What happened to indonesian action cinema?

[laagi]

Remember 'The Raid' which single-handedly ushered in a new era of action cinema? Remember its star Iko Uwais as well as his co-stars Joe Taslim and Yayan Ruihan?

It seems after 'The Raid 2' and a few mediocre outputs starring either one of these guys it's gotten pretty silent when it comes to indonesian action cinema.

Iko Uwais followed the "asian action star" in Hollywood route and we all know how that turned out (see Jet Li, Jackie Chan, Tony Jaa etc.). At least Joe Taslim ('The Night Comes for Us', 'Warrior', 'Mortal Kombat') proves to be rather successful and more careful when it comes to his career choices.

Or was the entire industry always a one trick pony and only flourished thanks to the direction of one Gareth Evans? 

I remember a time when every action movie was advertised as being the next big thing after 'The Raid'. Now this torch seems to have passed to 'John Wick'. Let's see what's next

[Yihetuan]

I think you answered your own question. Other than the Mo brothers and Gareth Evans who else is out there making these type of films? One of them is not even a native but a Welshman.

[DiP]

To my understanding, the action genre in Indonesia seems less monopolistic compared to other genres. At the same time, maybe Indonesian action movies still need more growth to reach a certain level where the genre is being invested more. Growth takes time.

[DrNgor]

Speaking of Indonesia, is there a general consensus on the quality of Golden Cane Warrior?

[laagi]

1 hour ago, DrNgor said:

Speaking of Indonesia, is there a general consensus on the quality of Golden Cane Warrior?

For the uninitiated like myself

 

[One Armed Boxer]

On 4/7/2024 at 2:36 AM, laagi said:

Or was the entire industry always a one trick pony and only flourished thanks to the direction of one Gareth Evans? 

I'm tempted to say yes. I think it becomes easy to take the golden era of Hong Kong action cinema for granted, as it's usually "the next Hong Kong" tag that gets applied to a lot of these countries (with 'Ong Bak' it became "Thailand is the new Hong Kong!", with 'The Rebel' it became "Vietnam is the new Hong Kong!"), but what I think gets forgotten a lot is that Hong Kong had an action cinema legacy dating back to the 1930's. By the time the kung-fu genre got popular in the late 60's they'd already been at it for over 30 years - the infrastructure, the funding models, the directors and crews, the choreographers, the equipment - it was all established and on a continuous trajectory of growth until the late 90's.

For a lot of these developing countries in South East Asia, their moments in the action spotlight tend to fall into the category of burn bright and burn quickly, by enlarge driven by the fact that the same infrastructure just isn't there to sustain it (where was the support when 'Ong Bak 2' went off the rails!?).  Without veteran hands like Panna Rittikrai, or overseas talent like Gareth Evans and Johnny Tri Nguyen, the film industries of these countries in and of themselves aren't really set up to have a self-sustaining action genre, hence the one recurring pattern in all of them is that they fade away within 5 - maximum 10 years of the initial breakthrough title (the same discussion was taking place around Thai action cinema in 2013, 10 years after the release of 'Ong Bak').

14 hours ago, DrNgor said:

Speaking of Indonesia, is there a general consensus on the quality of Golden Cane Warrior?

There's a review of this one over at COF from the time of its release (not written by me for a change!) - 

https://cityonfire.com/golden-cane-warrior-the-2014-review/

[laagi]

5 hours ago, One Armed Boxer said:

I'm tempted to say yes. I think it becomes easy to take the golden era of Hong Kong action cinema for granted, as it's usually "the next Hong Kong" tag that gets applied to a lot of these countries (with 'Ong Bak' it became "Thailand is the new Hong Kong!", with 'The Rebel' it became "Vietnam is the new Hong Kong!"), but what I think gets forgotten a lot is that Hong Kong had an action cinema legacy dating back to the 1930's. By the time the kung-fu genre got popular in the late 60's they'd already been at it for over 30 years - the infrastructure, the funding models, the directors and crews, the choreographers, the equipment - it was all established and on a continuous trajectory of growth until the late 90's.

For a lot of these developing countries in South East Asia, their moments in the action spotlight tend to fall into the category of burn bright and burn quickly, by enlarge driven by the fact that the same infrastructure just isn't there to sustain it (where was the support when 'Ong Bak 2' went off the rails!?).  Without veteran hands like Panna Rittikrai, or overseas talent like Gareth Evans and Johnny Tri Nguyen, the film industries of these countries in and of themselves aren't really set up to have a self-sustaining action genre, hence the one recurring pattern in all of them is that they fade away within 5 - maximum 10 years of the initial breakthrough title (the same discussion was taking place around Thai action cinema in 2013, 10 years after the release of 'Ong Bak').

There's a review of this one over at COF from the time of its release (not written by me for a change!) - 

https://cityonfire.com/golden-cane-warrior-the-2014-review/

I was actually gonna mention Thailand's 'Ong Bak' and Indonesia's 'The Raid' in the same breathe to be honest. The repeating pattern and similarities are certainly there!

I'd add that sometimes these countries are their own worst enemies as well. Prime example would be Vietnam which straight up banned Johnny Tri Nguyen's movie Chinatown (Bui Doi Cho Lon). Another thing worth mentioning is that I'm in serious doubt that there's a big market for these type of movies domestically. Which would explain the foreign involvement of talent.

And just like the movies themselves its breakthrough stars "burn bright and burn quickly". While guys like Donnie Yen are still around producing and starring in big budget productions. Tony Jaa, Iko Uwais and even Johnny Tri Nguyen are either stuck behind the camera, mediocre supporting roles, or vanished almost completely. It's an unforgiving industry it seems!

BTW, insightful reply in the linked topic. Thanks @One Armed Boxer

However, one question came to mind in the special case of Thailand. I get that Hong Kong has decades of experience, infrastructure etc. BUT even before Thailand's action cinema was brought to audience's attention worldwide with 'Ong Bak'. Hasn't the country always been used for countless action movies from HK and the US? So the infrastructure at least must be there? Talent might be another topic.

Edited April 9 by laagi

[One Armed Boxer]

13 hours ago, laagi said:

However, one question came to mind in the special case of Thailand. I get that Hong Kong has decades of experience, infrastructure etc. BUT even before Thailand's action cinema was brought to audience's attention worldwide with 'Ong Bak'. Hasn't the country always been used for countless action movies from HK and the US? So the infrastructure at least must be there? Talent might be another topic.

For Hong Kong definitely.  In terms of the US I know a couple of Bond movies and the first 2 Rambo sequels shot partially in Thailand, but for the most part US action movies that shot in South East Asia tended to be in the Philippines where there was an existing relationship between the 2 countries and minimum language barrier (I believe 'Apocalypse Now' was the first big budget Hollywood production to shoot there, although it'd been being used for years by the B-movie circuit). 

I think in the pre-2003 world the biggest factor that contributed towards HK filmmakers shooting in Thailand was the cost effectiveness - everything was cheap compared to HK, there was access to a variety of landscapes that the compact and crowded HK territory just didn't have, and stuff could be blown up pretty easily. Considering the popularity of HK movies in Thailand during its golden era, I'm sure they were more than happy to have HK crews coming over and filming there.