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The Raid 2
311 Plays4 years ago
In this episode, Fraser (Satsunami) and Adam take on the sequel to the iconic action film The Raid. How good is the action in this film? Does it hold up to the sequel? And how in the hell did they film that?! All this and more in the latest episode!
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Transcript
Introduction and Welcome
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome to Chat Tsunami. Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Chat Tsunami. I'm Sad Tsunami and thankfully returning to the Chat Tsunami crew is my very good friend Adam who is going to be talking about the raid too with me.
Humor and Martial Arts Skills
00:00:32
Speaker
Adam, welcome back.
00:00:34
Speaker
Oh, hi, Satsu. Thank you very much. It is wonderful to be back. I much missed this last week. It just didn't feel right last week. It was like a piece was missing. Now I know it with Chatsunami.
00:00:45
Speaker
Oh, I mean you're still not getting paid, but oh, thank you. Oh, screw this then. I'll throw my headset down. Yeah, just storm out. It's like I'm done. I can't handle these conditions.
Baseball and Youthful Inspirations
00:00:57
Speaker
You're lucky I don't know, uh, Silat, Pencak, or you'd be in trouble. Yeah, that is true. Or I don't own a pair of hammers. Oh yeah, that's true. Or I own a baseball bat. Well, do you actually own a baseball bat? No, I have a baseball, I have a baseball bat, unfortunately.
00:01:12
Speaker
what happened there this um i don't actually know i think i just like the idea of having a baseball but not having a bat okay that's fair enough i'm weird like that yeah that's it oh you know what it'll be is because like i used to like the great escape when i was young so i wanted to do the thing where you like throws the baseball at the wall yeah it's never bad and that's so you know
00:01:31
Speaker
You know what, I'll accept that answer. Moving on! So yeah, you might not like pick up on what we're going to talk about after that.
Diving into 'The Raid 2'
00:01:42
Speaker
Now we can. So yeah, today we are indeed talking about The Read 2. So it was about, well it was a couple of weeks ago that we talked initially about The Read 1 and how it really transformed our views on what makes a good action film. What makes a good film to be honest?
00:01:58
Speaker
well that is true yeah and from start to finish it it's just a roller coaster of both action emotions just everything really isn't it it's got it all yeah it really has it's just eh if i could say it's just and then leave the ellipses there it's just dot dot dot
00:02:15
Speaker
Yeah, that's how I would describe it. It's just that. True Raid fans will understand that. Yeah, true. Only true Raid fans. If you want to leave a comment underneath the same podcast episodes, like hashtag onlytrueraidfans will know. Put a hammer emoji up, we'll all understand. Yeah, yeah. Link your hammer emojis down there.
Financial Success and Sequel Creation
00:02:36
Speaker
the raid left such an impact on, well, just the genre and I suppose action fans worldwide. Which is kind of a unique circumstance, isn't it? That this kind of, this like low budget, and I don't mean low budget in like a derogatory term, I mean like it was a low budget film, the first one, and despite that it somehow like stormed. I don't know, did it storm the box office?
00:03:03
Speaker
when it came out? I think that's a good question. I don't actually know. I think it maybe did because it certainly became financially viable, so to speak, very quickly. I think it turned out a very decent profit, which is why the director, Gareth Evans, was given the expanded resources to make a sequel. But I can't tell you whether that was initially or whether that was just once the DVD came out and everything and the money started piling in there.
00:03:30
Speaker
Yeah, and now he just sits on a throne of raid money.
00:03:36
Speaker
You would think with a film so, like, wildly beloved by action fans, you kind of wonder, you know, because that is the worry that when you get a film that is so good and it's so hyped and it lives up to the hype, you think, how is it gonna match?
Expectations vs Reality
00:03:51
Speaker
How is a sequel, rather, going to match the legacy that this is left behind? Yeah, that's what we're gonna talk about today. Did the raid live up to the hype? And, yeah, spoilers! Probably, yes.
00:04:05
Speaker
I mean, would you say so? Oh yeah, definitely. Well, it lived up to my hype. In fact, I think it exceeded my hype, to be honest. Call back to a previous Chatsunami episode. But like, yeah, no, for me, I don't know, I don't feel I've seen much negative about it. I mean, I feel I only seen positive things. Whether people thought it was better than the first film, you know, I guess that's debatable. But like, so I don't think people
00:04:30
Speaker
hated it. It wasn't like a sequel that came out. People were like, oh, this is trash. You know, even if you didn't like it as much as the first one, I guarantee you're probably still like, liked it a lot.
Action and Drama Analysis
00:04:40
Speaker
So last time we kind of talked about how the Red One was very, you know, like brutal when the action is very, you know, I don't want to say claustrophobic, but you know what I mean? It's very in your face. It's very visceral, almost. But I mean, this film takes it to like, I mean, if the Red One was up at 100, somebody broke the dial and cranked it to 200 because this film just doubles on the previous one, doesn't it?
00:05:08
Speaker
Oh yeah, not only do they crank it up to like 200 as you say, but because you get more lulls in between the action, it's like the dial is then being turned down to zero again, so it's like a roller coaster where we're like, and then you're like, oh my god, we're down for a minute, and then you're back to an action scene again, so the dial is just going left and right like crazy. Yeah, that's amazing.
00:05:28
Speaker
or not. Yeah so thank you all for coming. And of course either out too. Yeah before we actually get into you know spoiler territories and everything so yeah here's your warning now we are going to be probably spoiling quite a bit of the film so if you haven't seen it yet please go away and feel free to like watch it first and then come back and listen to this and this would be nice here being please go watch this it's really good.
Cinematic Experiences
00:05:54
Speaker
But yeah, before we actually get into like, you know, diving into the main film, I'm actually quite curious, when you watched The Raid 2, did you watch it right after? Or kind of quite close to when you watched the first film? Was The Raid 2 come out in 2014?
00:06:12
Speaker
Yeah, right. So I saw it two years after, I saw the raid, the original raid in 2012, so the year after it was released. I loved it. And then I heard they were making a sequel. And I went to the cinema to see this, where it was released. And let me tell you, it is probably the best experience I've had watching a film in a cinema. It wasn't on one of the biggest screens.
00:06:34
Speaker
and cinema I went to. But it was still a big screen. It was quite a small audience. But you could tell everybody there had seen the first film and everybody was super hyped, super pumped to watch this. And we were all just there, just like in awe as it happened. And then I just remember the film ended and the credits came on. You know when that usually credits, when you usually get some people, some people all sit and wait for this.
00:06:54
Speaker
Other people like get straight off, you know go I swear nobody moved for about a good like two three minutes everybody was just they're like Taking in what we'd seen So I it's one of the best things I've seen I just remember watching the big screen just like my mind being blown. Yeah My 22 year old brain being like blown open here by this film so like about two years in but two years in between
00:07:19
Speaker
What about you? I'm just trying to remember. I think I've watched it within the same week at least. Oh nice. As I was saying in the last episode, I watched this in about, well the first Dredd film in about 2015. So I went to the cinema to see Dredd. Again, another amazing film. But after I watched Dredd, everybody kept saying, or rather talking about the Dredd. You know, friends, strangers on the internet.
00:07:47
Speaker
Things, you know, like people kept saying about how amazing this film narrate was. And it's one of those things where you kind of think, alright, okay, yeah, yeah, sure, sure, sure. I'll watch it, I'll watch it. If you know me, which I know you do, Adam, like, I'm terrible for watching things recommended to me. I'm like, yeah, I'll watch it another time, and then I never do.
00:08:08
Speaker
And yeah, that has caused great risks with certain people, but we'll go into that. And yeah, I watched it in about 2000 and I want to say 14, 15, I think, because it was my last year of university. It was just me and a couple of friends and my flatmates and everything.
00:08:25
Speaker
We watched it. I was absolutely blown away by it. It was absolutely fantastic. And then I think the same week. It was definitely in the next couple of weeks anyway. At latest, like the next month maybe. Yeah, we ended up watching the raid too. And again, I was just blown away by how impactful it
Expanded Storytelling and Themes
00:08:43
Speaker
was. Both with the action and how much it kind of not only lived up
00:08:48
Speaker
to its original but how it built upon like a really basic premise because I mean the original premise is drug lord at top of building police go up building police bugger up and then yeah they end up
00:09:04
Speaker
well it's not a happy ending but you know it's like they eventually get out of the building and everything yeah spoil us with the first one but you know like eventually they get out and yeah it's you think okay it's a basic premise there how are they gonna build upon it and
00:09:20
Speaker
My god, they really build upon it with the sequel. Kind of before we jump in, can I find out something? Like, what were your first impressions? So see the very opening scene? So I really want to talk about this because I was gonna- Oh, we just got into spoilers, will we?
00:09:36
Speaker
yeah yeah so this is yeah this is your warning for spoiler territory guys see the opening shot where it's just a white shot of an open field and in the corner you've just got the action going on initially it's not something you would expect from a film like The Raid at the beginning of like the first one of course they build up Rama and who is the main character
00:09:59
Speaker
and you're preparing to go read this building and everything and he always says his prayers, he says goodbye to his family and then it kind of slowly builds up to the action. With this, it's rather like a peaceful build up until you realise what's going on.
00:10:16
Speaker
if you know what I mean. Like maybe I'm just reading too much into this and yeah feel free to let me know if I am. I feel as if it's quite like an impactful moment because it's like it kind of shows how minimal. I don't know if this was intentional or not probably it was or probably it's just me reading too much into it but it's the fact that so basically what's happening in the corner of the screen is
00:10:38
Speaker
there is a guy getting dragged out of a car beaten and bloodied. It's revealed to be Rama's brother, who is, you know, in the first one he was at the top of the building. He was like the right-hand man of the main villain. And eventually it ends up he is just being dragged to a field and he basically gets told by these goons that he's getting too big for his boots.
00:11:00
Speaker
and then he gets shot in the head and executed and then roll credits. But something I thought was quite interesting was the fact that they made his focus at the very beginning so minimal. They show this kind of huge shot but it's like a huge kind of expansive landscape and they just show him as like a tiny speck as if
00:11:19
Speaker
you know like the minimizing like his role and the kind of overall picture of the film if you know or not even the first the second one because you know in the first one he was a big deal wasn't he yeah but it's kind of like minimize it's kind of showing his like how he's just this this small part of yeah much larger like criminal machine and can i say that was some excellent i think that was some excellent film theory that you just yeah i was like oh there i was like damn that is there's some high that is some high skill analysis there
00:11:48
Speaker
No, I totally agree. I totally agree. I think it's a really good point. You have to presume as well that, you know, the director chose that shot to be there. So, you know, there was a reason for it. I think you've given I think you've given an excellent reason for why it's there. I think as well, it's a really good tone setter. Yeah. The film that the fact is you talked about and you perfectly described the raid one as being very claustrophobic.
