The more I learn about Gareth Evans' Indonesian action film Merantau, the more I admire it. The film is dedicated to a martial art that is rarely seen on screen - Silat. The director managed to find an unsurpassed master of this style, Iko Uwais, select an excellent cast and create a story based on this. “Merantau” has a great balance of action and drama, characters and fights, and everything we have seen so far from the staging and choreography is very impressive. Evans and his team regularly post production videos from the set, showcasing the actors, choreography, camera tests and fights. And if the film turns out to be just as colorful, then it’s time for Evans to start attracting tourists to earn extra money, because personally I already want to go there.
Recently, director/writer Gareth Evans and star Iko Uwais were kind enough to give us some time away from filming to discuss the film. Want to know what it's like to make a martial arts film in Indonesia? Then read on.
- TB – Todd Brown
- GE – Gareth Evans
- IU – Iko Uwais
Gareth Evans
TB: If I'm not mistaken, you are originally from Britain, not Indonesia. How did a guy from the UK start making an Indonesian film?
GE: It's a long story. My wife is half Indonesian and half Japanese. After the wedding, we lived in the UK for some time, from 9 am to 5 pm I worked, thinking about my future project, after my first low-budget film “Footsteps”. Later, I was unexpectedly hired as a freelance director at Christine Hakim Films for a documentary filming in Indonesia at the time. Therefore, my wife and I temporarily lived and worked in her homeland, Jakarta, while I figured it out and gained experience in the Indonesian film and television industry. After 6 months of work, we decided to leave the UK and try our luck here. I worked for a television company for six months, doing post-production and concepts for some programs, but being in a cramped office limited me, and with the experience and knowledge about Silat that I acquired during documentary filming, I decided to write the script for “Merantau”.
TB: What connects you personally with the film itself and martial arts? Why did you strive to make the film so detailed?
GE: Since childhood, I always dreamed of a career in cinema, and it all started with Asian action films. After watching Armor of God, Project A, and Police Story on VHS, I dragged my friends out into the backyard eager to emulate the stunts of Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan (thankfully , at that time, none of us had a video camera, so there was not a single recording left to laugh at). By nature, I was a vain child and always wanted to play the role of Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee, but I knew nothing about martial arts or acting, and decided to take up writing and directing instead. For my 18th birthday, I was given a small video camera and after 10 years of inventions and ideas, I finally had the opportunity to record them on film. I come from a small village in Wales and until I went to university I had no access to editing equipment. Everything I filmed had to be edited using two VCRs and a pause button, and you can only imagine what the quality was like. Later, at university, I started playing with bigger “toys”. I wanted to take a course and learn all about film and television, but it turned out to be more about computers and electronics, so I took advantage of my access to multimedia equipment and began teaching myself various filming techniques, while simultaneously looking for a way to insert the created video into any possible dissertation.
I've always been a fan of Asian cinema, so my first serious short film was a samurai story that I shot in Wales with the help of Japanese students studying in Cardiff at the time. It was filmed at my own expense and my opportunities were limited, but the experience gained during this filming gave me the sweet taste of directing as a serious profession. After that, I worked in an office for several years, and then decided to try my hand at creating a feature film. I was lucky that my boss understood me and gave me the weekend to film “Traces.”
TB: What I was really surprised by when I watched the making-of video was your attention to character and story. Most action movies try to include as much fighting as possible, why not do the same?
GE: First of all, I'm a fan of action films. I can sit and watch movies for hours, but what happens when I want to watch them a second time? I fast forward through dramatic moments because most of the time they are just boring. The plot is not well thought out, and the characters and on-screen twists and turns are so poorly thought out that they simply lead from scene to scene. But from “Merantau” I wanted to make a film that was not just an action movie, but also a drama, I worked on it and, I hope, that I managed to create memorable characters and a storyline that will intrigue the audience, and they will not want to watch it again skip over these moments.
It was very important for me to pay every possible attention not only to the battles, but also to these dramatic episodes. Sometimes, when watching a movie, you can easily notice that when the director is on autopilot, the fight sequences will look great and exciting, but the dramatic moments will look like they were shot in one take. I wanted to present Iko not only as a martial artist, but also as an actor. Since filming began, he has grown from a telephone company driver to a potential star. He has many talents and they are improving day by day.
TB: You chose a style for filming that is rarely seen on screen. Why Silat? How will you create a balance between authenticity and cinematic quality? Real battles against cable work?
GE: I chose Silat after working on a documentary. I had never seen it before, and after watching a huge number of films about martial arts, it turned out that this is a unique fighting style. Later, when I began to study it myself with my teacher (Edwel Datuk Rajo Gampo Alam - fight choreographer in the film), I simply had to, as a director, do everything possible to attract international attention to Silat, and , since I live in Indonesia myself, to simultaneously display at least a small part of Indonesian culture and life. To achieve authenticity and cinematic quality, we decided to use the camera in a natural way, without flying in circles using cranes and obsessive movements. Instead, we filmed from an observer's perspective, particularly the final fight between Yuda, Ratger and Luke (two against one, lasting 5 minutes). I often used a “steadicam” camera (like in the Tom Yum Goong movie) and all the fights were filmed smoothly from scene to scene to avoid unnecessary cuts for each blow. Slow motions and moments with repetitions were used only during chases and stunt work; we didn’t want to make the fights too stylish, but on the contrary, to give realism, so there will be no triple somersaults and somersaults before kicking in the film. It simply won’t fit into the plot and will be out of place; we showed “pure” Silat, without any acrobatics.
Speaking of cables, they were used, but very rarely and only in cases where their help was necessary. We filmed for real, and they were only used during the filming of some stunts (on top of a container, a somersault on a motorcycle and a sequence with a jump from building to building). There is no flight or anti-gravity, wires were used for greater control and safety of our stunt team.
GE: Everything is exactly as you said. Movies of this style, as far as I know, have not been released in Indonesia for the past 20 years, so most of these things appear on screens only in the form of television shows that rely on mysticism, effects and wire tricks. We really had to start from the basics, working not only with the fighters and stuntmen, but also taking care of the camera and filming the fights. Before writing the script for “Merantau,” while working on the documentary, I filmed several short scenes of Silat fighters to figure out how this could be inserted into the film and how to present it in the most favorable light. Pencak Silat essentially comes in many forms and was created for purely aesthetic purposes, as the movements are more like a dance, but I was more interested in the practical application of Silat in life situations. We came up with fights that would be as close to realism as possible, and decided to shoot in such a style that you could clearly see the choreography. One thing that annoys me most about martial arts films is when I see the main character swinging his arms, legs or weapons, and it's all shot in close-up with sound effects filling in the gaps in the movements, a kind of deception to the viewer. This is primitive and unworthy of respect. We made a conscious decision to avoid that in every fight we filmed.
TB: What was the most difficult thing for you as a director?
GE: The hardest part was filming the fights. Before this, I shot dramas, and this is no stranger to working with foreign languages, but when it comes to films about martial arts, I had to sit at the monitor and monitor whether everything was shot correctly, and then hope that everything would be edited as intended. During the takes we had our own editors handling the film so I could see on the spot how the sequences fit together, but filming something like that is a very labor-intensive process. Each scene took at least 15 takes, either the camera was a little in the wrong place or the fight staging wasn't as clean as we'd hoped, and this grueling process could go on all day. But, after everything, reviewing the filmed battles with the whole team, we realized that it was worth it. It's great to hear the cheers and applause when a take is done well, but it's even more rewarding to hear the cheers and applause from the audience when the film is finally released.
I am waiting. I hope there will be something exciting.
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