“The Night Comes For Us” Netflix Poster
Director: Timo Tjahjanto
Writer: Timo Tjahjanto
Cast: Joe Taslim, Iko Uwais, Julie Estelle, Sunny Pang, Zack Lee, Asha Kenyeri Bermudez, Hannah Al Rashid, Salvita Decorte, Abimana Aryastya, Salvita Decorte
Running Time: 121 min.
By Martin Sandison
The Mo Brothers’ Headshot, while a very good action movie in its own right, with effectively bloody violence and some great choreography, fell short of greatness in my opinion. One half of the Mo Brothers, Timo Tjahjanto, announced a few years back he was writing the script for The Night Comes for Us. Anticipation grew with announcements such as the film was to star a who’s who of Indonesian action cinema, and the addition of producer Todd Brown whose XYZ films have been growing in stature with releases like Gareth Evans’ recent Apostle. Both films are Netflix associated, and for fans such as me, it’s great to see such diverse output. While Evans was taking a left turn in to atmospheric horror, Tjahjanto and Iko Uwais decided to take on the mantle left over by his Raid franchise and make it in to over-the-edge OTT action violence. Although I was prepared for the visual onslaught and feast of martial arts and gunplay, I could not have predicted how much I love this movie, and how highly I rate it. Which is very high.
Joe Taslim stars as Ito, who in the opening scene appears to be one of the bad guys as he mows down a family on a beach. Left is a small child, seemingly the daughter, Reina (Asha Kenyeri Bermudez). Ito sees his redemption in her, and goes on the run to protect her. So sets in motion a seemingly endless series of set pieces as Ito struggles to protect Reina, involving his old gang and Arian (Iko Uwais, The Raid), a mysterious figure who is a deadly fighter. The tangled web of gangsters, drugs and intrigue are deepened by Ito’s connection to the Six Seas, a gang dedicated to protecting the drug trade in South East Asia, led by Chien Wu (Sunny Pang, Headshot).
A review I read of this movie called it a martial arts Braindead (aka Dead Alive), which is a film I love, but I think that viewpoint doesn’t stick. Braindead has its tongue firmly lodged in its cheek, and is constantly hilarious. The Night Comes for Us is a much darker prospect entirely, and its tone speaks of influences such as Hard Boiled, Tiger Cage 2 (minus the lame comedy) and The Raid 2. That the film is like an outrageously violent cartoon does stick, however. What impressed me alongside the action, which we’ll get to in a minute, is the strength of the aesthetic. The lighting and camerawork create a surrealistic immersive world that has depth beneath the carnage. Little visual touches such as a face off mid-battle as the camera pans to a fly getting zapped are wonderful, and Tjahjanto’s handling of the silent moments between the chaos show his talent. This approach is bolstered by the characters and performances. Taslim is suitably brooding and emotionally wrecked as Ito, in the role of a lifetime. Uwais as Arian is at his most charismatic, and in fact you would expect the two to be in each others roles, as Uwais is the bigger star. Julie Estelle (The Raid 2) kicks some serious ass in her part, which is destined to go down as one of the greatest female fighter characters, blowing Ok-bin Kim, of the recent South Korean actioner The Villainess, off the screen.
So, to the aspect we came here for: action. As much as I love The Raid and 2, and to a lesser extent Headshot, the action at times is scrappy and a little repetitive. As soon as Uwais first fight kicked in, I knew immediately him and his team have stepped up, and leaped in to the stratosphere of primal 21st century martial arts violence. Every single fight in this film is astounding, and the diversity of the combat is without compare. From brawls to all-out brutalistic knife fights to intricate handwork to beautiful bootwork, the film has it all, and is a martial arts movie fans wet dream. Alongside the commitment of the performers in these scenes and their abilities, all aspects of filmmaking are amped up to 11, and the ebb and flow, fluid editing, masterful framing (props to cinematographer Gunnar Nimpuno) and staging of them is in to the beyond. My favourites are the two-on-one all female fight with British actress Hannah Al Rashid (Safe Haven) and Dian Sastrowardoyo (Kartini) taking on Estelle in a fight that moves from hand-to-hand combat to knife-fighting with savage grace. Al Rashid even fights on with her guts hanging out! (Story of Ricky, anyone?). In fact, all three involved in this fight are immediately iconic characters, with Al Rashid’s cool hair and signature knife, and Sastrowardoyo’s bob haircut and cheese wire weaponry.