00:12:10
Speaker
which is because it's just set in this one building oh yeah for the most part but now like for the raid 2 we are like we are sporing out we're in multiple different locations and everything it's a much wider it's not only a much wider physical space that the film takes place in but also like in terms of there's far more characters there's more character development it's actually that just that wide shot you can almost see is like you know this is me definitely reading too much into this
00:12:31
Speaker
now but you can almost see it as showing the expanded scale of the sequel compared to the original oh no totally i mean it's like i almost see it was a full key though it's just um is it Gareth Davis Evans Evans sorry honestly i was like is it Davis or Evans i'm like it's one of these well yeah it's one of these ones um Gareth Evans yeah is
00:12:55
Speaker
I suppose it's like the low-key him flexing that he's no longer in the one set, you know? He's just like, look at this. Because this was initially his first choice of film because I think he wanted to make a prison drama but he didn't have the budget for it or anything so they kind of had to scale it back to being a, yeah, just basically a
00:13:19
Speaker
high rise flat really, and that's where all the action takes place in the first one. Whereas the second one, although it's the same city, it does hop from place to place. The weird thing is, and again, maybe I'm reading too much into this, but as you said, it's a really calm opening despite what's about to happen. And it's like a very slow, like they take their time. Because I remember you watching this and thinking, okay, they're taking their time with this, they're not like rushing in. Because you know like some, or
00:13:47
Speaker
certain action films. If it was the same scene, they would show the car racing through the field. It stops, they pull the body out, the guy's saying, no, don't do it. And then they pull his head off and, oh, look at this. Ah, it's that. But in this, they allow it to kind of mature and just let the audience kind of settle in and be like, okay, what's going on? This is
00:14:10
Speaker
something's not quite right but as I said it's the main character from the first one Rama it's his brother that's under the bag and eventually he gets shot in the head and then it hard cuts to the title screen of The Raid 2 and you're like oh oh this is gonna be good
00:14:27
Speaker
Another interesting thing as well, and I don't know if this is like a kind of gimmicky thing that, because it's the raid two that he set the film two hours after, the raid one. Because the only reason they say that is there was supposed to be a raid three and I think that's what he said, it was supposed to be set three hours before the ending of this film or something like that. So I don't know whether that's what he was going for or maybe it's just a coincidence.
00:14:53
Speaker
It's really cool though. It immediately follows up where Rama's getting debriefed by... Oh no, sorry. No, I was just going to say Indonesian anti-corruption.
Undercover Missions and Moral Dilemmas
00:15:06
Speaker
I'm just going to point out, currently as we are recording this, there's a very popular BBC show going on called Line of Duty.
00:15:15
Speaker
And that's all about the police trying to route out corrupt officers and things. And let me just say, see if that show dealt with corrupt officers the same as this film? Let's just say that the series would be a hell of a lot shorter.
00:15:34
Speaker
Because yeah, right off the bat, the guy just like pulls out a gun and executes Indonesian Clint Eastwood, who of course was like the lieutenant who led them into the building and it was revealed like he was corrupt. And they just like do away with him. To which, of course, Rama is very moral.
00:15:52
Speaker
he keeps saying that he won't drop down to that level of, you know, I'm not gonna fight dirty and everything. And that's something that's carried throughout the film. And yeah, basically he sits there saying, you know, oh, we should have taken him to court and, you know, there's a whole back and forth and everything. Like, you're all those cannon! No, you're all those cannon! You know, it's whole back and forth and it's quite interesting.
00:16:17
Speaker
Eventually he says no and then he realises that his brother's been murdered and he's suddenly, oh sorry, before I go on, the reason they've brought them there is they, and correct me if I'm wrong, but did they not pretend that he was killed in the initial assault on the building, on the high rise in the first home?
00:16:39
Speaker
And they basically say to him that they want him to work undercover for them to catch the big fish. They want the head honcho of the gangs and everything. And he's like, initially he says no. But then after his brother is murdered, he realises that he wants to do this. And he only thinks, oh, it's gonna be, you know, a couple of months, I'll be home by Christmas. And, yeah, no. That's not how it goes, really, is it? Nope, not in this lettuce. No.
00:17:08
Speaker
After that of course he is you know brought to the prison and yeah I'm gonna let you describe this bit because this is this is just a wild bit isn't it? It is the bathroom. Oh yeah that too but no I just mean in general. I'll let you do the bathroom bit.
00:17:25
Speaker
yeah no problem so like kind of a brief like fanboy trivia moment here the action in this film is fantastic and see the techniques that they use if i'm just going to fanboy about it now feel free to join in
00:17:40
Speaker
It is amazing in Paris. See the choreography and the way it's shot and the tricks they use, they're fantastic. They are absolutely brilliant. And I don't think I've ever fanboyed as hard with, you know, choreography before. Or, you know, like filming techniques. But my god, this film gets it down to an art.
00:18:00
Speaker
it is. So I remember I was watching a behind the scenes thing and at the start you see Rama in prison and he's sitting on a toilet and he's kind of waiting until he's kind of waiting for something and you don't quite know what and then you realise it's other prisoners that are banging at the door
00:18:18
Speaker
not to use the toilet of course but to beat him up and again it's this very claustrophobic scene where all these goons come in just trying to beat him up and he just annihilates them all i watched like a behind the scenes video for this and i was like i wonder how they did that because it's very like claustrophobic it's very close how did they do this and then what you saw was
00:18:39
Speaker
to compensate for that. They actually moved the walls, which seems like a very minor thing, but they moved the walls with the actors. So whenever they were doing their stunts, they would move the wall just a bit to the side and everything, and I thought, that is so cool.
00:18:54
Speaker
it's just like it's a really minor thing but I mean the other scene later on is when there's a car chase and instead of like cutting like to you're doing like a CGI one what they do instead is they drive alongside this car and they have this like inside shot where the camera travels through the car itself yeah there's a guy dressed as like a car seat
00:19:17
Speaker
sitting beside like the guy driving and he takes the camera and then he takes it through the car and then passes it to a guy who's lying like underneath the car or like at the side of the car it's just the filming in this is great like I know I've just kind of like I know I've just kind of just ranted about like how good the cinematography is but as it's brilliant it's on a level it really is
00:19:43
Speaker
when you see like what they, what they did. And a lot of it is, I mean, some of it is so simple. Just the idea of like moving the walls and stuff. It's something that's so simple when you think about it in practice, but like just build so much more. Cause you know, you can, there's more space. You can bring like two guys into like, you know, pummel on them inside and everything. But at the same time, it still feels like you're in this kind of confined space. Like it's just really clever. It's honestly such clever filmmaking.
00:20:09
Speaker
at the
00:20:27
Speaker
I can't remember what it is, but apparently Gareth Evans kind of looked and was like, yeah, this building will do. And it's like, that's amazing. And it looks like a prison, in fact. Yeah. Because it's like they put up the, not the barbed wire, but what you've got with the gate around it, like the courtyard. And they basically got, I think it was just like a massive tarpaulin they put in the middle.
00:20:49
Speaker
And don't get me wrong, I don't know what I thought they had for the muds, but they actually brought their own mud, essentially. They just pumped all the water in and rather they used to mix them, assuming they were sand or something, or not sand, but you know, all that kind of stuff. But yeah, they just made their own mud pit, essentially.
00:21:08
Speaker
And then they had trouble filming because of the... I think it was because of the sun light or something? Oh really? Yeah, I think it was either too bright or... Which is kind of weird because usually it's the opposite way around, it's like they don't have enough light. But I thought that was really... I have to admit, I thought that was really interesting. Just the way they filmed that. It just like built up the set. But sorry. Yeah, I'll hand it over to you.
00:21:31
Speaker
No, no, no. I love Here. I love Here. It's more about how they film these scenes and everything because it's so impressive. It's honestly one of the only films I would say seriously go check it out the behind the scenes after you watch it because it's like you won't be disappointed with what...
Craftsmanship and Choreography
00:21:47
Speaker
Did she just answer it, didn't it? Yeah, because you know sometimes you see like action films and it's like, oh yes, today we are going to be fighting. See, look at this crazy behind the scenes and you're like, that's not impressive.
00:22:00
Speaker
but it does it's like my jaw was just on the ground like how did you do that how could it and it's all again as she said it's all very simple tricks and things but yeah it's so well done it's so well done but yeah sorry anyway so like so as Rama's gone into prison he's now going now going by the name Yuda so he's in prison to get close to the the son of one of the most powerful crime bosses in let's say in Indonesia but it's obviously in the city of
00:22:27
Speaker
I don't know if it's like the capital city or whatever, but anyway, the city that it's set in. And so basically his aim is to get close to the sun. And so the sun's kind of introduced himself to Rama, but Rama's kind of kept his cool, kept his distance, you know, just like plenty, he's not interested, nagged him a little bit.
00:22:43
Speaker
And so it gets to a scene where they're all outside, as you said, they're all in this outside. I don't know whether it's the yard time or if they're meant to be doing chores or whatever, but basically it's, they're outside and it's pouring with rain and they're all sitting in this kind of U-shaped cover bed and there's just this giant mud like right in front of them. And I said it's surrounded by gates and barbed wire and there's guards, prison guards on the outside.
00:23:04
Speaker
and then Rama's sitting there and he's got a broom so maybe they are doing chores and then he notices he sees two separate groups of people coming around like sort of conferring and whispering and then he sees one of them getting one of the prisoners like getting a shiv
00:23:17
Speaker
and then he sees the ship get passed around, and he sees these two groups come around towards where he's sitting. And he realizes that they're targeting the son of the crime boss who's called Uco. So they're targeting Uco, and Uco's the person he needs to get close to, so he realizes he's got to protect him. So he starts to... The shot slows down and everything, and he puts his foot on the broom, and he starts twisting the handle, trying to get it loose. And then you're like, is he going to get it loose in time? They're getting closer and closer, and they're coming around.
00:23:46
Speaker
and then just as the guy is coming in to come and stab Uco, he gets the Rama, gets the broom handle out and then all hell breaks loose and he's beating the crap out of people with this broom to start with and then this big bruiser comes in and grabs hold of Rama and throws him into the mud and that's when it becomes this giant brawl and then the action starts spreading into the mud pit and the guards, the prison guards start charging in to try and get order but then the other prisoners are going to attack the guards
00:24:11
Speaker
And this just massive brawl just breaks out. For such a chaotic scene of action, it's so well shot because you can follow around of what's happening. The camera kind of pans around and it shows you, not only do we see Rama and Uco fighting against the assassins and everything, but we also just see the random prisoners just attacking the guards. And these guards desperately trying to fight for their lives and fend them off. And we even see two prisoners trying to use the chaos to make an escape, and they try and climb the barbed wire.
00:24:40
Speaker
They're shot by one of the prison snipers. He's up on the roof, and it's just this, and then more guards pile in at the same time. But it's such a chaotic scene, but it's so well done that you can follow, and you can follow what's happening, and you get this sense of this giant brawl that's just erupted.
