Originality doesn't rank high among the lizard brain pleasures of "The Shadow Strays," a pulpy Indonesian action thriller about a rogue assassin that reteams "The Night Comes for Us" director Timo Tjahjanto with his now regular action choreographer Muhammad Irfan (in collaboration with fellow action director/choreographer Trisna Irawan). Action movie buffs know those names, especially now that "The Night Comes for Us" has succeeded "The Raid" and its sequel as the latest proof of Indonesian genre cinema's cutting-edge influence.
Many film festival reviews of "The Shadow Strays" have understandably stressed the movie's show-stopping gore and relentless, over-the-top violence, which feels like an extension of the breathless, bravura extremity that defined Tjahjanto and Irfan's breakthrough collaboration on "The Night Comes for Us." Festival journos also mentioned plot and dialogue, but often in passing, partly because a lot in this movie depends on stock characterizations and hoary melodramatic conventions. Because "The Shadow Strays" is yet another action movie where a professional killer without a past grows tired of her anonymous life and risks it all to protect somebody she barely knows.
So what matters most in "The Shadow Strays"? Well, you probably shouldn't outright ignore everything that isn't oriented around brawling and stuntwork since those scenes not only provide an essential dramatic pretext but also provide some lightly held political context for all this bloodletting. Then again, the story's usually formulaic enough to seem negligible.
Thirteen (Aurora Ribero), a 17-year-old killer with a heart of gold, takes on a powerful and well-connected Jakarta criminal organization simply because they threaten her young neighbor Monji (Ali Fikry). Monji's mother Mirasti (Jesyca Marlein) worked as a sex worker for the violent pimp Haga (Agra Piliang), an associate of the seedy nightclub owner Ariel (Andri Mashadi) and his politician dad Soemitro (Arswendy Bening Swara). Thirteen bonds with Monji after Haga kills his mom; she first chases and then gets chased by Haga and then Ariel and his crew. A series of grisly and spectacular confrontations thin the ranks of their respective allies.
As you might guess from her lack of a name, Ribero's mysterious avenging angel doesn't have much of a past. The organization that hires her is said to be so secretive that nobody knows who leads or hires them. Human emotions are not only inconvenient for Thirteen but suppressed with strong medication. Thirteen's inability to regulate her emotions also helps to explain why, when she fights, the world looks and sounds like a cascade of manic action.
Ariel's backstory hints at the essential difference between Thirteen's group and his: one thrives on rank, shameless favoritism, while the other prizes loyalty and obedience over everything else. Thirteen's guys are compared with ninjas and samurai early on in the movie; Ariel boasts about his father's promise to make him Jakarta's governor after he himself gets elected. This last plot point will likely raise an eyebrow for anyone who's been following the real-life Indonesian president's efforts, with some help from the Supreme Court, to help one of his sons to run for governor of Jakarta.
Tjahjanto had gotten considerably better at using noirish archetypes and genre movie stock characters to sketch out the interstitial drama in his movies since 2016, when he started helming movies without his long-time co-directing partner Kimo Stamboel. Tjahjanto's direction of action scenes has also notably improved and gotten not only bolder but more dynamic and polished since "Headshot," his first solo feature, and also his first collaboration with Irfan. Tjahjanto and Irfan's collaboration ultimately puts both "The Shadow Strays" and "The Night Comes for Us" in their own categories, even if neither movie features characters more memorable than their individual performers. What matters most in both movies can be seen with your eyes closed and covered during their action scenes, whose adrenalized rhythm and action direction inform everything else in the movie.
The action scenes in "The Shadows Stray" bounce and pulse from one point of impact to the next in a flash and then seamlessly switch both the tempo and rhythm of editing and camera movements to match the next set of steps. Tjahjanto's enthusiasm and dedication to conceptual novelty continue to match Irfan's creativity and accomplished work with his stunt teams. Together, they pile on a series of virtuosic, playful, grisly set pieces, which climax with an impressive warehouse shootout that brings to mind John Woo's "Hard Boiled."
As some other reviewers have noted, Woo and Tjahjanto not only share a half-cynical, half-romantic view of violence but also likely some of the same influences. What sets them apart as filmmakers isn't where or how much they've swiped but how well they synthesize their apparent pulp fiction love into something new and cinematic. Tjahjanto scores again with considerable help from Irawan, Irfan, and a generally strong ensemble cast.