Of course the film builds up to Uwais vs Taslim, and I honestly think it’s in the Top 3 one-on-one fights of the 21st century, alongside such luminaries as Scott Adkins vs Marko Zaror in Undisputed 3 and Donnie Yen vs Collin Chou in Flash Point. It also gets my vote as one of the most bloodily violent. I even noticed a reference to a fight in Tiger Cage 2 in there (geek mode optimised). Uwais must have been working on his kicking, as it’s the best I’ve seen from him, and Taslim’s rthythm and timing is superb. My only gripe action-wise is that Sunny Pang, who was so great acting-wise and martial arts-wise in Headshot, doesn’t get to fight in the film. His performance and character is still a cool bad-ass muthafucka, though. Another gripe is that the dialogue moves between Asian languages (Uwais character is in China at first, he speaks a little Mandarin) and English at times, and it can be a little jarring. Also the plot lines do fall by the wayside a little to make room for the action.
The extreme bloody violence in the film will put off some, but once it gets going the amount of inventive kills and outrageous blood-letting means you can never take it seriously. From a pigs trotter used as a weapon to smack a guy’s balls, people hung up on meathooks, cheese wire (Audition, anyone?) used to cut off arms and fingers, broken bottles stuck in mouths and seemingly the most stab wounds onscreen in any film ever, it’s an orgy of constantly amping up extremity. Even Reina gets in on the action, stabbing one of the bad guys. And that’s without mentioning the fantastically depicted gunplay, which is a dozen times more graphic than a John Woo film. An aspect I also love is the mix of CGI and practical effects when dealing with the gore. It’s seamless, and for a lower budget film is phenomenal. Also of note is the soundtrack by Hiroyuki Ishizaka, which moves from John Carpenter-esque pulsing synths to strings, and underscores the tone of the film beautifully.
As a writer and conversationalist I realise my passion moves in to hyperbole at times. I need to watch this film again soon, but upon ending my first thought was: It’s a complete action masterpiece and one of the best action films ever made. All I know is that awestruck consciousness was pretty much constant for the 2 hour running time, and it gave me the same adrenalin rush as finishing Hard Boiled at the age of 14. Hey, what would the world be without individual opinions? A very boring place. Let’s see what you guys think. I must say congratulations to everyone involved. The Raid set a new bar. The Night Comes for Us raises that bar through the roof.
Martin Sandison’s Rating: 10/10
10/10 is perfect and I agree. The pool hall/gym scene made old school Steven Seagal look like a pussy.
I thought this was fantastic. I hope there is a physical release soon as I’d love to actually own it. It rate it as 9/10, because it was amazing. The only negative I found is (and this is minor) there was a lack of music in some scenes, which would have helped make some action scenes more dramatic. What music there was I agree had a John Carpenter esque feel to it, which I enjoyed, there just needed to be more! Cant wait to watch it again soon though.
Huge problems: very average story, shitty screenplay, not the best fight choreography ever, gore galore becoming a cliché, AND THE MAIN CHARACTER HASN’T GOT 1% OF IKO UWAIS’ CHARISMA! Overrated martial arts/action movie of the year.
And don’t make those guys speak “English”, it’s incomprehensible!!!!! And if I want a gangster movie with buckets of blood (but not a lot of martial arts) , I watch I saw the devil, vastly superior in every domain, or the awesome final fight in The man from nowhere.
I’ve said the same thing myself plenty of times. It’s one reason why I don’t like every time they cast Sunny Pang. Since he’s not Indonesian it just tells me he’s going to speak Singlish. Why don’t they just have him speak Hokkien or Mandarin, or whatever it is that he natively speaks?
The movie already has subtitles, why bother with these half-assed English segments? We’re reading the film anyways!
The Foxtrot Six movie that’s coming out is going to be in all-English dialog based on the trailers I’ve seen. Making broken-English speakers speak English just results in a film with inconsistent accents and is effectively the same as bad acting. The way someone delivers their lines is half the work in acting! Poor delivery totally takes you out of the film.
Hell Yes! After being disappointed with Apostle, I needed this movie to cleanse my palette, and it’s the second time a violent Indonesian film did that for me. (The first was Headshot after Logan)
I laughed when reading that Dead Alive’s tongue was planted in its cheek, since this movie is more interested in planting sharp objects into cheeks. (Among other body parts)
Night Comes for Us felt like a combination of a 70’s Scorsese gangster film, Assault on Precinct 13, To Live and To Die in LA combined with martial arts and horror. It’s always a joy to see such different films and genres influence something unique.
The martial arts were indeed different. While Silat was still present, Iko’s flurry of punches looked like Wing Chun, the kicks were very Tae Kwon Do-esque, and the combination of Jiujitsu is always welcome. Even the sloppy brawling had great rythym and timing.
After playing a villain twice, I’m glad Julie Estelle is finally an action hero. She and the other women looked straight out of the anime, Black Lagoon, and they were a real highlight. They need to be the headliners next time.
I got to say though, that poor girl is going to need extreme therapy from everything she witnessed!