00:24:55
Speaker
I know that kind of dis-introductive to be like, it's fantastic. Maybe God. Do you know what it reminds me of? It's like, you know when people say, it's not your grandpa's, like, something or other. You know, it's like, I honestly have a feel in this prison scene. Like, I honestly winced. There's only like a few things in action films that make me wince. Broken Bones are one of them. Like, there's a guy that Rama fights who is... Yeah, it's like he's built like a shit brick house and he like gets his legs snapped like...
00:25:25
Speaker
90 degrees and he nearly gets choked out, you get people getting stabbed. There's one scene where a guard is getting strangled
00:25:40
Speaker
and another prisoner is like trying to rip his jaw in the toe half. He's trying to like pull it out as like some kind of saw trap. It's like oh no and yeah just there's a lot of that kind of gritty visceral and I mean again going back to like uneducated film theory here I suppose.
00:26:02
Speaker
I mean I guess it is like the perfect setting because you see like Rama, I was about to call him by his other name, you can see Rama you know like fighting in just this horrible grim you know like disgusting muddy hellscape really isn't it like with people dying getting shivved and everything you know like people getting their legs chopped and it's just it's brutal and he's just like throwing himself into this world of like just
00:26:30
Speaker
I suppose it's like a parallel of what's to come really because it's like you don't expect things are gonna get better because I mean he ends up saving as you said he saves his
00:26:49
Speaker
the son of the crime boss who eventually because of that he gets released doesn't he? Which is kind of good because earlier on in the film he gets like a, not a telegram, like a guy who comes in and is just like oh by the way you're in here for years not months.
00:27:07
Speaker
And it's like, what the hell? The reason he says that is because the reason he was in prison, which I don't get how he couldn't have just, well, I suppose it wouldn't have been this legit, but the reason he was in prison was because he beats up like a very prolific politician's son, I think. But it's also like the politician who put like
00:27:28
Speaker
uko in jail yeah so that's why they do it because it's like way from it's a bit of course yeah to the extent of course because he does say that doesn't he says among the lines of i'll give you two something to talk about ah okay right i get you
00:27:43
Speaker
Thanks for reminding me there. Yeah, eventually, as you said, he gets out early and A gets embroiled in the life of crime, really. And it just goes to show how deep he becomes, or how deep he goes into this life, really. Yeah.
00:28:00
Speaker
because he's a very moral character, isn't he? He's very... he's moral compass is very... is very... is pointed in the right direction 90% of the time but throughout the film it starts to kind of waver a little bit because like one of the scenes... I'm kind of like jumping ahead but one of the scenes I'm thinking is when they go to collect money
00:28:20
Speaker
from someone operating in their district or their turf. And remember it's the guy who has the early CD business of burning DVDs. I was going to say.
00:28:35
Speaker
Yes, that industry of goodness. And of course, he's trying to expand his business. That was not a pun. And of course, because of that, he kind of gives the hint to he's subordinates. Oh, by the way, things are going to get ugly to which Rama picks it up and he just absolutely
00:28:55
Speaker
pummels them are 90% over me pummels a lot of them as they have and when he's chasing this other guy that is like one of the first moments you can see his kind of descent into playing the part i want to say because like remember how the boss of like a city warehouse it's just like lying there broken bloody he's just bruised and he like
00:29:16
Speaker
grabs a baseball bat off of just this random guy and he goes to beat him again and then he realises he's not moving. He's just kind of like breathing, there's a horrible bloody husk. And it's like,
00:29:32
Speaker
okay and he's like okay yeah better stop and that's kind of like a hint into like no not a hint it's like it's as much a hint as you know like getting smacked across the face with a baseball bat but you know we'll get to that bit. Can I give a shout out to the character like the character who gets the baseball bat off he's like so he chases the um
00:29:55
Speaker
I don't know what to call him. I better not call him Michael. But he chases the other guy. And then he throws him through a window into this small dingy apartment. And the tenant of that apartment's in there. And he's just sitting in the corner, terrified out of his mind, holding his baseball bat. Actually, the ramen just goes up to him and starts just slapping him around to try and get the bat off of him.
00:30:18
Speaker
I can't even let go of the batteries. It just cracks me up. I was just slapping him around the side of the head. I had to give him a little shout.
00:30:29
Speaker
And yeah, of course, that is just... I wouldn't say it goes downhill yet, but it certainly shows the life that he's gonna be leading for the next couple of months.
Betrayal and Espionage
00:30:41
Speaker
Especially when he meets the head boss, because I think his first introduction is he gets told to strip in front of him. Purely for the wire.
00:30:51
Speaker
They're checking to see if he's got a wire. Some actually didn't realise, but I'll remind me to talk about it later. There is one bit where when they're searching for the wire, he doesn't realise that he actually does have a wire on him, and it's been planted by the police officers that are working with him, and he says, oh, don't do that again. Almost giving this level of distrust, isn't it? Of like, how dare you?
00:31:21
Speaker
How do you do this? And then of course, yeah, eventually, like, do you know what actually reminded me a little of? You know the latter half of License to Kill? Oh yeah. Just that kind of, I know it's like a basic story of like, you know, good guy infiltrates like bad headquarters and everything but it was quite, well, I would say this is a lot more brutal than License to Kill.
00:31:43
Speaker
Surprisingly, even despite somebody's head exploding. Because you see the brutality and the contrast between the head of this organisation and his son, who is just this
00:32:02
Speaker
horrible hotheaded mess. You see him or you see both of them go to this karaoke place and he's just being so like you know verbally abusive to basically to women that have been hired to sing and you know like
00:32:17
Speaker
talk with them and essentially and he is just like you know saying like he's above them he's you know and that kind of sets the scene of him being so impatient like you can tell this kind of initially like some kind of charisma behind him but then after that it's like you realize yeah this is a guy you do not want to like and not
00:32:38
Speaker
yeah it's like it's not so much you don't want to cross them it's like you just don't want to make eye contact in case it blows up because it's like it ends up nearly just going ballistic up until one of the women presses the panic button and even then the guy who's supposed to be protecting them is like
00:32:56
Speaker
just he's just terrified he's like yeah he's just like yeah we're fine aren't we just like dragging this poor girl's head as if it's like a puppet it's like genius and then fortunately he gets a work call which leads him to
00:33:15
Speaker
you know, which leads him to like a rammer rather, to put like a tracking beacon into his wallet, or not a tracking beacon, sorry, a wire, like a wiretap. Which is very handy, so keep that in mind guys, keep that in mind.
00:33:31
Speaker
What happens after that? Is it the meeting that happens? Yeah, so he goes off to meet Beho, who is like the new kind of new kid on the block, the new bad guy who is the one who killed Rama's brother, or didn't kill him personally, but like ordered him killed in the beginning. And that's the person that Rama's kind of going, well, as much as Rama's like there to like help root out like police corruption, the collaboration between like the organized crime and the police is like,
00:33:57
Speaker
Senior senior leaders like he's on his own mission to basically take down Beo. Yeah, I'm an avenger Avengers brother So yeah, who co gets a call from Beo who's like trying to make his way up and basically the like the organized crime in the city is divided between two families you have a book so you have like the end the kind of native Indonesian crime family, which is Uco and his father Bank Bangin and
00:34:19
Speaker
Yeah, Banggood. Yeah, so that's they have. And then the other half is divided between basically what they keep calling the Japanese, the Japanese family. The Gotos. Yeah, the Gotos. The Gotos, yeah. And then Beo is basically trying to carve out his own like, you know, trying to carve himself out as a major player and he tries to enlist Uco.
00:34:37
Speaker
and as you say he plays on this whole like Uco's frustrations you know and his Uco is like he's like champer chomping at the bit basically to get more responsibility from his dad but his dad's holding him back because his dad can see exactly the kind of wild card that he is and and he says it's a dorama as well like you know he's trying to like trying to keep a control of him
00:34:55
Speaker
And so Bayo kind of plays on that with Uco, and they start to kind of concoct a plan to rise up the ranks. Can I just point out one particular? It's a very minor scene, but I think it kind of shows what kind of people these are. When basically the guy from earlier that he nearly beats with a baseball bat, the guy from the warehouse, they eventually, so Uco's family, I don't know what you would call them, employees, henchmen?
00:35:22
Speaker
Whatever they are. They probably do have benefits but they end up getting rid of the body and they're just digging a shallow ditch. But a couple of metres away, the head of the family in the whole business venture is just fishing casually at this riverside and it's really just like, huh, okay, this must just be a daily occurrence. And he does, he talks about, you know, he starts having a kind of
00:35:49
Speaker
like a close moment with Rama kind of saying how he always believed or he always noticed that his son was very hot tempered, he doesn't want to believe the worst in him and everything. And Rama tries to beef him up and be like, oh no, he talks highly of you, he talks really well for you.
00:36:06
Speaker
Yeah, and then two seconds later he's slitting throats at a vacant restaurant, but that's another story. Also that line the father has after, as you say, he's fishing away and then after the body's about to be buried and stuff, he turns around and he's like, throw the fish back. It's not good around here. Obviously all the bodies are buried slash dumped.
00:36:30
Speaker
don't want to be eating these fish. It's just like a small thing where it's just like oh god it's great. It's like grim, is that a very dark humour? Yeah so yeah of course that leads on to the something that probably confused a lot of Raid fans when it came out. So basically
00:36:49
Speaker
Bajo and Uco strike a deal, and they basically plan to try and instigate a gang war. And they try to do so by killing... I think initially they kill the... Uco kills these random henchmen in the restaurant when they're at the meeting. Because he's like instructed, Bajo says, you know if you kill them then yeah it's gonna be...
00:37:14
Speaker
It's gonna be great, I swear. And that'll, as you said, that'll lead to them teaming up to be able to take over with their own turf. But yeah, he kills them and he goes to his dad and he says, Dad, look what they've done. And he's like, yeah, it's fine.
00:37:29
Speaker
Well, it's not fine, but it's just like, okay, it's kind of a minor thing, but we won't retaliate. So he throws a hissy fit, and he thinks, okay, how can I scale this up? And he goes to a family friend who... I've just seen the first rated film. It's the same actor who plays the character Mad Dog, and he's played a different character than this one. Do you remember what his name is? Procoso. Procoso, yeah. They call him like Cozo, I think a lot of times.
00:37:54
Speaker
Yeah, no, that's what I was thinking, because I know it's Coso, but I was like, what? I was like, what's his Christian name? But yeah, he, you can see he's like a kind of Merc for hire, I suppose, or not even a Merc, like just a...
00:38:09
Speaker
just an assassin yeah like he goes up and sees this um this rich guy just walking and flaunting his cash and everything and then he gets like driven through with a machete and you're like oh no so yeah koso like goes to you know you can tell he's i mean i have to admit i do like the fact that they developed his character somewhat because he's basically a family man outside outside of his business ventures with the machete you know he's he's
00:38:38
Speaker
He's a family man paying off his child support and he gets called away to discuss with Uco about the... basically saying don't listen to Bajo and everything and don't, you know, just keep your head, you know. Yeah, basically kind of quite a...
