The New York Asian Film Festival took place between June 28 and July 14, 2019. For more information, click here.
In the introduction to the 12:30 P.M. Saturday screening, 212 Warrior was described as a perfect movie for Saturday matinee viewing, and that’s more or less the case; based on a series of novels by Bastian Tito, the movie feels very much like a more modern, bigger budgeted version of the kind of old school action comedies that kung fu fans devoured from their local television affiliates after the cartoons (and that most regular NYAFF attendees of a certain age would have fond memories of). It’s actual action never quite rises to the heights of its inspirations. But overall it’s a fun and zippy couple of hours well spent.
The film opens with a striking image that immediately shows off the resources invested by Fox Studios in their first ever collaboration with Indonesian studio Lifelike Pictures: a gang of shadowy figures on horseback, silhouetted by a blood red moon hanging massively in the sky. It’s an epic, mythical visual which does a laudable job of setting the scene for what follows.
What follows, of course, is mayhem in the form of Mahesa Burawa, a bandit gang leader and all around bad guy. Mahesa is played by Yayan Ruhian of The Raid fame, and it’s a curious thing to see him jumping around and throwing energy balls, Wuxia style.
In the tradition of such things, Mahesa kills off the parents of a young boy who will eventually grow into our hero Wiro Sableng, a.k.a. Crazy Wiro (Vino G. Bastian, in a neat bit of legacy tending, the son of the series author). And continuing on in the tradition of such things, he will go on a journey to bring Mahesa to justice, gather allies along the way and in the process become a true hero.
So, you know… same old, same old.
In watching 212 Warrior, I was actually reminded of last year’s secret screening, the fun and frothy Khun Pan, with which it shares certain plot points and thematic resonances. Then again, the story that both films are telling are very traditional, very basic plots; a thousand more movies share the exact same basic outline. The main difference would be in tone. Khun Pan was almost a super hero story, heavy on the mythmaking and the epic action.
212 Warrior goes in a… somewhat different direction.
Kung fu nerds of a certain vintage may remember Xenon Entertainment’s ‘Wu Tang Collection’ VHS series, wherein a more or less random cross section of old school, dubbed martial arts flicks were renamed to sound Wu Tang Clan adjacent and released on a generally bewildered populace. Some of the strangest and most delightful films of the collection were actually the work of the Yuen Brothers, whose most famous member Woo Ping happens to be the recipient of this years lifetime achievement award.
You may have loved him on account of classics like Iron Monkey and Wing Chun. But never forget he also had a hand in stuff like this, and this, and of course, this. And never forget to multiply that love accordingly.
Granted, 212 Warrior doesn’t quite reach those heights of lunacy. But at the very least it feels like a throwback to a far wackier period in the storied history of martial arts flicks. For his part, Bastian brings a colossally goofy energy to the proceedings. With his shameless mugging and spazzed out physicality, he brings to mind nothing less than Half a Loaf of Kung Fu–era Jackie Chan. Sure, he manages to cut a more conventional hero figure when it comes to the final showdown, but even then Bastian never manages to shake that silly edge.
He’s just in keeping with the rest of the movie, though; it can get downright silly at times. It carries itself with the devil-may-care attitude of the old classics, where low comedy exists right alongside tragic violence; where characters have names Drunken God, The Mad Mighty Fist, and Soul Pulling Devil are the rule and not the exception; and where heroic farts can cure or cause hypnosis as the plot requires.
The martial art of silat makes a strange bedfellow for all this nonsense, especially for those who had their first introduction in the form of the bone crunching showdowns in the Raid duology. In ways it feels an ill fit for the style of the film, only really clicking into place in the third act where the silliness is mostly dispensed with and the fights start to develop a more grounded set of stakes.
212 Warrior seeks little else but to entertain, and for those of a true old school bent, it will feel like coming home. And for open minded new schoolers who can get past the throwback daffiness, there’s no small amount of fun for them, too.