., Jan. 6, 2012, 4:00am PT
Evans: ‘Raid’ director discovers action inspiration abroad
10 Directors to Watch 2012: Gareth Evans
By Robert Koehler
Gareth Evans
Age: 31
Homebase: Jakarta
Inspired by: Sam Peckinpah (" I watched ‘The Wild Bunch’ with my father and it had a major impact"), John Carpenter (“?‘Assault on Precinct 13’ creates great tension on a limited budget”), John Woo, Takeshi Kitano and Takashi Miike.
Reps: Manager: Management 360 (Darin Friedman)
What, it’s fair to ask, is a Welsh-born director doing in Jakarta making martial arts movies? Gareth Evans, whose “The Raid” became a sensation in Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness lineup and is making its U.S. bow at Sundance, says he’s not really that surprised to find himself at the center of a revival of movies featuring the Indonesian silat fighting style.
“These movies are really in my blood. I watched tons of martial- arts movies over and over again growing up,” says Evans, whose producer wife, R. Maya Barack-Evans, has Indonesian family roots. In 2007, Evans’ fascination impelled him to venture to Indonesia to make a documentary about silat, which he had never before witnessed firsthand.
“It was a revelation,” he recalls. “What so impressed me about silat was its fluidity, allowing for adaptability to every possible physical situation, whether a pair of fighters is in a tiny space or there are groups under massive attack.”
While his previous feature, “Merantau,” made a modest blip with martial-arts auds, Evans wanted to create an action showcase that would deliver the confrontations at a faster pace for higher impact. Originally, his plan was to make a silat actioner, “Berandal,” but budget complications forced new plans, which led to “The Raid” and its story of a police invasion of a 15-story building ruled by a drug kingpin.
The practicalities of a contained location, plus inspiration from “Die Hard” (an Evans favorite), was just the combination to make “The Raid” possible. (“Berandal” is now planned as a sequel to “The Raid,” with star and fight co-choreographer Iko Uwais returning.)
“We learned that the key to push the fighting to a new level, far beyond what’s shown on Indonesian TV or in previous films, was to prepare, rehearse and storyboard months in advance,” the director says. “While Hong Kong and Thai martial-arts movies are able to draw on years of experience and stage action sequences on the set during filming, we didn’t have that, but I think we produced something that’s extremely intense. Violent, yes. But never exploitative.”
Go Silat! Silat is one of those styles, while not Chinese, that is generally acceptable with our readership.
Sundance
The Raid storms Sundance; director earns praise
By Vince horiuchi
The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Jan 23 2012 01:36PM
Updated Jan 23, 2012 09:37PM
The future of martial arts movies can be found in a white Welsh director.
Gareth Evans, the 31-year-old director of the Indonesian martial arts action movie “The Raid,” which made its U.S. premiere at this weeks Sundance Film Festival, somehow found his way in Jakarta making martial arts films (which include the acclaimed action movie “Merantau”).
“The Raid,” about Indonesian police who storm the apartment fortress of a vicious drug lord, won the Midnight Madness award at the 2011 Toronto Film Festival last September and has since been picked up by Sony for theatrical distribution in March.
We caught up with the hot new director last week to see how he ended up in Indonesia and which directors have inspired him to make movies.
How did a man from Wales end up being a filmmaker in Indonesia making martial arts films?
My wife is Indonesian-Japanese and her family is based in Indonesia, and we were based in the U.K. for a while. She got me a job doing a directing gig on a documentary in Indonesia. And that was about [the martial art] Silat. I ended up becoming obsessed with martial arts. Throughout the process of shooting the documentary, I came away with a storyline called “Merantau,” and I came away with Iko [“Merantau” and “The Raid” star Iko Uwais] and a choreography team. We kind of made a decision to move out to Jakarta once we moved there. And shes [his wife] my boss. She owns the production company that makes the films, so Ive got to keep her happy otherwise shell leave me and fire me.
This movie got a huge reaction at the Toronto Film Festival. How did that feel?
It was incredible. With Toronto, it was one of those things where we were able to completely surprise people because nobody had seen a second of the footage of the film and nobody knew what to expect. When I was doing post-production I was going like, “This could go either way.” I wasnt 100-percent confident about it before we screened it in Toronto. So to get that kind of reaction from the Midnight Madness crowd was just intense. It completely elevated the screening. It was a great feeling.
Has Hollywood called you?
Uh-huh. Ive signed with [agents] Management 360. And also two days ago, I just signed with WME [William Morris Endeavor]. Its in the cards. But my goal is to do a film in Indonesia and then a film internationally. I kind of want to be able to bounce back and forth.
Sony is distributing this film and theres already been word that Sony wants to do an American remake. Are you going to be involved?
Im involved as an EP [executive producer]. My guys are doing the fight choreography for the film as well, so they have more direct involvement in the film.
How do you feel about that? Are you excited that they want to remake it or do you feel in some way it kind of diminishes your film? Whats wrong with the film that you made?