00:38:57
Speaker
peppy speeches and he's like, you've got this, you know, you've got fire burning. And then he looks down at his locket on Tuesday. This is a bit, I kind of thought, okay, this is a bit weird, where he's like looking down at his locket, which has got a picture of, I think it's his child, isn't it? Yeah. And then he looks up again and everybody is, so they meet in a club to discuss this, but as soon as he looks up, it's like a Looney Tunes moment where everybody's gone from the club. And it's like,
00:39:27
Speaker
the DJ's gone, all the patrons inside, all the dancers, like everybody just, you know, do you know what would have made it funnier, see if like they had a seat just like spinning? It's just like, because he walks up and he's like, where the hell is everyone? How long was I standing at this locket? And then of course, like even Uco who was talking to him is just like, oh I'm just going to the loo, you know, that old excuse.
00:39:52
Speaker
and he walks away just going to go freshen up and then of course when he looks up he sees all these guys floating down and he half the amount he does make like a good or he puts up a good fight doesn't he who kills all of them every everybody who comes into that club yeah he kills them all we don't see anybody else coming out of there like oh sorry i'll let you explain but yeah he does have a good fight
00:40:18
Speaker
No, no, no, go on. No, I was just gonna say, because even Uco, like, he ends up escaping the club and he looks around and Uco's standing at the door like, Jesus Christ. He's still alive? No, my God! So much so that they have to hire a specialist to finish him off and it's like, oh my God, this is just, this is getting ridiculous now.
00:40:37
Speaker
Which of course he does get like he finally bites the dust Sorry just just to describe like that because actually for this for this fight scene I think the right two is I say it's a far more obviously of you grieve me or not I think it's a far more artistic film
00:40:53
Speaker
than the raid one. Going back to what you were talking about, that very opening shot and the kind of ways done and everything. I just re-watched this film again a few hours ago, just before this. I'm watching that kind of fight scene. I think you can see a lot of artistic elements there. Granted, again, it is like another classic large-scale fight, and it is that very much that same sort of fight to the death. This is people's life and death struggle here.
00:41:20
Speaker
And I think that actor is, I'm not even going to try and pronounce his name because I'm going to have to butcher it, but he is so good at doing that kind of fighting where it's like you're pushing yourself to the last and it doesn't matter, you're going to scratch claw, whatever you do to survive. But there's so many parts around that fight that are so artistic. So even though I think about the time lapse that you were talking about, he just stares down at his locket and then all of a sudden this packed nightclub, which is emptied,
00:41:48
Speaker
and everything like even that kind of that's such an artistic kind of artistic choice to do that we don't know how much time has gone and then when he gets outside the club for some reason it's snowing and I don't know a lot about Indonesia but I've never really associated Indonesia with snow and I maybe it does snow there I don't know for a fact but it's interesting because at no other point in the film is it any remotely close to snowing it's just this one seat
00:42:13
Speaker
but it's such it's such an artistic choice and it really highlights because there's like a last as you said like procoso like
00:42:19
Speaker
like stumbles out the club like bloodied and battered and then so they're still the last of the henchmen are out and he's like slicing them up and the blood is like spraying and as violent and brutal as it is it's almost kind of like that it's almost like art in a way you know the way it's such a striking contrast against the kind of clean white white snow and then like as you said as he stumbles back and then the I think I think his carriage is called the assassin I think
00:42:43
Speaker
the kind of bad guy with his like curved knives. He like slices up. And again it's just the artistic way of the blood spraying out and as he falls to the ground just the blood just kind of like spreads almost like a canvas and sort of this very violent canvas. It's just such like a I don't know like and then you've got you've got um handles like Sarabande like this classic famous classical music tune playing in the background for this final bit which is so like different to any of the other music that's
00:43:13
Speaker
been in either of the Raid films. It's just this moment of just art, of really, really violent art. And also as well, it kind of feels a little bit like almost a passing of a torch.
Gimmicky Characters
00:43:23
Speaker
So in the way that the guy who kills off, although he's not Mad Dog in this film.
00:43:28
Speaker
it's still the same actor. We kind of see the torch of like violent psychopath, you know, who's like absolutely like who's such a skilled fighter. That torch is almost passed from like the actor playing Mad Dog to this new guy, the assassin, and who's like we establish him as like he's going to be the real like, you know, he's the real friend. We know that there's going to the final confrontation is going to have to be Rama versus him. So it's a very it's a very good way of showing that as well, of establishing like a real threat.
00:43:55
Speaker
I mean, they're definitely foreshadows of what the assassin is capable of because I mean, you see, you see Rekozo take out like a club full of henchmen and come out, granted he's bloodied and bruised, but he comes out relatively well.
00:44:10
Speaker
considering to take on that guy and just get absolutely mauled is yeah like and kind of going back to your point about the snow i mean again this is this is probably me going back to standard English levels here thinking but snow not usually like associated with hiding things because i'm thinking that's like that's the only scene with snow in the film isn't it yeah because again oh yeah it is it's the only ones yeah
00:44:37
Speaker
because again this might be me reading too much into it but like the idea of Rocozo being like I suppose like a sacrificial lamb pretty much for this gang water car it's really fascinating because as you said that's the only scene where it's like you know the
00:44:53
Speaker
operatic music or classical music sorry and it's the fact that it's this betrayal and the fact that the snow is falling on top of them like in terms of snow i think and again this could be me reading too much into it but the idea that the snow of course is like covering up you know blemishes
00:45:14
Speaker
because that's a thing in writing where it's like you know they describe snow covering everything and it's you know it's untouched it's perfect and things and it is kind of like symbolic for what Uco is doing here. He's basically covering up like a horrible horrible crime by just basically smothering it really.
00:45:33
Speaker
by getting this guy killed and then they basically do not drag the body away I kind of know what they do to if I don't I think it's I think it's left there I think it's yeah oh right it's like because then he lies and then you see the blood just like pouring out into the snow yeah I suppose that's symbolic as well of how like cold Ukraine becomes like he is just like this seems to be the turning point because I think it's one thing him killing
00:45:58
Speaker
I mean, he can tell he doesn't have a quorum with killing strangers. And even then he doesn't kill. He doesn't kill this family friend he kills. Or he lets the assassin do it. Which again is him distancing himself from people who should be in his life supporting him. But for obvious reasons they're not going to be anymore.
00:46:20
Speaker
And yeah, there's just such a brutality to it. And it is quite a poignant scene, which of course then leads to him running to his dad again going, look, look, they killed Castle, look, they killed him. And the dad's just like, yeah, I'm getting pulled into the office by my management.
00:46:40
Speaker
which is, of course, like, is it not like a family above both of like the go to family? There's the there's like the police. There's like the police authorities who are kind of uneasy, like truce makers, you know, like this kind of corrupt triangle of the two, the two crime families and then the police leadership trying to like, you know, although we, although we find out later the police, some of the police are playing their own kind of game as well. Oh, yeah. But it appears as this corrupt triangle to put the police leadership trying to like keep this
00:47:10
Speaker
truce goings everybody can make money basically you know the palms can keep getting greased it's just ridiculous it's like how many people are not a flattering portrayal of Indonesian police it really is not no absolutely not Rama seems to be the only shiny example yeah yeah I guess ridiculous at some points we were just like okay he's corrupt he's corrupt
00:47:33
Speaker
I wonder if he's corrupt. It's just that cycle. I suppose it goes into that idea of Rama can't trust anyone. He's just constantly looking over his shoulder going, well, can I trust him? Can I trust them? Yeah, that of course leads to this bit. Action wise is fantastic, but I'm a bit afraid
00:47:52
Speaker
about this part of the film. So basically what happens is Uco goes to his dad and he basically gets slapped around. It had no sauce before that. He basically says look they killed you know our family friend and everything and he starts yelling at them and he's like you know oh we're not gonna cause a gang war. They keep you know going back and forth so then he like even has an outburst at Rama saying oh
00:48:15
Speaker
you don't know me and then he basically just says if it lets yeah let's just go for the plan. The plan of course being to instigate this gang war with Barrow and he basically um how to put this in the gentlest way. Yeah it is a massacre isn't it?
00:48:34
Speaker
Is what is a high-bloody count? Yeah, they just start like murdering people from This is the Japanese family. They start murdering like they're trying to so they they go around to murder like high-profile people in the Japanese crime family to try and make it look like the Indonesian but bang guns like Bang guns like or gang have like done. Yeah, I've done it. Yeah
00:48:55
Speaker
I honestly don't know how to feel about this bit. The reason being, because you might think, well, what's wrong? What do they do different? They introduced the re-, well, sorry, two technically essential characters, which become, let's face it, they are very memorable characters in this film. That, of course, being the Hammer Girl. I don't know if they've actually got names in this. Hammer Girl and Baseball Batman. That's the official names. That's the official name of the cast in the credits.
00:49:25
Speaker
Yeah, honestly, because I was looking thinking, do they have actual names? No, it is, it's just Hammer Girl and Baseball Batman, which sounds like a bad superhero name, but trust me, these people are just absolutely brutal. And I do like what he was trying to go with, because we've got a very unique fighting style, where Baseball Batman, of course, go figure who uses a baseball bat to beat up his enemies. And baseballs!
00:49:54
Speaker
and baseballs as well. He has a very good trajectory whereas his sister who is deaf and partially blind I think, she goes around beating people up with hammers and that bit made me wince because it's a claw hammer. So on the other end it's got the bit to
00:50:13
Speaker
pry open nails which instead of nails like just the magic spines and rib cages and that's what she essentially rips open is it is gruesome it's absolutely gruesome i was just like oh no this is i said i said to you i've said to you multiple times hammer girl is the scariest the scariest character i think i've ever seen in a film if it's one character i would never want to meet in film history
00:50:37
Speaker
You know, give me Dracula, give me a werewolf, give me freaking Godzilla before I have to meet Hammer Girl. Hammer Girl terrifies the crap out of me. It's not in the film that long, but oh my goodness. That scene on the subway is the most brutal thing I've ever seen. It's when she's beaten them up and you can see she's not even ripping through them. Well, she is, but she starts hitting one of them like a xylophone.
