The Shadow Strays is a breathless bit of action moviemaking.
Listen at the podcast providers of your choice.
After the success of the first two Raid movies, I, like many other martial arts movie fans, were thirsting for a bit more of the blood soaked bouts from Indonesia. Specifically from director Gareth Evans. Instead Evans has moved on to other projects including a horror feature here or there, while the action-packed bonanzas have been taken up by Indonesian director Timo Tjahjanto. That includes the beautiful brutality of The Night Comes for Us with two of The Raid's stars, the gonzo action comedy The Big 4 and today's action epic, The Shadow Strays.
The Setup
The movie centers around a 17-year-old assassin known as 13, who has been trained to a "Shadow." One of many lethal fighters in an organization of lethal. After a misstep in her latest mission, 13 is given some down time for a psych evaluation and decompression in Jakarta. But 13 is restless and soon inserts herself in a violent crusade for justice for a young boy in her building and perhaps...herself.
I try to avoid hyperbole or metaphors when I describe movies and try to emphasize my personal reactions. But I honestly can't think of a better way to describe Shadows Strays than as a violent primal scream. And I mean that as a compliment.
Because 13 is 17 (that's a bit confusing) she's at the perfect age to make rash decisions, get really really mad about every injustice she sees, and question broader authority structures. And since she's a highly trained assassin, she can question those structures with a bladed weapon or two.
13 makes a decision that she is either going to get justice for or save this little boy, likely because he reminds her of herself, and nothing in her path is going to stop her.
Which means that this giant criminal conspiracy full of people who are obsessed with feeling powerful or getting more power, have no idea what to do with this. Because she's the most lethal teenager in the world looking to stab everyone in the face. So I guess...we're all going down this road. You can't bargain with her or offer her anything. She's just going to keep coming. Really captures that bottomless well of frustration a young person can tap into.
This also means that her assassin handlers are very mad that 13 has gone off the rails and bucked their wishes, so there's a secondary conflict that's about to rear it's head with 13's maternal figure who's beginning to question her life as an assassin.
Which means that this giant criminal conspiracy full of people who are obsessed with feeling powerful or getting more power, have no idea what to do with this. Because she's the most lethal teenager in the world looking to stab everyone in the face. So I guess...we're all going down this road. You can't bargain with her or offer her anything. She's just going to keep coming. Really captures that bottomless well of frustration a young person can tap into.
This also means that her assassin handlers are very mad that 13 has gone off the rails and bucked their wishes, so there's a secondary conflict that's about to rear it's head with 13's maternal figure who's beginning to question her life as an assassin.
That's the movie's emotional hook.
But the film's real hook is one of the most intense and brutal action flicks put to screen in the last three years. So let's talk action
Action With A Horror Director's Sensibilities
Writer/director Timo Tjahjanto is an interesting cat in the action movie space. Because while even fellow action filmmaker Gareth Evans has a penchant for horror movie brutality, you very rarely watch a fight scene from either one of The Raid movies and get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of carnage. But Tjahjanto seems to enjoy making the audience squirm during his movie's fight sequences.
A big part of this is a strong emphasis on impact and weapons.
There's a near infinite number of ways you can film a fight scene whether you just pan out and let the choreography do its job or you do a bunch of quick cuts and edits to create the feeling of an intense bout.
Tjahjanto focuses on impact or when and how the blows hit and how it impacts the target. See you could just film 13 grappling a guy to the ground and smashing his face on the pavement. But Tjahjanto's camera follows the guy's head and it goes down and bounces with it.
This is then enhanced by a camera that often bounces with said head. It is a bit more chaotic that your standard martial arts movies that are all about choreoraphy, but it's great way to make each blow feel bigger.
And when we're talking violent KOs...this is where Tjahjanto's horror background really shines because every kill or death in this movie is either complete overkill or one of the most brutal images you can possibly imagine with gross sound effects. It goes along with an idea running through the film that violence is horrific and isn't something that someone should dedicate their life to.
And then we get to the weapons.
The Shadow Strays puts its primary emphasis on bladed weapons including swords and knives. And while there's a lot of the aforementioned overkill stabbings I mentioned before, my favorite thing Tjahjanto and company do is follow the weapons throughout the fights. This can someone dragging a blade across the ground towards someone's face, moving the camera up and down one sword as the other sword-wielder tries to break a clinch, or showing a killing blow from thrust to its ultimate end.
And I really like this idea. It means you can justify the close-up camera work, while never losing a feel for what's happening or the intensity because we're following a blade that actively seeking out someone's body.
Is This the Point or A Point of Contention?
The only criticism you can levy at an action movie like this is: it might be too much. The movie clocks in at around 140 minutes and with the exception of the first act it's almost non-stop action for about an hour or more.
There's plenty of variety as we swing from firefights to hand to hand bouts or shift locations, but it is...a lot. So much so that when 13 lets out another "let's go motherfucker" primal yell before she picks up a new weapon to take on a different attacker, you begin to wonder how the hell she has anything left in the tank. Then again...this is the same shit the John Wick franchise does and I love those movies so, I'm not about to back down now because this movie is bloodier.
In fact, I think the brutality of Tjahjanto's cinematic violence is kinda the point here.
I alluded this earlier, but a lot of these fights aren't fun. All fights are kinda fun because we like seeing our hero succeed or seeing a villain get theirs. But there's also an emotional element that can enhance said fights and make them more satisfying. So if our hero is fighting for something, that means something.
For a lot of this movie, 13 is fighting...out of nothing but rage or pure survival instinct. And it looks and feels ugly. It's not fun, because it's not fun for her. In my opinion, that's the point. That the life 13 has been thrown into isn't right and even, with all of her lethal skills, she needs either a greater purpose or freedom and when those are threatened or taken away...you get empty rage.
The Verdict: A Bloody Brilliant Action Epic
Full of visual life, amazing action, and a horror filmmaker's approach to fight scenes, The Shadow Strays is a breathless bit of action moviemaking. 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment