One of the films that has made waves on the film festival circuit over the past few months even before having its United States premiere at the Sundance Film Festival is Gareth Evans’ martial arts flick The Raid, which will introduce many American action fans to the cinema of Indonesia, its top martial arts star Iko Uwais and Evans’ talents as a filmmaker.
Using a fairly simple premise, The Raid follows a team of elite police officers on a mission to capture one of Jakarta’s most powerful crimelords, who is holed up in a secure building that doubles as a drug lab, renting the vacant apartments to the city’s most dangerous criminals and killers. As the team makes its way through the building, their presence is soon discovered and all hell breaks loose as a bounty is put upon their head. Iko Uwais’ character Rama is a rookie on the force who ends up having to use his martial arts skills to escape along with a small group of survivors as their situation becomes more and more deadly.
Earlier this week, ComingSoon.net spoke to Evans about the process for making this fantastic movie that’s sure to draw a lot more attention to Indonesia and the fantastic martial arts stars coming from there.