00:51:07
Speaker
essentially and she's just like do do do do and it's like oh my god no it's like what is going on um because you see the blood spots come up on the like the shirt and everything it's like oh this is grim but the reason i'm saying like you know like other than the action the action's absolutely fantastic but the reason i'm kind of pointing out and saying i'm not like
00:51:30
Speaker
100% sold in these characters. I just feel they're very gimmicky. I don't want to undersell the raid and be like, oh, it's a Saturday morning cartoon with a, you know, it's like, oh, we can't defeat the main hero, so let's outsource to these wacky characters. But it just seems like a very weird choice for an otherwise semi-grounded... Like, don't get me wrong, obviously there's some things in disbelief you have to suspend, but
00:51:58
Speaker
I don't know, like, what do you think about these characters? Like, other than them being terrifying, of course. You are totally right in that they are very gimmicky. But I think they were. Well, for me, this is just my personal opinion. So, you know, for me personally,
00:52:13
Speaker
I think they work well because, you said before, they are highly memorable. I'd argue they're some of the most memorable characters out of any of these two films. Because you remember, you're like, oh, good. You remember the Hammer, you remember Hammer Girl, you remember the Hammer, you remember the baseball bat. And I remember when I first saw them, I was like, well, first, when I first saw Hammer Girl, I was like, oh, I was like, you know, that way of like, both being absolutely in awe and also being absolutely scared out of my mind. But like, all I could think about when I saw them was like,
00:52:41
Speaker
my god i can't wait for ramen to fight them and i think that's why that's why it works for me is that like it's like you don't you only see them kind of fighting in that in that kind of bit there with their first introduce but i was like i cannot wait for ramen to square off against these two because you know it's it's gonna be good
00:53:00
Speaker
And so for me, for me, they work and also like hammer girls terrified by baseball Batman. He's one of the funniest scenes for me in any of the scene where he's induced. So he batters his way through like he's going after one of the high profile Japanese gangsters. He batters his way through all his like guards and he gets the bet. And the guy's like doing a drug deal or something like that. He's doing a deal anyway. So they don't see baseball Batman come in and he just like he pulls a baseball out of his pocket and he just like
00:53:28
Speaker
He just like, you know, judges the distance and everything, gets set, then he throws them all there and he smacks it. He smacks it straight into one of the guys, not like the guys after, but the other guy's head. And the other guy's just like, ooh, this like head just explodes in front of this baseball. And then he starts running away and then baseball Batman throws another baseball and hits him like square in the back, which just looks painful as anything. And he's just like crawling on the floor. And then he goes, he starts walking towards him and he's like, give me the ball.
00:53:54
Speaker
And the guy's just like, aha, that was smart. And he picks up the ball and throws it down this lift shaft, being like, ha ha, what are you going to do now? Baseball Batman's just like, that was a mistake. And he just comes close. And the guy's like, oh, oh no. And then just gets absolutely battered to death with the baseball bat. And another very artistic scene where every time baseball Batman hits him in the head, the camera shot moves back, moves back, and moves back, and goes further and further away. So for me, they're just such memorable characters. And I just remember being like, I couldn't
00:54:24
Speaker
wait to see that the confrontation between them and Rama so that's why they they worked for me and you're right they are very gimmicky but again just speaking personally like it just worked for me. No they are iconic I will give you that they are definitely like if you think of the raid I have to admit when I was thinking of this film because I haven't seen this film in years up until I watched it for this episode and yeah those are the two like characters I really remembered you know of course they've
00:54:50
Speaker
I don't know it's just I remember that scene in the subway of basically hard just tearing through yeah, hard just tearing through all these poor people and yeah it's just it's a marvel for the eyes I suppose but just it's brutal like it's it made me wince I have to say oh god yeah it still makes me wince watching it I've seen it like so many times now I still like I still like curl up in my body like yeah like don't dissolve together as like
00:55:19
Speaker
as she just rips through like bone and sinew with these hammers and what makes me laugh as well is that so she's on like a packed subway train and there's like she's at one end and like the the guy she's after all his guards or the other end so she gets she pulls her hammers out and one of the guard sponsors and they all draw their like
00:55:35
Speaker
katanas or swords or what they're having to quite katanas but they're like kind of short swords and everyone on the train sees this like swords and like panics and runs away and I remember just being like you shouldn't be panicking at the you think you should panic at the swords but actually it's like freaking hammers you need to be worried about forget the swords
00:55:52
Speaker
his goddamn claw hammers. I have to admit though like although I kind of said they were gimmicky I think like the thing that at least grounds them in reality is like the fact that they're such normal weapons if you know what I mean like it's not like I don't know for a fact but it's not like a customized claw hammer with like
00:56:12
Speaker
I don't know, this guy's going to eject if you press a button. It's literally two claw hammers and the other guys just got a stainless steel, I think a stainless steel, but just like a metal pad. And that's all they've got. It's not anything over the top, it's not anything, you know,
00:56:33
Speaker
I wouldn't say gimmicky, but it's not anything outlandish or... It's not like something you would see at a monster hunter or something like that. It's kind of transformed. It's just a regular weapon. And I think that's kind of the terrifying thing when you're like, okay, he's literally just got a baseball bat and look at what he's doing to these poor people. And the same with this hammer girl. Oh, she's just got two claw hammers. What are you going to do with those? Oh my God.
00:57:03
Speaker
I still get the fear every time I go into a hard switch door now. But I mean, speaking of the fear, see that scene that swiftly follows up with Rama and the taxi? That poor taxi driver. So it's like Rama gets into a taxi and he's just like, oh yeah, I want to go home. And then just as he's about to drive off, these guys, you can see them running from outside the window and they just smash this poor guy's face in and then he luckily manages to just escape and they end up going into, I think it's a Chinese restaurant,
00:57:33
Speaker
He ends up like... he manages to defend himself but there is one particular scene and I'm gonna look back on to what I was saying before about him losing his... not losing his humanity but you know kind of losing his moral compass in a way.
00:57:50
Speaker
when he basically grills like a guy's face. Do you remember that bit? Yeah, I was laughing, I was like, my god he grills it for a good amount of time as well. It's all like grilling. Yeah, you can see he's getting angry when he's doing it, he's yelling at them and then
00:58:07
Speaker
eventually he lets go and it's like just that moment where he absolutely loses himself and I did think that was quite a neat touch but then of course he realises that was a undercover police officer that he just nearly murdered. I don't know if he murdered him but he wasn't moving after that scene so he was convulsing because he no longer had half a faith. That is true. Yeah half a faith was on the ground. Oh yeah yeah yeah.
00:58:34
Speaker
And then, of course, that leads to the escalation where, yeah, basically where Uco makes his move, isn't it? Yeah. And he ends up shooting his own father slow-mo style, and then shooting his bodyguard. Is it Ika, I think?
00:58:49
Speaker
his name. And then of course just as he's about to shoot him and kill him Rama comes in and you think oh great Rama's here to save the day and then he gets his ass absolutely handed to him by the assassin which I have to admit although like see the next scene is absolutely spectacular there are a lot of times in the film when you kind of think it feels like a kind of by the books like instead of like you see just killing him right there and there
00:59:15
Speaker
then and there they say like oh put them in the car we'll dispose of them elsewhere it's like you know where this is going you've seen evil speeches before you know what's gonna happen here but they do that anyway and it leads to quite possibly one of the best action car chase scenes I've ever seen I'd say perhaps the greatest action scene I've ever ever seen oh yeah I mean do you want to like dive into this one
00:59:42
Speaker
I mean, I can dive into it. Just feel free to jump in, by the way. We can tag team this one. Much like Rama and Ika do in this fight. So yeah, as you say, Rama's been knocked out. He's come face to face with the assassin. And the assassin's going to take him down. Rama's too full of rage and everything. And Bayo's there and he's trying to get his hands on Bayo so he's not focused.
01:00:05
Speaker
and so the assassin like knocks him out and then he gets put in the car but Ika's managed to get away in all this there the right
Innovative Action Scenes
01:00:11
Speaker
hand man of Bangun and he gets in a car and starts following and so basically there's like a convoy where the rest of Rama's in one car and then there's also there's like two other cars guarding and there's like an SUV and then a bike as well that are kind of this moving convoy and Ika's like coming behind Ika like manages to phones Rama's phone and Rama sees that it's him
01:00:30
Speaker
and so he's kind of braced for the action and then Ika like slams into the back of the car that Rama's in and all of a sudden Rama's just going ham on those four guys in the car with him so there's one guy driving and three other guys and Rama's just going absolutely ape on these guys just like beating them off and like and the action is like going from front seat to back seat like into the boot and everything and at the same time Ika then is trying to fend off the other kind of the other vehicles in this convoy so the other two kind of
01:00:57
Speaker
normal cars trying sandwich Ika's car and basically he manages to like he manages to knock one into like this I don't know what it is but it's this deserted building anyway in the middle when the car ramps up and crashes through that while
01:01:09
Speaker
at the other car, he then, oh yeah, the other car manages to do that pit maneuver, where you spin a car around, so it's like pushing, so Ika's got his car in reverse, and the other car's driving him forwards, and Ika looks behind and sees this concrete barrier, and at the last minute, he turns the car, wheels the car quickly around, so the other car just slams straight into it, and the driver just flies through the windscreen.
01:01:33
Speaker
up right on the bonnet and then he goes back in pursuit and meanwhile Rama is just again just going ham on these guys and the fight in the car is just is just so amazing like it harkens back to that very claustrophobic action of the of the first film where like and you know eventually he manages to take one guy out he kicks him through the window and they happen to be passing a truck at the time and the guy cracks his skull off the truck and is killed and he manages to kick another guy out the window and so the guy's like hanging out
01:02:00
Speaker
like just his legs just in the car his head's like bouncing off the ground and then he gets like there's like a broken down car at the side of the road with his door open he smacks into that and is killed and so like there's only a couple at the same time like the poor guy trying to drive the car he's just trying to drive it and so Rama keeps grabbing him at points and like choking him and like punching him and stuff as he's trying to like drive
01:02:19
Speaker
and then the motorbike comes up on Ika and Ika managed to grab hold of the rider and gonna grab him on. He has one of these automatic pistols and he just like point blank puts the pistol right up to the helmet and just disintegrates the guy's face. And another brutal scene and then the SUV comes up and there's a guy with a shotgun and the SUV who's trying to take a shot. And I think he manages to clip Ika. I think he does get hit.
01:02:44
Speaker
at one point, and then it becomes this amazing race where both of them have emptied their weapons and both need to reload. But the shotgun guy chops all the shells on the ground, and so he's desperately trying to pick them up while Ika's searching for a spare magazine in his car.
01:02:59
Speaker
and then it's his race and Ika manages to just get the car, sorry, just get his gun loaded and blast it into the other and takes out the SUV as Rama like ties up the final guy in the car and then like slices his leg on a window and then manages to pop the trunk boot of the car and he jumps out and jumps into Ika's car and then, I don't know, I guess the guy driving the car just had enough and he
01:03:28
Speaker
like I know I touched on it before but at the very least if you don't see the actual action scene like watch the behind the scenes for this because it is crazy what they did for this one yeah
01:03:40
Speaker
as I said they had a guy who or basically they had like a trolley that drove alongside the cars and then they passed it into the car there's a lot I have to admit there's a lot of continuous shots in this film yeah which I thought was quite interesting because you don't usually there's a stereotype of and these action films it's like you got a cut cut cut cut and you know it's like you know one punch cut other punch cut but they seem to try and seamlessly transition them
01:04:07
Speaker
Like, even with the hammer, going back to the hammer girdle and baseball bat guy, you know, like, even when they, like, hit their, you know, victims, it's like that transitions as well, doesn't it? And it's quite smooth because it's like, remember when hammer girdle's got the last guy who's just like a, you know, he's just like a terrified wreck and he's holding the, like, leather bag and everything and he's like, oh, don't kill me. And you know, she raises a hammer and she, like, pulls it down, but then that leads on to the next scene and it kind of seamlessly goes on.
