It’s not a matter of time, it’s just a matter of timing…
The Raid
Last night I went to the Welsh premiere of “The Raid” at Cineworld in Cardiff. For this of you who may not know, The Raid was written, directed and edited by Gareth Huw Evans who is originally from Hirwaun. Evans moved to Indonesia, and has since made two films which feature the Indonesian traditional martial art, Pencak Silat.
I was a bit apprehensive before the film started, its very much out of my comfort zone…in fact I’m not even sure I have seen a martial arts film before…but I was excited to give it a go as I had heard such great reviews. I’m usually quite girly when it come to movies. Don’t get me wrong I love a good action film…but the Mission Impossible/Bourne/Bond types where there’s not much blood and its all very clean and kind of family friendly.
I was wrong to be worried…yes The Raid was very violent, but for some reason this didn’t bother me. During the whole film I was tense, on edge, wanting these characters to survive and complete their mission, not knowing what was going to happen next or how the film would end. The only thing I was concerned about was getting out of that building and for some reason I didn’t care how they did it. My only explanation for this is the strength of the story. I was drawn in immediately…the sign of a great film. The relationships and themes running through the whole film added to this and made it just an amazing film. Great performance from Iko Uwais as Rama, the rookie member of the SWAT team that the film focuses on. I must also mention the brilliant score written by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park fame and Joseph Trapanese.
Gareth did a Q&A session after the film and it was so interesting to learn how he made such an incredible film on such a small budget! Production budget was around $900,000 - when you think the production budget for Avengers Assemble was around $220million it puts it into perspective! Overall, even though I don’t know Gareth, I felt this amazing sense of pride for what he has achieved. I’m now very much looking forward to the sequel which starts filming in January next year.
So ultimately what have i learned? Never judge a film by it’s genre…give things a go…you just never know ;)
x
