Merantau [Blu-ray]

When a movie featuring a martial art I've never before witnessed on screen finally comes to film, I'm a happy man. Here that art is Silat, and while fight-choreography in movies does not equal practical application, it's always fun to see what can be done with various styles! Though this flick has received some complaints, I was not disappointed.On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, a young man named Yuda (Iko Uwais) is preparing for his merantau, a traditional (as opposed to capricious) rite of passage where he must make it on his own in the big city. He is excited and nervous but sets about his task with a high degree of optimism and boards a bus for Jakarta. Upon arrival, things don't turn out as planned but Yuda is determined to succeed. A little boy steals his wallet and the ensuing chase leads to him defending the boy's older sister from her abusive boss. She is then fired and isn't exactly appreciative of Yuda's skill or intervention. They go their separate ways until Yuda coincidentally finds the girl back in the clutches of her boss and some goons. Turns out the girl, Astri, was targeted by her employer to sell to some rich European brothers for international prostitution. Yuda takes her and her little brother, Adit, on the lam, with thugs-a-plenty on their tail.Some of the criticism this movie has received is unwarranted and I'm not exactly sure why Iko Uwais is compared to Tony Jaa, though it was likely Jaa's success that enabled a project like "Merantau" to come to fruition. Vietnam's "The Rebel" (2007) probably didn't hurt either. While I suppose some physical characteristics are similar, Iko's style of fighting and acting are quite different. He is much younger than Jaa and has much more of a natural ease with dialogue. While I am a big fan of Jaa, I don't think he could pull off a character as gregarious as Iko's Yuda. While this movie doesn't exactly master the writing chops of say, the Coen Brothers, it's much more fully realized and competently directed than MANY martial arts flicks, including those starring Jaa. In terms of fights and stunts though, it doesn't quite hold up to Jaa's films. Which is not to say they are bad! Not at all! The fights in this are creative and plentiful, in addition to being well shot, performed, and edited, with few wires and reasonably long takes. Thank you!The DVD from Magnolia has a beautiful widescreen picture with plenty of special features, including a "making of" segment, bloopers, and deleted scenes. In Indonesian (Bahasa?) with subtitles available in English and Spanish or English dubbed. If you are a fan of martial arts films, this is definitely worth a look. Certainly doesn't hurt to open to a little cultural diversity, either! Recommended.2009

I am a big fan of The Raid and The Raid 2, so I decided to check out their earlier work and I was not disappointed. This movie is stylish((not to mention gorgeous to look at)), very well acted, and surprisingly emotional. As in The Raid 2, I greatly appreciated the small touches with the main antagonist to give them depth and humanity.As always, Iko does not disappoint as a leading man and the supporting actors are simply amazing, especially the actress who plays Astri, who has several key moments where she must carry the weight of a scene without using dialog. Be sure to watch this movie with the Indonesian track, as the dub does not do these performances justice.And finally, the fight choreography is stunning. It starts out rather small and slowly builds until you find yourself wincing in sympathy every 6 seconds as the fights get more and more vicious as the stakes grow higher. These guys know how to film a fight scene.

My husband had read of very good reviews for the movies The Raid and The Raid 2, with the same 2 principle actors and director, Welshman Gareth Evans. Merantau was made before those movies and could be considered to be a prequel. Poor country boy goes to big city, Jakarta, to spread his wings and make some money but runs afoul of the local thugs. Intro the pencak silat, an Indonesian martials arts form, drug running and white slavery lords from the West, a girl and a kid and our hero, all tossed together in an urgent, violent, bloody, boy-meets-girl fight for life.I didn't enjoy it as much as the 2 later movies and found myself bored by the plot at times. I prefer my action films to be packed, cartoonishly bloody and damn the plot, lets blow things up sorts. It was better to see the later 2 movies and then Merantau, because I probably wouldn't have watched the Raid movies had I watched Merantau first. Iko Uwais had never acted before, Gareth Evans had filmed only documentaries, which lets you see them begin to become actor and director. My husband thought it was just fine on its own.

Having seen The Raid 1 & 2 I was curious to see Gareth Evans' first martial arts film. It is just as good as the raid films, solid plot, awesome fight scenes and an unexpected ending which I will not give away here.If you liked the raid films you'll like this.

Excellent Bluray Region Free works in U.K excellent martial arts movie, iko uwais starred in this before Raid & Raid 2 martial arts on the same level as those movies.

First martial arts movie from Gareth Evans. Slow development but nice fighting scenes in the end as always.If you liked 'The Raid' and sequel you won't be dissapointed!

I have bought several martial arts films from the market place on Amazon UK ,all have English subtitles apart from this one. There is not a option for English. I do not speak French. I watched the film, the sound was faulty on part of the film.

Il successo di The Raid ha dato visibilità anche al lungometraggio precedente di Gareth Evans, questo Merantau che di recente abbiamo avuto la fortuna di vedere anche in tv (sia lodata Rai4). E la Movies Inspired, proprio sulla scia dell'eccellente lavoro fatto con il blu-ray di The Raid, si ripete:- video che replica fedelmente il girato (anche qui, non dovete aspettarvi immagini da spaccamascella, il film è esattamente così, ma in HD è comunque tanta roba rispetto al dvd).- doppio audio e sottotitoli italiani.- extra corposissimi.Le pecche di cui faccio cenno nel titolo? Di questo film esistono due versioni, e da noi prevedibilmente è arrivata la sola edizione tagliata internazionale, mentre della rarissima director's cut, di ben 20 minuti più lunga, nessuna traccia (nonostante sul retro della custodia sia indicato il contrario, con somma delusione di chi si era illuso); inoltre segnalo anche un fastidioso refuso sulla costina ("MerEntau" anzichè "MerAntau").A parte questo comunque è un blu-ray consigliatissimo, che dimostra la cura che bisognerebbe infondere in ogni prodotto home-video, anche quando si tratta di pellicole di nicchia come questa. Se vi piacciono i superbi action-movies di G.Evans comprate questi blu-ray a occhi chiusi e supportate il lavoro della Movies Inspired.