01:04:36
Speaker
There's a lot of things like that. And as I said, there's that one scene where they pass the camera through the car and then it kind of goes through the car and then it goes out of the car to the side. And the way they did that, as I said, was they drive right beside that car and then they pass the camera through. There's actually a guy dressed as a... Yeah, just a guy dressed as a car seat. He takes the camera.
01:05:02
Speaker
and he pulls it through and then he gives it to a guy that's hanging on the side of the car or just underneath it and it's like, this is insane! This is just absolutely brilliant. Absolutely. As we said, we can't do justice. You have to experience it and watch it and even watch with the behind the scenes colours. These guys are so talented, the ones who filmed it and everything. It's just perfect. Even having seen the behind the scenes thing, I'm still in awe.
01:05:30
Speaker
how that fight was shot and choreographed and everything is absolutely incredible. It's like the perfect example of what the raid did really well, which is simultaneous action of different characters in life and death struggles at the same time. It's just the perfect encapsulation of that, just in awe, honestly in awe of what they did.
01:05:52
Speaker
So yeah, that eventually leads to the, well, before we get to the final showdown, Ikar reveals that he too was a police officer undercover, which I thought was quite interesting up until he kind of turned round and he's like, oh, by the way, I'm just going to go and die now.
01:06:10
Speaker
and it's like okay okay bye and then of course i think it's revealed he was like in too deep i think and the police kind of turned her back on him because he gave them like really bad information that's what he says yeah he gets some really bad information like a couple years like i think 10 years ago or something they say so he's like been in for a long time in this family yeah so he eventually dies kind of alone in this like abandoned town which is quite sad
01:06:35
Speaker
But then of course that builds up to the finale where of course his boss is like, where are you and everything? And he's like, well I have to do this on my own and you know, all of this, all the good stuff. And then he ends up, yeah he just ends up driving into the warehouse. And I know this is your favourite segment of the film, so without any further ado I am gonna let you describe what happens at the end.
01:07:01
Speaker
I feel so bad. I feel I'm getting to describe all the fun things. Again, feel free to jump in and join me on this. But just before we get into this, I love this final series of fights, which builds towards like... So he's going to... Again, it's very much like... It kind of hearkens back to the first film and the fact that Beiho, Uko, and then there's also the corrupt police chief are all at the top of this building and Rama's coming in at the ground floor and he needs to go up. And it's a very condensed version.
01:07:28
Speaker
But to me, I love it because it's almost structured, I think, like a kind of video game in a way that like it's like different levels. And then he has like so he starts off with kind of like this big group fight that he needs to get through and then he gets to the various bosses to get to the get to the end. So I quite like that way. But as you say, yes, so he's made his call and he's made his piece of what he's going to do. And then he just drives the cars, trains this warehouse.
01:07:50
Speaker
this guy gets caught on the bonnet and then he just like breaks and the guy goes flying into a shelving unit it's great he then like spins the car around knocks these guys down gets another guy caught on the on the boot and then just hits the car in reverse and just stamps it into a wall with the guys to attach the boot who just disappears into the wall never to be seen again and then Rama's just up just going ape on all these guys and being a warehouse there's some great things he's able to throw guys into shelving units
01:08:19
Speaker
He kicks this guy and smacks his head off this metal beam and then straight into the concrete, which I love as a thing. Another guy gets kicked over these metal stairs. One guy gets hit in the face with this giant water bottle. It's another great group fight, but it's one person versus a large number of opponents. I think it's just a really good example of that, like the films have done.
01:08:42
Speaker
done really well before but yeah so he makes his oh sorry no sorry i was just gonna say i have to admit like i think i brought it up in the last like read discussion but i absolutely i think like a sign of like really good action is see when they have a setting and then they use that setting to their full advantage like i think that's something that these problems do fantastic as we said before from rama like shoving that guy's face into the grill you know
01:09:10
Speaker
to using at the very beginning where you know the prison fight where he uses like his broomstick and everything to like fight off people and things it's just it's those kind of small things are just it just like really pulls you into the action but sorry
01:09:25
Speaker
No, no, no, it's a good, like, it's such a good point. And like, they really do use the warehouse. It's full. And he's just like, he's running all over the warehouse, the different ways to use that stuff. And it's great. So eventually he beats down all these guys at the various stages of death or like incapacitation. And he's done. And then he sprints up the stairs. He got the next level. And we keep cutting back. So we cut back between, we see Rama like fighting his way to the top, but also, uh, Uco, Beo and the police chief are having dinner.
01:09:50
Speaker
up at the top and we can see Uco's mind is just like fracturing now he's just dealing with like the choices he's made and everything but also at the same time you know he's made this move to like to gain like the ultimate respect and to be the big player but still like the police chief calls him sidekick at one point and you can just see the still just like
01:10:06
Speaker
building up inside him and so we keep we keep coming back and also as well he realizes well Beyo's got a cane and he drops it at one point as he bends down to pick it up he reveals this tattoo and Uco recognizes it as a tattoo from one of the guys who tried to kill him in the prison in that big mud fight so he puts two and two together and realizes that Beyo tried to order his death in the prison and as well he finds that he finds the bug in his wallet
01:10:35
Speaker
that Rama planted ages back. But he thinks it's Beo who's done it. So he's putting all this together in his fractured mind. And you could just see him. He's sitting at the table. And he's not saying anything. But he's just getting ready to explode. And so we're cutting between the two of them, Rama and Uco. Anyway, so Rama's made his way through the ground floor. And he keeps going up. He takes out a couple more goons in this kind of like, it's not really a reflecting hallway. But it's got an objective panel. They're lit up and stuff. And I think they've got glass in front of them or something like that. And he rounds this corner.
01:11:04
Speaker
And as he rounds his corner, his baseball comes flying just missing his face.
01:11:09
Speaker
embeds itself in the wall and he turns to see and we see everybody's favorite duo of hammer girl and baseball batman standing at the end and then baseball batman delivers his iconic line give me the ball in which case ramon doesn't even bother with the ball and charges towards them and then um so as you said hammer girl is hammer girl's death so um baseball batman kind of no sign language so he he speaks to him he does the sign for same as usual it's like you know and then they just go into it and just
01:11:35
Speaker
flurry and there's hammers flying around baseball bats. They're smashing into the walls either side. And it's just, it's just as great. I just, this is the bit I couldn't wait for just to see the three characters go at it. And you know, Rama's like holding his own and like, yeah, he's like trying to dodge like flying base, the baseball bat flying around these hammers like going crazy. There's one bit that I love where the baseball bat man like gets, like tries to choke, kind of gets his baseball bat around Rama's neck and he's pulling him back. At the same time, hammer girl is like,
01:12:03
Speaker
striking the ground trying to hit his feet. I love that. I'm desperately back enough. I love it. And imagine just to like fling the baseball bat a man away and then like eventually he like gets hold of Hammer Girl. He throws her into a wall and knocks her. She always wears sunglasses and their sunglasses fall off. And we see that, as you said earlier, she's partially blind. And then like, so the two of them are going at it. He's kind of incapacitated baseball batman for a while. And he manages eventually to get hold of like one of the hammers in Hammer Girl's hands and basically
01:12:31
Speaker
He just slits her throat with it. In which case, baseball Batman goes into his ultra mode, ultra beast mode, and just starts swinging like crazy. And he knocks Rama off his legs and smashes him in and rips everything with his baseball bat. But eventually, Rama manages to get controlled. And he slams, in another absolutely brutal way, he slams baseball Batman's head into the wall. He then kicks him straight into the throat. And you could tell it's ruptured his limb.
01:12:56
Speaker
What do you call that? You're larynx or something? Yeah, he's basically like done some serious damage and he picks up the baseball bat and just swings it and it swings it straight into baseball batman's face. But we don't see because the camera kind of does this like spin kind of artistic thing. And then all of a sudden we're at the other end of the hall.
01:13:14
Speaker
from where the action's taking place, and we can just see the baseball bat embedded in the baseball batman's face, and he's slumped against the wall, and Rama lets go, and we just see baseball batman just slide down to his left, and then as he falls down, the baseball bat hits the ground, but doesn't move, so he just propped up, because Rama's hit him so hard in the face that it's just embedded in his face, and it's just like, oh, just the violence and brutality. I was just like, oh, my God.
01:13:43
Speaker
And I mean, there is a kind of irony there, isn't it? I mean, like, especially for the final fight as well, but like, for the three main, like, bad henchmen, I wanna say. Henchmen for hire. They all get killed by their own weapons, don't they? Yep. That's a very good point, I do.
01:14:00
Speaker
Yeah, like Hammer Girl, as you said, like it's absolutely bloodied by Arun Hammer, baseball batman, yeah. And then of course... He's very well acquainted with his baseball batman. Oh he is. And then of course the Assassin, which I know this is one of your favourite action scenes. I know we're talking about this before... Do you want to talk about it? Because I feel like I've been utilizing the time. So if you want to talk about it, I can jump in afterwards. No, no, no, go for it. Because I know this is like one you were really looking forward to, so...
01:14:25
Speaker
I like you, Joe, that scene. As I said to you, this coming up, so basically after he's dealt with Hammer Girl and Baseball Batman, Rama pushes through the doors they were standing in front of, and he enters the kitchen, and so he's very near the top now. He's just a few doors away from where Uco and Beowar are, and there's all the kitchen staff in there, but on the other side of the kitchen, we see the assassin standing there, just standing silent as he always
Climactic Showdown
01:14:48
Speaker
is. Then the kitchen staff take one look, and just quickly vacate the kitchen as they should.
01:14:54
Speaker
In a very orderly fashion, I must say, in orderly evacuations. Absolutely. They've trained for this, probably. And so, as I've said to you, this fight, I think, is the greatest movie fight in film ever. Like, in terms of a fight scene, I think is the best one I've ever seen. And I think I will ever see, just in the way it's choreographed in the story it tells and everything. So, I'll run through the action.
01:15:19
Speaker
Just so I don't monopolize all the time here and then I'll just quickly say why I think it's so great but basically so yeah Rama and the Assassin kind of square up and they get into a fighting stance and they start by doing a few quick strikes at each other and it's just it's just like that kind of way it's almost like a kind of bit of showmanship you know in that way of who can strike the fast and they do that a couple of times.