For me, theres benefits to it. Theres only positives to it. If people love the remake, they will go see the original. If people dont like the remake, theyll still go see the original. It brings a lot more awareness to my version of the film as well. And there were things I wanted to do with this one that I couldnt because of budget restrictions, so there were certain moments I had to hold back from what I really wanted to do with the film. So hopefully whomever they get to direct can come to it with a fresh pair of eyes and do all the things I wish I could have done. It would be cool to see what they do with it.
What action movies and directors inspired you the most growing up?
Jackie Chan, Sam Peckinpah, John Woo. I love all of those films with extreme gunplay and clear, crisp choreography. If you look at “Hard Boiled” or “The Wild Bunch” or “Police Story,” “Armour of God,” “Project A” theyre all classics in the genre.
The focus on a white director is getting tiresome, but I’m still eager to see this.
Follow the link below for a fight clip.
Exclusive ‘The Raid’ Clip Will Make You Tired Just Watching It
Posted 1/19/12 12:39 pm ET by Kevin P. Sullivan in Sundance 2012, Video
If you’ve heard anything about “The Raid,” you’ve probably heard all the right things. Whenever the Indonesian martial arts film has screened, including Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film Festival, it has left rave reviews in its wake.
We have an exclusive clip from “The Raid” called “Four-On-One,” and it’s called that for a good reason.
Now outfitted with a new score, courtesy of Linkin Parks’ Mike Shinoda, “The Raid” is poised to take Sundance by storm.
In the film, an elite team of police enters a rundown apartment building in order to break up the safe house hiding some of area’s worst criminals. After word of the raid prematurely reaches the bad guys, the cops are left stranded in a building filled with killers and no choice but to fight their way out.
And by fight their way out, we mean battle four guys with machetes, and that’s only the start of it.
Be sure to check out the red band trailer, which we featured shortly after “The Raid” had its TIFF premiere. As you might guess from the clip above, the trailer does not shy away from some awesome violence, so it might be best to wait until after work to watch it.
“The Raid” is set for US release on March 23.
I also think the focus on him being Welsh has gotten old. I did like Merantau, so I’m also looking forward to this one.
New trailer
The Raid: Redemption Official Trailer #1 - Martial Arts Action Movie (2011) HD
Also found the source of that Hollywood remake story:
Screen Gems in Negotiations to Remake ‘The Raid’ (Exclusive)
The Indonesian action movie recently won Toronto Film Festival’s Midnight Madness sidebar’s audience award.
3:53 PM PDT 9/20/2011 by Borys Kit
The Raid, the Indonesian action movie that is fresh off winning the Midnight Madness sidebar’s audience award at TIFF, is getting the Hollywood remake treatment.
Screen Gems is in negotiations on a remake, a move made possible for the label since sister arm Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions picked up North American distribution rights to the film during the Cannes Film Festival. The initial deal called for Sony to have an exclusive negotiating period and right of refusal on a remake in its deal with XYZ Films, the makers of the original.
The movie was the only Midnight Madness flick that already had a distributor when it premiered at TIFF’s Midnight Madness, the late-night screening series that showcases genre flicks. The movie kicked off the series and was a sensation from the get-go, becoming one of the talks of the festival.
The movie tells the story of a SWAT team that becomes trapped in a tenement run by a ruthless mobster, armed with two highly violent martial arts killers and an army of machete-swinging, machine gun-toting dealers and thugs.
One of the buzz-generating aspect of the movie is the Indonesian fighting form called silat that were put into it by writer-director Gareth Evans, who just signed with Management 360.
How this unique aspect would be handled by a remake is not clear although Screen Gems is aware the unique fighting style is one of the movie’s strengths.
The company is hoping to tie down a filmmaker shortly though it will not be Evans, who opted out of repeating himself and will focus on making a sequel that he hopes to shoot in February
Screen Gems has tackled remakes of foreign films in the past, most successfully with Quarantine, a horror movie starring Jennifer Carpenter which was a remake of the Spanish scary movie Rec.
i think if its handled by a small distributor like screen gems, it will do well…this movie was shot for under a million dollars american, it was shot on hd, and they did even use a full frame camera like the red or even the canon 5d…they used a 4:3 camera, with a lens adapter so im curious to see what it looks like all blown up.
It’s already doing well…
…as for the U.S. Box, well, we’ll see, right? America is still not very accepting of films with an Asian male lead.
Gareth Evans’ Martial Arts Film ‘The Raid’ Picks Up Two Awards at The Jameson Dublin International Film Festival
7:42 AM PST 2/28/2012 by Stuart Kemp
Movie starring martial artist Iko Uwais makes off with the audience award and the Dublin Film Critics Circle Best Film prize.
LONDON – Gareth Evans’ martial arts film The Raid, starring Indonesian martial artist Iko Uwais, scored with both the audience and critics alike at this year’s Jameson Dublin International Film Festival.
The movie, already a big hit at festivals including the people’s choice award during last year’s Toronto Film Festival, picked up the audience award and the Dublin Film Critics Circle Best Film prize.
