Sounds silly, but what makes a martial arts film? Class? Yes, Fred, you in the back.
Fred: Uh, martial arts?
Correct! And incorrect. I have seen lists concerning the "best martial arts films of all time" that include "The Dark Knight" and "The Matrix." Because a film contains some martial arts, that does not constitute if being a "martial arts film." Now suddenly we find ourselves back to the question of "what makes a Christmas movie?" and "is Die Hard a Christmas movie?" and "if Die Hard, why not Gremlins?"
Merantau is a martial arts film, and a pretty good one at that. It concerns the journey of a young man in Indonesia who must navigate the cultural right of passage into manhood called Merantau. He finds himself having to travel away from his local village, into the world outside, to gain skill and experience that will ultimately benefit the village once he returns. If he returns. The film introduces us to Pencak Silat, a largely localized Indonesian fighting style that includes full body fighting, as well as weaponry, and the fighting sequences are excellent.
Yuda, the young man, leaves his village to travel to Jakarta, the nearest large city, with a plan to teach the children there in Silat. Of course, everything goes sideways, as Yuda cannot just stand by while a girl named Astri is being brutally beaten by her boss. From that point on, everything that Yuda had planned changes as he navigates the strange city, fights thugs, and saves women from sex traffickers. It seems simplistic, but the characterization is actually very good as Yuda grows up on his journey, realizing that everything in the world is not like his village- especially not the people. In doing so, he successfully completes Merantau.
I made the mistake of watching this film back to back with Muay Thai Giant, a film that while similar in structure, was absolutely abysmal in its execution of story. Merantau is a serious story about a young man's journey into manhood, while MT Giant was a "comedy" with a 7' guy named Barney who would turn into a super kung fu warrior when he ate hot peppers. Abysmal.
Merantau introduced us to that very right of passage without being pedantic about the process or the culture from which it came. The story was engaging, and the cultural takeaways were pleasantly interwoven into the plot naturally. I have experienced foreign films where the story was not the point, but educating the ignorant Westerners on culture and condition was. They were message films, with a message so brittle that no one could digest them even with gallons of water. Merantau was definitely not that.
It's also not a classical kung fu film (which I love) where the good guys and bad guys are established and identified within the first thirty seconds of the movie, and everybody spends the next 90 minutes kicking the crap our of each other. There's plenty of action in Merantau, but it's woven into a well thought out story.
IMDB says 6.7/10. I say 7 (which my son Luke says is the threshold for good movies). Agreed.
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