The epic martial arts film, a sequel of the Raid Redmption, directed by Gareth Evans and starring Iko Uwais as the protagonist. The franchise has a cult fan following in our filmy town which includes Anurag Kashyap, Sanjay Gupta, John Abraham and Imran Khan
Following immediately after the events of THE RAID, Rama (Iko Uwais) is forced to reinvent himself as an undercover cop in order to provide protection for his wife and child.
Working for the anti-corruption taskforce led by the one person he can trust, UNAWAR, he is given a mission to engage himself as an enforcer for a local mob boss, BANGUN.
Finding a way in through BANGUN’s son Yuko, RAMA must hunt for information linking BANGUN with police force corruption. All the while, he harbors a dangerous and personal vendetta for revenge and justice that threatens to consume him- and bring both this mission and the organized crime syndicates crashing down.
Iko Uwais reprises his role as Rama. The film also stars Arifin Putra, Julie Estelle, Alex Abbad, Tio Pakusadewo, Oka Antara, and Cecep A. Rahman.
The film also featured Japanese actors such as Ryuhei Matsuda, Kenichi Endo, and Kazuki Kitamura.
Bunawar (Cok Simbara), a honest cop invites Rama (Iko Uwais) to join a small anti-corruption task force which seeks to expose police commissioner Reza’s backroom dealings with the Bangun and Goto gangs. Bunawar is the chief of Jakarta’s anti-corruption task force, looking out to arrest crooked police officers who work with Jakarta’s mob families.
Discovering the potential in Rama, Bunawar uses him as his secret weapon, and hopes to finally wipe out the empire of corruption entirely.
Initially hesitant, Rama ultimately assents after learning of his brother’s murder by the mob and the imminent threat to his family.
Tio Pakusadewo is Bangun, a feared mob boss who runs crime in Jakarta.
Rama gets into a tiff with a politician’s son, an opponent of Bangun’s group and gets into prison where Bangun’s son Uco is serving a term. Yuda is his name as the criminal and Yuda (Rama) saves Uco’s life and earns confidence of Bangun, who hires him when Yuda is out of prison.
While the mobster’s son Uko sees that his father has more faith in Yuda rather than him, he becomes discontent with his father’s lack of faith in his abilities and wants to take on a larger role in the mob’s operations.
Uko even brings disrepute to his father at one instance, which angers his father. Uko then teams up with his father’s opposition and hatches a plot to overthrow his father and take over the command of the mob’s operation.
Uko goes to the extent of killing his father and it is here that Yuda (Rama) with support from Bangun’s right hand Eka fights the opposition.
It is here that the higher Yuda (Rama) rises through Bangun’s mob ranks, he ieentifies more crooked cops having ties with the mob.
The film has raw action. No bullets, gunfire or blasts. Full of action, which at times numbs your senses. While the car chase and action are mind blowing, there are action sequences at quite a few instances which seem too stretched.
ADDITIONAL INFO on THE RAID Franchisee:
Iko Uwais, who plays the pivotal role of Rama has had extensive training in pencak silat (a form of Indonesian martial arts) and in 2005, he was rated the Best Single Performer at Pencak Silat Festival.
In 2009, Gareth H Evans, a Welsh-born writer/director, wrote an action drama script, BERANDAL (Now Titled as The Raid 2). Unfortunately he could not find investors and sponsors to fund this new script, due to high budget and complex technical requirement for the action scenes.
In the meanwhile, Gareth started writing another script with a much lower budget in mind, having more flexible and controlled action scenes. The film, was simultaneously released in the US and Indonesia with a title, THE RAID: REDEMPTION. It was a global success, and being named “the best action movie in this decade”.
After seeing the success of THE RAID, Gareth hit upon an innovative idea to create BERANDAL as the sequel to THE RAID.
He adapted BERANDAL to continue where THE RAID left off. The main role of Rama, an undercover cop, the script gained a new thrill element (compared to the original script which Gareth thought it work out much better).
Also, in the new script, he added an action scene which takes place in a taxi – this was inspired by a true story that Gareth heard from a friend of his when he was polishing the new script.
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Cast:
Iko Uwais as Rama/Yuda
Cok Simbara as Bunawar (Honest Cop who plants Rama in the Mobster’s gang)
Tio Pakusadewo as Bangun (Boss of the mob)
Arifin Putra as Uco (Bangun’s son)
Oka Antara as Yuka (Bangun’s trusted help)
Alex Abbad as Bejo (gangster, Bangun’s opposition)
Julie Estelle as Alicia (Hammer Girl)
Very Tri Yulisman as “Baseball Bat Man” (Hammer Girl’s brother)
Roy Marten as Reza – Commissioner of the Jakarta Police Department
Yayan Ruhian as Prakoso
Ryuhei Matsuda
Kenichi Endo
Kazuki Kitamura
Cecep Arif Rahman
Donny Alamsyah
Epy Kusnandar as Topan
Credits:
Distributed by MVP Entertainment India
Studio PT. Merantau Films, XYZ Films
Produced by Ario Sagantoro, Nate Bolotin, Aram Tertzakian
Directed by Gareth Evans
Written by Gareth Evans
Music – Fajar Yuskemal, Aria Prayogi, Joseph Trapanese
Cinematography – Matt Flannery, Dimas Imam Subhono
Editing by Gareth Evans, Andi Novianto