All language subtitles for A Violent Ballet Behind the Choreography

Basically, we did a movie
called Merantau back in 2008.

And after finishing that,
l'd written a script called Berandal.

And Berandal is the story of a sort
of young guy who ends up in prison ...

...befriends the son of a mob boss,
comes out...

...joins them as an enforcer, and then ,
you know, involved in gang warfare.

At the time, it was called Berandal,
which means "thug" or "scoundrel ."

Because it's about l ko's character
going undercover, being a bad guy.

We tried to get the funding
for two years to make that film .

After two years, we failed .
Couldn't get it up and running .

And so we went back to Gareth
and said :

"What if we do this one
after something else?"

What if there's another film
between Merantau. . .

...and what became The Raid 2?

And he came back to us and said :

"Okay, l have an idea
for this thing called The Raid."

But in the process of writing
The Raid 1 , l was thinking :

"What's wrong with it?
What's the problem , what can l fix?"

One of the things
we decided to do was to make it--

Fix the motivation
of the main character.

By fixing the motivation of the character
as to why he has to stay...

... putting him in as an undercover cop
solved that for us.

Over that two years, we'd already done
a lot of choreography for the film .

Like the final fight, the kitchen fight,
we already designed that entirely.

And when it came to actually doing
the shoot, which was four years later...

...we found that we still loved the
choreography and were still proud of it.

So actually, the only thing that changed
in the end was maybe two or three shots.

L'm a huge fan
of the martial-arts genre as a film.

And you know, growing up
watching all these different films...

... l'd seen karate, kung fu , tae kwon do,
aikido, and everything else in movies.

But l'd never seen silat before.

Gareth is originally from Wales...

...and he moved to l ndonesia
almost a decade ago.

And he had a great interest in silat,
which is a form of martial arts in film .

And the way he stumbled
into Merantau...

...and lko, and Yayan ,
the leads of the two films...

...and the fight choreographers, was he
wanted to do a documentary about silat.

The first time l worked with Gareth ...

...was in 2007,
in a documentary film about silat.

He came to l ndonesia to make
a documentary on silat.

And then he offered me
to play in a film .

A feature. And that was
my first film, Merantau.

It was the perfect situation
where worlds collided .

You had a guy
who had some filmmaking know-how...

...and an appetite
to make a cool martial-arts movie...

...teaming up with some guys
who were awesome martial artists.

And in the meantime,
Gareth had gotten to know Jakarta...

...gotten to speak the language...

...and developed an understanding
of the local film industry.

One important thing ,
when it comes to a sequel ...

...is that it's not just a rehash .

There's a lot of, like, you know--

Hate to say this,
but there's a lot of lazy sequels.

It's the same as the first film ...

...but they tweak certain gags,
or they tweak certain setups.

But l didn't wanna do that
with this one.

We decided to expand the universe,
make it more interesting .

Give us an opportunity
to be more vibrant with colors...

...with the sort of, you know,
overall feel of the film .

And give ourselves an opportunity
to be more liberated in our actions.

So, like, now we're outdoors.
We can do anything .

We can do a car chase. We can do
huge brawls in a prison courtyard .

And so it just opened up our options
a lot more.

All martial arts tend to have a very similar
sort of approach in terms of:

There's only so many ways
to punch someone.

Only so many ways you can kick,
block, parry, or lock.

And so, what's different
is the way it's packaged .

It's the character of the martial art.

So Muay Thai is very kind of,
you know, arms up...

...in a very sort of aggressive stance.

Whereas with silat, it's got a very--

It's very adaptable
to different environments.

Doesn't matter if you're fighting
one person in a closed space...

...or a bunch of people
in a wide-open space.

There are always escape routes.
Always ways of defending yourself...

...or also coming on the offense.

Every silat school emphasizes...

...on the importance of religion .
lt strengthens the heart and the mind .

But at the same time,
there are many restrictions.

Local television stations depicted silat...

...in a very mystical way.
People who can fly...

...or people that can conjure fire
from the palm of their hand .

And people who can vanish into thin air,
and other mystical things like that.

When l saw it, l was like,
"This is such a cinematic martial art."

L've been very lucky
to work with l ko and Yayan ...

...and all of the silat fighters we've had
in the films, like Cecep and Very.

Because they have
this innate understanding ...

...because they come to it
not just as a practitioner of martial art...

... but they've also represented the country
in demonstrations across the world .

So they have this innate knowledge...

...about what looks good from different
angles and different perspectives.

They're used to the idea of...

...designing something
for a person to see...

...from here in the crowd
or here in the crowd .

