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.