[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[GRUNTING, SOUNDS OF COMBAT]
The world of contemporary martial arts cinema
is an ever-evolving beast, one which continually reinvents
itself every generation.
And yet, one film towers over its creative brethren, The Raid
2.
The film is an epic in nearly every sense of the word.
And despite being a box office smash, critical darling,
and creative tour de force, it hasn't spawned a third entry
into the franchise.
Why?
Because The Raid 2 can't be topped.
[GRUNTING, SOUNDS OF COMBAT]
But before we get too deep into today's episode,
please be sure to like and subscribe to Nerdstalgic
for more videos just like this one.
Let's cut to the chase.
You could pick almost any fight in The Raid 2
as an example of how amazing the film is, but let's
look at the Rama versus the assassin
kitchen fight sequence.
This roughly seven-minute fight scene
is a balletic cacophony of violence and masterful
storytelling.
The film's protagonist Rama, played inimitably
by rising martial arts superstar Iko Uwais,
is attempting to get Bejo, the film's primary villain.
But first, he has to take out a fearsome henchman played
by Cecep Arif Rahman.
The two characters silently, slowly square off
against each other, preparing to fight.
They begin using highly formal jabs, blocks, and strikes
that are standard in silat.
There are hundreds of different styles in silat.
The main components are powerful strikes.
[GRUNTING, SOUNDS OF COMBAT]
This fight starts with formal exhibitions
of silat halimal, which is a tiger style version of silat.
Director Gareth Evans and crew selected tiger style
because when filmed, it looks the most vicious.
These tete-a-tetes are exchanged until things escalate into Rama
throwing the assassin through a glass door
and into a wine storage room.
From here, the fight devolves into a street brawl
where both performers' martial arts
skills are put to the test.
The energy and momentum of the fight
completely shifts when the assassin draws out
twin karambit knives.
The fight reaches a new level of ferocity,
with every potential slash possibly
being the end of Rama's life, until after multiple power
dynamic reversals, each man ends up in control of one knife.
This ultimately crescendos into one of the most memorable knife
fights ever made.
[GRUNTING, SOUNDS OF COMBAT]
One of the key elements that sets Evans' martial arts
films apart from other action films is that he and his team
break down the fights into sections
and then attempts to give each section moments
of visual interest and excitement
that will make the audience cringe.
This could be a particularly vicious moment,
or someone falling from multiple stories
and breaking their back.
We cheesily refer to them as "punchlines" when we're
designing the fight scenes.
And he tries to give every fight sequence
four or five of these moments to juxtapose
against the quiet or more slower moments in the fight.
This kitchen fight is possibly the best knife fight ever put
to film, which you can say about almost everything in Raid Two.
Every scene is basically the best version
of that type of scene.
The opening mud fight in the prison?
Yes.
Drug money collection gone wrong?
So inventive and kinetic.
The showdown with hammer girl and baseball bat man?
One of the coolest fights ever put to screen.
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It begs the question, who made this film and how?
How was this marvel accomplished?
Well, Gareth Evans is originally from south Wales,
but moved to Indonesia after he took a job directing
a documentary about silat.
He quickly realized that silat deserved more appreciation
abroad.
In 2009, he released the film Merantau.
It was intended to showcase silat as an art form,
and showcased the young Iko Uwais.
But ultimately, despite some highly impressive fight scenes,
the film didn't exactly become a classic.
It did, however, make some profit,
which is all that matters.
Their next project, The Raid Redemption,
would give both Evans and Uwais careers.
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It's a bonanza of martial arts mastery.
The plot?
A police officer has to fight from the bottom of a building
to the top of a building, and chaos ensues.
It's simple, it's direct, and it's great.
While the idea of this film is as straightforward as it gets,
the execution was revolutionary.
The crew utilized a system developed
by Mike Figgis for his movie Timecode
where they used a circular camera holding device,
called a Fig Rig, in order to turn the camera rapidly
and follow actors performing highly complex choreography
at a very fast speed.
Evans has repeatedly said he views martial arts films
as being closest spiritually related to Gene Kelly and Fred
Astaire dance-based musicals.
And all throughout his films, you
can feel him planning the choreography
like dance numbers.
Much like many musicals, the action
and shot lists of Evans' films are meticulously planned.
In fact, prior to shooting the finished film,
Evans filmed a no-budget version for the movie--
almost a dummy version of all the fights, instead of
an animatic or storyboard.
He'll literally shoot all of the fight scenes
in a local gym with the actors, edit it,
and treat this first draft of the film
as the storyboards for the eventual finished product.
[SHOUTING]
[GRUNTING, SOUNDS OF COMBAT]
After The Raid was a runaway success, the topic of sequels
was raised.
The Raid 2 was originally going to be a standalone film.
Evans had been trying to find the production
budget for this project for close
to two years prior to The Raid.
Titled Berandal-- "hooligan" in Indonesian--
it was intended to be a sweeping epic about a man who
goes to prison, befriends the son of a mob boss
and then gets sucked into a gangland war.
It was deemed too complicated, too expensive,
and not commercial enough by potential investors.
However, after the success of The Raid,
Evans realized that if he just made
the protagonist of the story an undercover cop,
it would work perfectly as a sequel.
[SPEAKING INDONESIAN]
This is the first stroke of genius for The Raid 2.
You can't outdo the brilliantly simple high concept
of the original film, so why even try?
Do a gangland epic as the sequel.
No one will expect that.
The opening scene of the film is a perfect testament
to this idea.
It features the film's big bad, Bejo, killing Rama's brother.
[GUN COCKS]
[SPEAKING INDONESIAN]
It's a moody, atmospheric, tense scene
that doesn't feature any of the martial arts at all.
Even the first shot of the field, slowly approaching car,
and freshly dug grave feels like a statement
that we're not going to be stuck in a single building
for the whole story.
The way this film expands and develops
Rama's character gives him a tragic emotional core,
and then pushes him far beyond the breaking point,
is a maturity in storytelling that most action films just
simply don't ever have the ambition to attempt.
The Raid Two is a damn near perfect movie.
And because sometimes the good guys do win,
it went on to a highly lucrative box office run.
However, it never manifested a sequel,
despite Evans repeatedly talking about a third entry
in the franchise that would have seen warring gang factions
duking it out in the Indonesian jungle.
So why is that?
Simple.
Evans just doesn't think he can top The Raid 2,
and he's put that chapter of his life behind him.
In an interview he gave to Impact Online in 2016, he said,
"whether it was a conscious decision or not,
moving back to the UK felt like closing a chapter
on that franchise.
We ended the story pretty neatly in Part 2."
You have to respect when someone knows enough is enough.
And when you've made something so impressive,
there's nothing else to say.
And hey, that's it for this episode of Nerdstalgic.
What do you think?
Is there a martial arts film that tops The Raid 2?
If so, let us down in the comments below.
And as always, please like and subscribe to Nerdstalgic
for more videos just like this.
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