Other nods dished out at the end of the Irish festival included a best actress plaudit for Greta Gerwig for her turn in Whit Stillman’s Damsels in Distress.
This best screenplay nod went to Joseph Cedar’s Footnote while Nuala: A Life and Death was named best Irish film by the Dublin Film Critics Circle.
Michael Fuith took home the best actor award for his role in Markus Schleinzer’s Michael.
Nuri Bilge Ceylan won the best director plaudit for Once Upon A Time In Anatolia.
Al Pacino was awarded the Volta by president Michael D. Higgins for his outstanding contribution to film.
Guests turning out for the festival, celebrating its 10th year, included Pacino, Martin Sheen, Glenn Close, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Madsen, Stillman, Kenneth Lonergan, Agnieszka Holland and Marjane Satrapi.
Some U.S. dates (including some really close to me!)
Indonesian Action Flick – The Raid is Instant Classic
By Ryan Baladad
– March 5, 2012Posted in: Art, Arts-Entertainment
It is rarely said about movies, but The Raid is an instant classic. Whether anyone is a film buff, an action junkie or simply wants mindless entertainment, this Indonesian film is a must see. Filmed with bold, readable English subtitles, The Raid is a brilliant action flick from any angle you view it.
It was chosen as an official selection at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, receiving much praise, and will be featured at this year’s Sundance and SXSW film festivals.
Director and writer, Gareth Huw Evans is an up-and-coming filmmaker, and with the help of The Raid, hopes to bring the Indonesian martial art, Pencak Silat, to the world stage.
He teams up again with Iko Uwais, actor and fight choreographer from Evan’s previous film, Merantau. Uwais plays the lead role, Rama, a rookie in the local SWAT team. Rama and his colleagues set out on a deadly covert mission to capture Tama, played by Ray Sahetaphy, an infamous and ruthless crime lord, in his own 15-story tenement.
Prior to the mission, the team lead, Jaka, played by Joe Taslim, briefs his men and voices his hopes that no seats will later be empty. It is an emotionally-charged scene reminiscent of the military troops on D-Day during World War II.
The team begins to infiltrate each room floor by floor in the dilapidated deathtrap with a stealthy success…until a spotter sees them. Instantly, the spotter triggers a blaring alarm that alerts Tama, who then via a speaker system offers free rent to tenants who can exterminate the recent infestation.
From that point forward, Tama shuts down the lights and a Pandora’s Box of threats is unleashed, including snipers, squads of gunmen with automatic rifles, machete-wielding maniacs and other random ruckus. It will make audiences think if the SWAT team will ever survive and they will want to see the outcome.
The Raid has a compelling amount of martial arts in tight spaces. Think hallways and apartment living rooms. Intense imagery is found throughout the film and at times the attacks are close up, graphic and realistic.
Uwais displays his fighting skill with such deadly grace. Consider Uwais as the next martial arts star, ranking up there with Jet Li (Fist of Legend, Fearless) or Tony Jaa (The Ong Bak trilogy).
As the SWAT team tries to survive, it is revealed that things are not as it seems. Aside from the non-stop action, the plot unfolds accordingly with a few twists, leaving audiences content with the outcome.
Listen closely for the original works of a collaboration with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and composer Joseph Trapanese, who recently worked with Daft Punk on the Tron: Legacy score. The duo definitely helped set the tone for each scene of the movie.
Take note that The Raid will infiltrate limited theaters in the Bay Area on March 23, 2012. It is not yet rated. Running time: 100 minutes
March 23 openings
San Francisco: Metreon, Sundance Kabuki
Berkeley: Shattuck
Mountain View: Century 16
Pleasant Hill: Cinearts
San Jose: Santana Row
San Rafael: Regency
April 13 openings
Union City: Century 25
Milpitas: Century 20 Great Mall
I called Iko as ‘the next martial arts star’ back with Merantau
[QUOTE=GeneChing;1067837]…it’s really about Iko’s choreography. He’s the new young turk to watch in martial arts films. Silat is an exciting style for film that blends some kung fu sensibilities with other Pac Rim styles like Muay Thai and Kali. I don’t even know how to properly pronounce Iko Uwais yet, but I will soon. [/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=GeneChing;1160417]…as for the U.S. Box, well, we’ll see, right? America is still not very accepting of films with an Asian male lead.[/QUOTE]
accept in martial arts oriented action films like this one…unfortunately
[QUOTE=GeneChing;1160417]…as for the U.S. Box, well, we’ll see, right? America is still not very accepting of films with an Asian male lead.[/QUOTE]
That’s an understatement.
Like doug says, except in MA-type films, or I would add, Asian-themed episodes of TV shows.
IMO someone like Russell Wong should have been a big mainstream star. He could have been, too, but for his being Asian. Instead, he ended up having to take increasingly stereotyped roles in worse and worse movies. He’s but one example, though admittedly there are comparatively few Asian-American male actors.
Our review
THE RAID by Greg Lynch Jr.