01:15:36
Speaker
And then eventually after a while it evolves into more martial arts style fights and they're using their blows and their moves and counter moves and everything. And it's still quite a contained fight at the minute in this one part of the kitchen. But then after a while it develops into more of a brawl and they start like
01:15:52
Speaker
the assassin gets kicked like over the table and everything and like the kitchen starts coming into play and he the assassin picks up a tray and like smacks Rama in the head with it and that kind of signals that they're gonna start using their environment now the fight broadens out Rama smashes the assassin into like into this like rack of wine bottles and throws him through like a glass a glass kind of screen into more wine bottles then kicks him out another one
01:16:16
Speaker
And the fight is intensifying, and at this point, the assassin pulls out his two curved blades, and he gets one underneath Rama's left leg, underneath Rama's left leg, and he slices behind the knee. Oh, that's horrible. And then he starts slashing at Rama with his knives, and Rama's desperately trying to protect himself and dodge these blows, but also do some damage.
01:16:39
Speaker
and eventually Rama manages to get his hands on one of the blades and then they start like squaring off and he's taking chunks out of the assassin as the assassin taking chunks out of him at the same time they're still like smashing up the kitchen and everything there's one great prolonged bit where they're both like trying to see who can smash who can smash whose head the most times until it's like stainless steel container into the thing is great and then eventually it's like there's blood all around before they're both sliced up but as well what I love as well is
01:17:05
Speaker
You can see both of them are just absolutely exhausted at this point. They had to take a bit of time to kind of breathe and gather themselves together. And there's one bit where they're really close in towards the end, and they're just like, they kind of hit each other for a little bit. And they'll just kind of grab on and take a couple of breaths, hit each other again, grab, take some breaths. And eventually, Rama manages to gain the upper hand, and he just slices the assassin to pieces all across the chest. The back slices down both his arms, and then goes for the killing blow right into his neck.
01:17:34
Speaker
twist the knife in. And yeah, let's just pull it out and the assassin's body just falls into him and just slides off. And as I said, what I think makes this so great is I love the way it's divided into phases. I absolutely love that it starts with this little bit of showmanship. You know, it's a way you can see almost the assassin is quite cocky because he's already beaten Rama.
01:17:53
Speaker
and Rama by this point has been through like what four other fights he's battered and bruised and so the assassin almost kind of like takes him like takes him lightly you know he doesn't give him the full credit that he really deserves and so that's why he doesn't pull out his knives and it starts as a more classic fight and after the
01:18:10
Speaker
showmanship it is that kind of martial arts like what you'd see maybe more like a kind of Jackie Chan movie film where they're doing these kind of fights and it's still quite contained though it's in a relatively small part of the kitchen but I love that when it expands out into your more brawl every time like basically Rama always manages to get the upper hand
01:18:26
Speaker
towards the end of these phases, and every time the assassin brings something new, so he starts using the environment because he realizes the threat that Rama poses. So he uses the environment to try and gain the advantage back. And then when that doesn't work, Rama's getting the upper hand, then he pulls out his knives, his weapons to take control, and that's when it moves into its weapons phase. And this is far more like the kind of
01:18:47
Speaker
fighting that we've seen in the in the raid one and the rest of the raid two for now that kind of really life and death like gritty struggle the music for this scene is absolutely fantastic as well it just it could perfectly mirrors the action and I just love when they both have the blades and they're just like they're both just
01:19:02
Speaker
bloody didn't like bruise and just absolutely shattered and exhausted but they're just like going on pure adrenaline and that will to like live and just kill the other person and just a great scene where like they just they both hit each other their knives but the knives meet in the midair and it zoomed the camera zooms in on it and everything and then just just the way it was choreographed it apparently took eight days to film this and I think just those were eight days well spent because I just
01:19:27
Speaker
For me, I remember seeing it the first time in the cinema and just being like, this is the greatest thing I've ever seen. And all I could think about when I left the cinema was I cannot wait to get hold of a copy of the Raid 2 so I can watch that fight over and over and over again. And I still come back to it. You know, I don't always watch the Raid 2, but I will always come back and watch that fight because I love it so much.
01:19:46
Speaker
Apparently that's the director's favourite scene as well. I suppose you can tell because it took them eight days to do it, but at the same time it's his action love child as a way. It's his labour of love and you can tell it shows because as you said there's just so much care and thought and just effort really, isn't it?
01:20:09
Speaker
There's no wasted motion. Again, harking back to when we were talking about the Raid 1 being such an efficient film, the final fight in the Raid 2 is such an efficient, there's no wasted motion. Everything serves a purpose and we get to see Rama's desperation, just running on pure adrenaline to get his revenge and see this through. And the assassin as well, just underestimating Rama, but then realizing the threat he's facing and just getting his life
01:20:36
Speaker
death struggle. It's very akin to that like the Mad Dog, Rama and Andy fight in that way and I think it's a great piece of storytelling.
Betrayal and Brutality
01:20:44
Speaker
As we said before it's definitely foreshadowed when Rama just thinks like kind of like
01:20:51
Speaker
flash him back quickly. As you said, when he goes to reach Barrow, thinking, oh I'm gonna get him, and then there's that kind of, yoink! And it's like, no you're not! And it's the assassin just pummels him and just absolutely tears into him. And you think this is the standard they're setting for the finale, you know, this is the mountain he's gonna have to overcome. Because the other guys, the other guys are, you know, small fraties there, they're not gonna matter. But this guy, this guy he's gonna cause, like,
01:21:18
Speaker
some trouble and as you said it's just it's so well done it's so well crafted isn't it yeah i just i just love it and thank you for giving me give me time to go i don't know not at all i love it because i don't yeah because i know you really love this scene for good reasons
01:21:33
Speaker
It's just so well done. And of course that leads to Rama confronting me. I don't want to say the main bad. Well, I suppose the... They technically are. I want to say this in the loosest terms possible, the brains. Because, yeah, basically Ookol, as you were saying before, puts two and two together and when he finds the, like, wiretap in his wallet, he puts like two and two together and he gets four-ish.
01:22:02
Speaker
And there's this brutal scene where Bajo runs and he tries to get a shotgun to defend himself with, and he shoots the guy who Rama's fighting when he breaches, and then Uco grabs a gun as well. But instead of aiming at Rama initially, he aims at the police commissioner and just blows him away, and then he blows away Bajo who just
01:22:26
Speaker
slumps to the ground but he shoots him twice I think he shoots him once in the leg and then he shoots him once in the like kind of chest area shoulder chest which means he's like a gurgle and nest on the floor and this was a very brutal scene because he walks up and he just like mic drops literally he mic drops him onto his body and he says and Bam was kind of looking like what the hell was that
01:22:54
Speaker
but obviously he can't respond because he's been like shot through the chest and then he just aims his gun and he just blasts his head into like the only way I can describe it like is a watermelon like falling from a tall building that's honestly what it looks like and you're like oh like it's at a distance it doesn't zoom in but even then you're just like oh that is brutal it's absolutely
01:23:17
Speaker
As I said, the violence and the action in this is so visceral in your face. It's something. Apparently the song got banned in Malaysia, I think. Really? Yeah, because of the excessive violence.
01:23:33
Speaker
It's like, well, I can see why. They totally aren't. But yeah, of course, Nicole tries to turn the gun on Rama and I think he manages to like, not outwit him, but just as he shoots all his shots, he dives over this couch that he was hiding behind and he brings him down and he stabs him.
01:23:52
Speaker
And eventually, it's quite a sad scene where he stabs him. But instead of struggling like the others, or doing...
01:24:07
Speaker
Yeah. Like what the assassin did, he just like slid down. Like he actually embraces him in a kind of hug, doesn't he? Yeah. You kind of think I know what's he got planned, but it's just nothing. It's just he's hugging him because he's, I think he's probably thinking, you know, there's a scene kind of before all of this kicks off where he goes into the bathroom and he can tell he's like feeling very regretful about his life choices. Yeah. Because even before that, like before he shoots his dad, like he's yelling at the dad saying, I want to be the very best, I want to be, you know,
01:24:36
Speaker
top dog and the dad's just like you realise because of you we've lost everything here like there's nothing left and he's like yeah then he becomes kind of regressive and he's like oh no i can fix it i can fix it and it's like no you can't you know like the whole back and forth and it just builds up this like sense of guilt and then the only person although he was undercover of course that kind of yeah not reigned him in but you know treated him normally if you know what i mean yeah it's just stabbed him in the chest because he nearly shot him
01:25:07
Speaker
To put it very bluntly. And he is, he's just like in those last moments. He just collapses to the floor.
Emotional Conclusion and Future Speculation
01:25:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's more or less where the film ends. Rama walks down the stairs again, which must have been a bitch. After fighting all those people, I hope there was an elevator, because my god, having to walk down all those stairs again, I would have given up. I would have just been like, no, the police are coming, they can come up here.
01:25:34
Speaker
And then of course he goes downstairs where he's met by the Japanese group and they are ready to kick ass because there's an earlier scene where they're like, right we're going to have to go to war, there's no other way. And they've got their weapons prepared and they walk in and it's just Rama standing there all bloodied and bruised and they're just like,
01:25:55
Speaker
Oh, shit. Also, sorry, just before I kind of wrap up with the plot, did you notice, say, they fight with the assassin? Yeah. See when he brings out his knife and then he cuts his cheek? Did you notice it's the same place that he gets cut in the red one? Oh, is it? Well, it's a very similar place, at least I think it is. I could be totally wrong on that. Because he's got that scar, which I've got, he's got that scar from where the machete was.
01:26:18
Speaker
like sliced through his face in the first raid. That's how I didn't realise that actually. That's awesome. It's kind of the same area. Like I just mean it gets sliced on the cheek, but I don't know, it was kind of a neat tidbit. I was like, ah, okay, neat. Then they go back to fighting. But of course they start talking, but it's inaudible. They purposely do that where it's just inaudible. And I thought that was just because they had like a shotgun
01:26:43
Speaker
like fired at his ears but apparently not and then he like looks up and then he just says I'm done and then it just hard cuts into black and then it hard cuts to the title of the ride 2 and then it goes into the credits and everything and it's like it is one of those films where it's like
01:27:00
Speaker
you have to take a breath and just be like, whew. It's like, do you know what it's like, or what it reminds me of? It's like, you know when you eat too much at like Christmas and it's like, you're hosting the bell and you're just like, oh. Like I feel as if this is like the action equivalent of that, but you're just like, oh my God, this is just so much. This is the action equivalent of a Christmas lunch. I love it. They put that on the box. Yeah.
01:27:27
Speaker
I would go see that film. But yeah, it's just a roller coaster start to finish, which sounds like a cliche to say, but how else could you describe this? I don't think there is. It is a proper roller coaster is the best description.
