2012 Movie #16 - Merantau (2009) One of the pleasures of bringing a film to a film-festival is the chance to meet other upcoming filmmakers. I find this to be especially true at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Midnight Madness section, where programmer Colin Geddes goes out of his way to foster contact between his filmmakers. I’ve been lucky enough to have three films premiere in the Midnight Madness section at TIFF over the years (ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE, BUNRAKU, and YOU’RE NEXT), and it’s wonderful seeing how Colin is able to build this camaraderie. It’s definitely helped by the odd slot we Midnight Madness filmmakers fill at TIFF, often bringing hardcore genre films to a festival mostly known for launching award contenders. Of the relationships formed between filmmakers in Toronto, and at other festivals like SXSW or Fantastic Fest, some can bloom into real long term friendships. This was the case back in 2006 when we premiered ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY in Toronto the night after Jonathan King premiered BLACK SHEEP. Despite living halfway across the world from each other, Jonathan and I try to meet for a drink whenever we’re in the same town or at the same festival and we’re constantly chatting back on forth via email and Twitter. I also suspect this will also be the case with Gareth Evans, the director of THE RAID and MERANTAU. THE RAID was a Midnight Madness premiere at Toronto 2011, where we premiered YOU’RE NEXT, and I feel like we were sister films at the festival. Adam, Simon, Jess, and I spent a lot of time hanging out with Gareth, Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, and Todd Brown. Rumor has it Iko and Joe were singing “Looking for the Magic,” the song from YOU’RE NEXT, for their whole stay in Toronto, and long after returning to Indonesia. We’ve all struck up a long distance Twitter back-and-forth, and I’m sure Adam and Simon will be hanging out with Gareth a lot at Sundance next week. So last night we all decided to watch Gareth’s first film MERANTAU. It’s fascinating seeing MERANTAU after seeing THE RAID, because you can definitely see the lessons that Gareth and his team learned making the leap from their first feature to their second feature. The stunt choreography is still unbelievably awesome in MERANTAU, but you can really see Gareth and the fight team embrace their techniques more in THE RAID. There is also an economy of storytelling pace in THE RAID that feels like a direct response to the more indirect storytelling style of MERANTAU. On the whole I definitely recommend checking out MERANTAU. Get a flavor of what Gareth, Iko, and company can bring to the screen, and then blow your minds out when THE RAID is released by Sony in 2012. What I’ll take away: in an action film, you can’t go wrong with punching a bad guy and then dropping them off a building. High-res

2012 Movie #16 - Merantau (2009)

One of the pleasures of bringing a film to a film-festival is the chance to meet other upcoming filmmakers. I find this to be especially true at the

Toronto International Film Festival in the Midnight Madness section, where programmer Colin Geddes goes out of his way to foster contact between his filmmakers. I’ve been lucky enough to have three films premiere in the Midnight Madness section at TIFF over the years (ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY LANE, BUNRAKU, and YOU’RE NEXT), and it’s wonderful seeing how Colin is able to build this camaraderie. It’s definitely helped by the odd slot we Midnight Madness filmmakers fill at TIFF, often bringing hardcore genre films to a festival mostly known for launching award contenders.

Of the relationships formed between filmmakers in Toronto, and at other festivals like SXSW or Fantastic Fest, some can bloom into real long term friendships. This was the case back in 2006 when we premiered ALL THE BOYS LOVE MANDY in Toronto the night after Jonathan King premiered BLACK SHEEP. Despite living halfway across the world from each other, Jonathan and I try to meet for a drink whenever we’re in the same town or at the same festival and we’re constantly chatting back on forth via email and Twitter.

I also suspect this will also be the case with Gareth Evans, the director of THE RAID and MERANTAU. THE RAID was a Midnight Madness premiere at Toronto 2011, where we premiered YOU’RE NEXT, and I feel like we were sister films at the festival. Adam, Simon, Jess, and I spent a lot of time hanging out with Gareth, Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, and Todd Brown. Rumor has it Iko and Joe were singing “Looking for the Magic,” the song from YOU’RE NEXT, for their whole stay in Toronto, and long after returning to Indonesia. We’ve all struck up a long distance Twitter back-and-forth, and I’m sure Adam and Simon will be hanging out with Gareth a lot at Sundance next week.

So last night we all decided to watch Gareth’s first film MERANTAU. It’s fascinating seeing MERANTAU after seeing THE RAID, because you can definitely see the lessons that Gareth and his team learned making the leap from their first feature to their second feature. The stunt choreography is still unbelievably awesome in MERANTAU, but you can really see Gareth and the fight team embrace their techniques more in THE RAID. There is also an economy of storytelling pace in THE RAID that feels like a direct response to the more indirect storytelling style of MERANTAU.

On the whole I definitely recommend checking out MERANTAU. Get a flavor of what Gareth, Iko, and company can bring to the screen, and then blow your minds out when THE RAID is released by Sony in 2012.

What I’ll take away: in an action film, you can’t go wrong with punching a bad guy and then dropping them off a building.