Completely unintentional, but I also ended up having an ‘Apostle’ & ‘The Night Comes For Us’ double-bill last week! I’d give this one an 8/10. The biggest difference for me between this & ‘The Raid’ series, is that the fight scenes in the latter carried much more weight to them thanks to an effective story and buildup. While here the violence was off the charts, the setup for it came across as a little weak. I mean literally, the opening scene is Taslim deciding he wants to save the little girl, but we never really get to know him, or get a chance to understand why he’s tired of his Triad enforcer life.
What can’t be faulted is the intensity of the action, even though I felt a little numb to it by the time Estelle is snapping her finger off. It’s relentless and incredibly bloody, with the final fight between Taslim and Uwais delivering on its promise. I wish this wasn’t a Netflix movie, as I’d love to have it sitting on the shelf.
I do understand that beginning with Joe Taslim. I accepted that he wanted to save a kid, but there was no buildup to it or development of his character. It certainly wasn’t like with other movies about criminals looking for redemption.
Is it like what you’ve said about other Netflix films where this will never get a physical release because of exclusive contracts? I figured if Jailbreak has a DVD/Blu Ray, Night should have one too.
Andrew, ha ha I didn’t think about that tongue in cheek comment! Good spot. I have To Live And Die In L.A to watch, looking forward to it. Good analysis of the styles used. I was disappointed with Apostle as well. There were some great ideas in there, but the execution was lacking.
Someglue, I Saw The Devil is one of my favourites of all time, but the action is sparse, even though it’s great. The Man From Nowhere is a pretty good film, but I wasn’t that excited by the action. I found The Night Comes For Us constantly exciting.
Robert, yeah I get what you mean about the music, it is awesome though.
Jerry ha ha Seagals fights are always pussy-fied.
Great movie, but I’d go 9 or even 8 for the poor story. There were so many great elements like the ninja ghost chick but it loses out due to generic “heart of gold hitman” tropes and how desensitized the violence actually made me by the end. I was exhausted before the lesbian fight scene so the main battle felt like more of an afterthought that a climax. Best action movie I saw this year, most gruesome action movie perhaps ever made but probably in my top 20.
The Mo Brothers are great at special effects but their writing is piss poor. Headshot has got to be the most generic plot and story ever!
This is why most directors stick to directing and have someone else do the writing. I don’t get why they try to do everything themselves and compromising their own product. Just hire a damn writer who can come up with a story for once.
I personally still have The Raid 1 and 2 at the top of my modern Action film list. TNCFU doesn’t come close.
This might end up being the most bloody and brutal movie i see in 2018 and i FUCKIN’ love it..
Only negative thing bout it, is that it’s a netflix movie cause i REALLY want it in my bluray collection.
A rare case where a 10/10 is certainly justified! What a film. I think you’re right, Iko Uwais and company have really upped their game; I’ve never seen Iko look so fierce onscreen. His kicks were truly impressive. While I enjoy the John Carpenter-esque narrative simplicity of ‘The Raid,’ I do believe this is probably the first film to top it when it comes to blistering fight choreography and brutal, brutal violence. This movie is basically a catalog of all the ways the human body can be eviscerated…! ‘The Night Comes For Us’ is a 120 minute adrenaline rush.
Saw it yesterday. I’d give it a 7 outta 10, at best. It’s certainly a much better offering than Headshot, yet nowhere near as good as any 2 of the Raid films. The movie has fairly severe pacing issues with the action, but worst of all, alot of the Martial arts action takes a backseat to the continuous amounts of gore. More importantly Timo simply can’t seem capture the the fight choreography on camera the way Gareth seems to do so masterfully well. The few 3rd person camera view sequences in the billiards fight felt so tacky to me. Nevertheless, it was a solid effort but wouldn’t call it a perfect Martial arts film by any stretch.
my rating 9 out of 10
A 10/10, wow!!! Can’t imagine what MPM74 is gonna give it? A 24/10??? This is his movie X 1000s.
Im not going to watch it. I’m still waiting for the next NEW FIST OF FURY to come around. I doubt this is it.
9/10.
This movie was a grenade. I too give it a 9.5 / 10.
While the first half was something of the very best I’ve seen in the genre, the second one let some steam off the valves. Also the conclusion seemed a bit meh to me.
But I still haven’t excpected it to be that good, at some parts it easily surpasses The Raid 1&2. And I agree with many others that it may be one of the goriest martial arts movies I’ve seen in a long time. Holy cow. Those scenes really packed a punch.
Now that Gareth Evans apparently dropped The Raid 3, I can only hope to see more of such films coming out of Indonesia or other countries such as Cambodia or the Philippines.
Go watch this if you haven’t!
I’ve already been recommending the movie to friends including my brother Nathaniel, it’s even more badass than the Raid series, and it totally makes up for not seeing the Raid 3
I’ll say. Even if we never get a Raid 3, I’m happy with titles like these.
Yet another unwatcable, crappy Indonesian action movie.
This is such an ugly looking movie. Just awful. Sloppy fight scenes and as usual with any martial arts movie out there, repetitive as hell.