Merantau
2009 Directed by Gareth Evans
Synopsis
In Minangkabau, West Sumatera, Yuda a skilled practitioner of Silat Harimau is in the final preparations to begin his "Merantau" a century's old rites-of-passage to be carried out by the community's young men that will see him leave the comforts of his idyllic farming village and make a name for himself in the bustling city of Jakarta.
Cast
Popular reviews
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In prep for The Raid I thought it was about time I saw the first Evans/Uwais team-up and while the narrative is complete balls and the film is far longer than it needs to be, the action in the thing which takes up more of the runtime as the film goes on is absolutely incredible with an obvious lack of stuntmen and wonderfully coherent editing creating a great many combat scenes which really do get you pumped, and it's all helped by the unique hot neon look provided by Jakarta. Uwais is a force of nature and in hearing The Raid is a serious step-up has me very excited.
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Like probably most people who came to this late, I watched Merantau in anticipation of director Gareth Evans's current barnstorming hit, The Raid: Redemption. What I found was a highly uneven film and evidence of a filmmaking talent still striving to perfect his craft.
The premise is as generic as only the martial arts genre can muster. Yuda, a talented young silat practitioner from the Indonesian countryside, sets off for Jakarta on his merantau – his rite of passage. Upon arrival in the big city he quickly becomes entangled in the life of an exotic dancer and her younger brother. An evil foreigner wants her for his latest trafficking shipment, and Yuda is forced to kick, kick, punch! his way…
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Part of: ACTION PACKED APRIL!!
SUN GENRE-MARTIAL ARTS.
What we have here is simply a stylistic action kung-fu movie with little to no plot, or character development. It's kinda hard to review this film after watching Gareth Evans film from last year, THE RAID: REDEMPTION. That film was so brutally bad ass and had amazing action in it that it makes this look like "My Little Pony" keep in mind though, MERANTAU has a lot of great action in it, everything else is just not that good, and worst of all, everyone involved is trying to make it out to be something better than it actually is.
The film tells the story of a young man from a small village…
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The plot isn't original, the acting leaves a lot to be desired, but the fighting is simply incredible
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God, I hope The Raid is better than this. Weak story, poor direction, ugly (looks like a bad TV show), horrible acting, self-serious, and the action was really nothing special. I have to stop blind buying these modern martial arts films.
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I was eager to watch this after seeing Gareth Evan's next film The Raid. Merantau is not in the same class, but it is an accomplished feature that shows Evans has more strings to his bow. A more socially concious and realistic martial arts film than The Raid, this is overlong and slow to get going. But the fight scenes are exciting and the slow set up gives the ending poignancy. Worth seeking out, just don't expect wall to wall action
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The fight scenes were what I came for, and that's what I got. The plot and characters, whatever. Good movie. Don't watch it if you're not only into it for the fighting.
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This film has a good film in there but the pace of this thing is off. It is 1 hr. 52 minutes and it feels like 3 hours. I don't know if it is because it has some great action pieces but there is a long time between them or if it is such a slow movie that is feels boring at times. I don't feel like I know the character from the time we know him until the end. He never speaks about much of anything to anybody and he is just there.
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30 Countries in 30 Days Film #20 - Indonesia
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The Raid made a huge splash and deserved to as it was f'ing amazing but this first collaboration between Welsh director Gareth Evans and Silat martial artist Iko Uwais is not without it's fantastic choreography, jaw dropping set pieces and enjoyable mad action. It's slow to get going maybe but after that the fights come thick and fast. Yes it's very much a prototype for what was to follow but, if anything, that only makes it more compelling.
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Part of: ACTION PACKED APRIL!!
SUN GENRE-MARTIAL ARTS.
What we have here is simply a stylistic action kung-fu movie with little to no plot, or character development. It's kinda hard to review this film after watching Gareth Evans film from last year, THE RAID: REDEMPTION. That film was so brutally bad ass and had amazing action in it that it makes this look like "My Little Pony" keep in mind though, MERANTAU has a lot of great action in it, everything else is just not that good, and worst of all, everyone involved is trying to make it out to be something better than it actually is.
The film tells the story of a young man from a small village…
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I'm sure I've missed out on a bunch, but I don't remember seeing a martial arts film this good since 2005 when I went to see one of my all-time favorites, "The Protector". These films really need to be carried by the main guy, and Iko Uwais does his best Tony Jaa impression as 'Yuda', the skilled Silat student preparing to become a man.
'Merantau' refers to a community tradition that allows the men of Yuda's Indonesian village to leave home for a period of time to seek experience and success in the city of Jakarta. So yes, the movie plays out like a more violent Rumspringa. Yuda plans to teach Silat in Jakarta, except that when he arrives, he…
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I'm withholding that last star because he never paid his bill.
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Plot - We're back in Indonesia with Evans and Iko Uwais (or rather it's where we start), this time playing a young man called Yudo. As he has come of age, Yudo is set to leave his village for the big city to find his fortune. He has plans of teaching Silat (a martial arts he is, of course, masterfully brutal at), once he gets there however those dreams disappear and he finds himself homeless and struggling to find a job. After a run in with a young pickpocket and his sister, he soon finds himself forced to protect them from a trafficking ring....
Thoughts - It has more character development than The Raid if you're into that sort of…
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Gareth Evans is completely for real.