01:27:43
Speaker
because like one of the strengths of like the first film was how like how tight it was in terms of time and how it's just it is breathless and that like you know it's one action piece after another after another um but with this one like the action is given a chance to breathe and you know like you'll get like an action set piece but then it'll be like for the first part of the film anyway there's a lull there's quite there's quite a bit of like downtime in between so you're kind of like oh you can digest like god like you know
01:28:07
Speaker
the hell he was you know just um i can't think of one like what now but you know like oh that guy was just ripped apart with hammers just you know like you can like which kind of it's the shocking nature but we just grilled that guy's face right off there so yeah like a proper roller coaster because it is you're at the high points of the action but then like you are you get a lot of low kind of just like
01:28:28
Speaker
character development, scene setting and things like that. So it does really get a chance to breathe the action. And I suppose because there's like a bigger scope for this problem that they do have a chance to kind of develop the characters more. Like with of course Rama being very regretful that he has to go undercover to protect his family and everything and
01:28:48
Speaker
you know like it's stuff that's been established in the first one but this gives it a chance to like you know it gives it a chance to breathe a bit more as you said yeah yeah it's just it really hits the point and i don't want to end on a negative note but if there's anything you could kind of pick out about this film that maybe didn't really hit home like is there anything that you weren't a big fan of
01:29:11
Speaker
I think the thing that I'm not as much a fan of is the fact that I would have loved to have seen a third raid, I'd love to have done a trilogy, but I think they shot their bolt in this film, in that like there's nowhere really to go. I think that actually the material that's in the raid too, you could have separated out to make two films. I don't believe you could have had, I think if you'd spent a bit, if they'd spent a bit more time developing the kind of Rama Uco bromance, if that had been a central tenet of the second film,
01:29:40
Speaker
And it's maybe Rama's descent into the criminal underworld. There's the focus of that one. And then, say, I don't know, it ends. The film ends with Uco's betrayal. Perhaps something like that. And then we can lead into a third film and end it that way. So I think, in a sense, there's maybe just too much tries to happen. There's too much going on in The Raid 2, which I think is maybe a bit of a detriment. I think the only other thing I would say is
01:30:07
Speaker
I don't think the film as a whole is as re-watchable as the first Raids. I could pop the first Raid in and watch it. It's a quick burst and hit and it's great. I can watch it from start to finish. If I'm going to watch the Raid 2, I'm most likely going to probably go on YouTube.
01:30:23
Speaker
and be like, fight scenes in the Raid 2 and watch those action pieces. They're not as likely to stick the DVD in, watch it from start to finish. That's maybe the only other thing I would say, but again, it is a different kind of film to the Raid 1. Again, I don't know if that's really a detriment, but I suppose to me, it's not as rewatchable.
01:30:42
Speaker
Yeah, I'd say. And no, I totally agree with you because, and again, I do agree, it's not really a detriment, but it's like the read one is just a very basic, you know, catch the bad guy thing, you know, with the whole like corruption subplot like being underneath it, whereas in this one, there's a lot more depth to the story. But I do agree with your point when you say there's too much going on, like, especially with the Mad Dog actor in this one. Yeah.
01:31:08
Speaker
feel as if his character, because I was saying this to you before we came on tonight, but I feel as if his character, you could have cut his character out and nothing would change. Don't get me wrong, it's always a delight seeing him perform on the screen and do all of these amazing action scenes. He's such a talented actor and I know
01:31:28
Speaker
we had said that he is actually proficient in CELAP. Like he's really, you know, he knows his stuff and he's such like a good... I don't want to say stuntman, that is slightly reductive, but you know what I mean? He's like... He's a good, like, martial artist. Yeah, martial artist, sorry. That's a better term, yeah. He is just such a good martial artist and I just feel... because like what follows that scene? So once he gets killed...
01:31:52
Speaker
So this is the thing, initially Uco kills the random people that tried to attack him in the prison and he's like, oh dad, look, they killed our guys and he's like, I don't care. Or not I don't care, but he's like, I'm not doing anything about it. Then they kill Cuso and he's like, oh they killed Cuso and it's like,
01:32:10
Speaker
okay fair enough and bad things happen but okay and then he just goes ahead with his like gang warfare plan anyway so it's like there could have been a step that they just like cut out in between like they could have just cut that scene out entirely which or that section of the film almost don't get me wrong like it's still there is a still a purpose to it it's not like one that I would definitively say oh cut this out cut that out the only other thing I would say that I'm not a big fat as I said the
01:32:40
Speaker
Like, not that I'm not a big fan of, but I'm just mixed on Hammergirl and Baseballbatguy. Because I feel as if for a story that's meant to be this, like, prison drama that they're kind of looking back to... Or not looking back, but they're just... Because even in the first raid films, here other than Mad Dog, there wasn't really any characters that stood out like that, was there?
01:33:04
Speaker
No, not really. They were only gimmicky ones. There was one that could fight. There was machete man, I mean. But you know, they were just normal guys. Whereas, I don't know, I just keep thinking, what kind of yellow pages are these guys looking into finding these people?
01:33:22
Speaker
It's just, I don't know, I'm not gonna sit here and be like, oh it's terrible, it ruins the film. It doesn't, it makes it memorable. They do have their bonuses that it does make the film memorable and as you said it makes for some of the best fight scenes in this entire film. With the train fight scene, with the baseball bat guy hitting people with baseballs. It's just, it's classic.
01:33:46
Speaker
other than bits and pieces. I would say like, and again I don't want to like rile up any sensibilities here but I feel as if this is definitely a lot more brutal than the first raid film. This is to say like the raid is a film where a guy gets impaled through the neck on a door stump. Another guy gets sliced, people get like blown off a balcony and thing or the banister thing. You know like the raid one is a brutal film but
01:34:16
Speaker
The raid 2 makes it look like... The raid 1 has a child getting shot in the head, and still the raid 2 appears... Yeah, exactly! That poor child gets shot by the corrupt officer and it's like, despite that scene!
01:34:32
Speaker
Somehow the need to is worse in that regard to this. It's absolutely both stools and same. So all I would say is if you're a bit squeamish in regards to that kind of brutal action, that I would definitely say if you're not a big fan of really bloody violence. I wouldn't say it's like soul levels, but it ain't far off.
01:34:56
Speaker
No, it doesn't, I don't think it feels, well this is me but I don't think it feels maybe like gratuitous. Oh yeah, absolutely. There's a purpose to it, yeah. Yeah. You do feel like, you do feel like, you're like, it's more fitting I feel. Yeah. It's a magical film where you're like, the whole, your whole film here is based around gore.
01:35:14
Speaker
Well, at least I don't feel like the Raid 2 is based around action and the actual fighting and the violence and the brutality is like an offshoot of that rather than being the raison d'etre. Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, as you said, the violence kind of stems from
01:35:30
Speaker
this world that Rama's kind of leading himself into. And yeah, just to get worse and worse and worse and you think, how could he get any worse and then you see him, yeah. Look, there's a girl with hammers. That should be delightful. And then it's like, oh no, oh no. Okay, what about baseball? Oh my god.
01:35:52
Speaker
What about this lovely assassin, Matt? I don't know why I bought him. You know? It's just... Is that gonna be our joint Halloween costume for this year, by the way? Baseball Batman and Hammer Girl? Well, it depends who's gonna ride out and buy a hammer faster. Well, you've got the baseball, so does that make me the Hammer Girl then? Oh, by default, I guess that means, yeah. If it was an easier costume for me, I'd just get a black hoodie. Oh, yeah, that's true. You get a black hoodie in a baseball bat? Yeah, you'll just be throwing that in my door, going...
01:36:22
Speaker
the road back. I just locked my door like, no, no, I'm not playing your games. So yeah, before we wrap up on that note, is there any final thoughts you have about the film? Yeah, just a second. I really love this. I love both of these films.
01:36:41
Speaker
I love the series of them. I do wish there'd been a third one, but it seems that the director, Gareth Evans, he's just not interested. He wants to do other things. Fair enough. I suppose he's made two great films. I like the fact that they are slightly different. I like the fact that the Raid 1 is a pure action film, while this one's more of a crime drama. And so I think it's good that they are separate entities in a way. I think this one would have been cheapened if it had been just a clone.
01:37:06
Speaker
You know, let's say, rather than having to go up 15 floors, you have to go up 30 floors, you know, that kind of sequence of artificially raising the stakes. But I love both these films. You know, like, all I'm going to say is once we're done here, I'm going to go off and watch that final fight again. Because I love it. You know what? I don't blame you.
01:37:26
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, as I said before, if you love, like, I was going to say brutal action, but... If you love brutality... If you love brutal... Are you challenging each other? Yeah, if you love Mortal Kombat without the supernatural powers, then this is probably for you. Yeah. The Hammer Girl in the next Mortal Kombat, that's it, I'm starting that hashtag. Oh god, please do.
01:37:50
Speaker
Yeah it's actually said though it's a shame that they didn't actually get a chance to make the third one because I think the plan initially was they was going to make it like it was going to be set three hours before the ending of the raid. I don't know how that would have worked but I don't know I guess it would have been a different character then? Must have been, yeah. I don't know what I approve of. No I don't think so either.
01:38:10
Speaker
again the main actor who plays Rama he has been in oh god he's been in so much since. He was in a film called Headshot which that was a good martial arts film um it wasn't see this is the thing maybe maybe this is just my biases creeping in but i feel as if because i've watched them in the raid and i've watched them be like this amazing kick-ass you know like martial artists as well and
01:38:35
Speaker
you know i see him in something like ketchup where i'm like he's good but it's not the raid and then he was in a thing called i think it was the blue warriors or something like that which oh god or blue assassins sorry it was blue assassins i did not like that at all but that's another rant for another day um that was when i think really underutilized him but
01:38:55
Speaker
yeah again it's again another chat tsunami for another day but yeah definitely as long as you don't mind the bloody gore of like action like as we said or as you pointed out it's all for a reason nine times out of ten
01:39:11
Speaker
like yeah like it's a consequence of like setting and the scene that's set up so it's not a hundred percent like as i said it's not yeah it's not gratuitous it's there's points to it so yeah i would recommend it or at the very least just see the behind the scenes i can't stress this enough just the work that went in just amazing so yeah go watch it please
01:39:39
Speaker
And so, yeah, Adam, as always, thank you so much for jumping on to another episode of Chat Tsunami.
Closing and Social Media Promotion
01:39:45
Speaker
Oh, my pleasure. Thank you for having me. I will always come back and I will always talk about the raid to anybody, anybody, man, creature, woman who will listen. You're just like, yeah, fight me. I'm ready. Ananimate object. I'll tell them all about why the raid to its final fight is the greatest thing ever. For being coach, I'm ready.
01:40:05
Speaker
But thanks, this was a lot of fun. It really was. And there was good watching the films again to kind of refresh why they were so good. Indeed. But really are. If you want to see more of my content you can catch me on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and of course Twitch under the name Satsunami42. If you want to catch up on more episodes of Chatsunami, which after this episode I know you guys will want to.
01:40:32
Speaker
You can catch us on Anchor, Spotify, Castbox and all good podcast distributors. Please feel free to check us out under the name Chat Tsunami. Every week we do a live show on Twitch at 7.30pm BST. So if you want to check us out live, then yeah, feel free to drop by and don't forget your snacks as well because we can't talk for Britain, can't we?
01:40:59
Speaker
We can. We can and we shall. We always will. As always guys, thank you all so so much for listening. Stay safe, stay awesome and most importantly, stay hydrated. Bye guys. Bye.