Now it's the same for them, but on
a more intimate level with the camera.

We tried to...

...make the choreography
as real as possible.

We made the choreography as real
as possible, with full body contact.

There are no...

...fake camera tricks or...

...flying people or fireballs.
Nothing like that.

We fight...

...as real as possible and made
the choreography as nice as possible.

According to silat standards.

Gareth is a guy
who is really story-minded ...

...and very character-driven .

He never is a guy who says:

"We're eight minutes in .
We need an action scene."

Or, "lt's been seven minutes without
action . We need an action scene."

For him, it's always a question of,
"Where does it naturally emerge from?"

The character work, the story,
and the tension in their world .

If there isn't one for 20 minutes,
there isn't one for 20 minutes.

On a usual fight scene, it takes us
around a week to design the fight...

...and then another week
to do a video storyboard .

But something like the kitchen fight, that
took about a month and a half to design ...

...because it was more intricate,
more complex in terms of choreography.

And then another month or so
to do the video storyboard .

A video storyboard is like--
lt shows a previous idea of the fight.

And what we did is--
lt's all inside an office space.

It's just crash mats, beige walls, and l ko
and Yayan , my main choreographers.

And we basically shoot the entire
sequence as it would be in the final film.

So every shot is the same.
Every added design is as it's going to be.

It's like pre-designing
the entire look of the film .

And then we use that, then ,
as a sort of guide track, almost...

...for when we're on set...

...so that all departments get to know:

Okay. This shot requires
this makeup effect.

This shot requires
this prop to be smashed and broken .

This shot requires
this camera movement and this angle.

So where can we put the lights?
Where can we put the props?

How are we gonna structure the layout,
the location?

So it's a good way
to convey all of that stuff...

...which l wouldn't be able to do
through storyboards alone.

Storyboards can only capture so much ,
but not the actual physicality of the fight.

He gets it right and he takes his time...

...and he knows exactly what shots
he'll need , so when he's on set...

...he's not bombarded ,
or forgetting, or missing ...

...or not getting coverage
on something that'll be critical later.

When we do the finished version ,
it's almost exactly the same.

It's maybe about 95 percent the same
as what we had in preproduction .

Basically, when Gareth
made this action film ...

...he gave me and ...

...Yayan Ruhian a task to be
the silat choreographers.

The way we work together,
me, l ko and Yayan , is that...

... l usually come to them with a sort of
scripted version of the fight.

The scripted version of a fight
is never in any specific detail .

He didn't tell us about
the details of the scene.

Didn't tell us about the locations,
what the set looks like.

He only gave us a mental image.

Maybe in this room ...

... 1 person is fighting 5 people,
or 1 person fighting 3, or 1 on 1 .

And then l say,
"l'm gonna go do some work.

L'll come back
in about 45 minutes.

When l come back, there should be
at least five or six bodies on the floor."

He wanted the ending to be
a certain way.

So we had to come up with the process
to accomplish that ending.

Anytime we have a fight scene...

...we wanna build these crescendos
where we have these punch lines.

So in the first film ,
it would've been like...

...the neck on the door line,
or the doorframe.

Or the guy having his head
smashed against the tiles.

Those are like little punch line moments
where you give something ...

...which is a little outrageous...

...a little absurd ,
to make the audience react.

And what it does, is for me,
it's like it breaks the tension a little.

Kitchen fight is my favorite thing .

You know, when they first--
When l ko first walks in ...

...and the kitchen staff
all walk out...

... l think that's a moment
where you can laugh ...

...but with tension, because you know
what's about to happen .

I love those moments
when we have a silat practitioner...

...against a silat practitioner.

Because it's like a game of chess
for a while.

It's like the intricacy of the choreography
is so special anyway.

I think the guys really worked
so hard on this one.

My favorite would have to be
the kitchen fight.

The reason ...

...why I like that fight scene is because...

... l'm the one who did it...

...and l fought with ...

...a silat teacher from West Java.

H is name is Cecep Arif Rahman ,
he played the assassin .

When we designed those scenes...

... it's not purely about
what's a cool punch, what's a cool block.

It's about figuring out the psychology
of the character as well .

Figuring out like: okay, at what point
do they start to get weary?

What point do they
get more desperate?

What point do they start to get...

...more aggressive
in their movements as well?

I n that scene, l fought...

...approximately for 7 minutes, non-stop.

I did it with confidence...

...and l also trusted Mr. Cecep.

We trusted each other, even though ...

...we came from different silat school .
But our style...

...connected . l mean our movements...

...were connected because we are
familiar with each other's movements.

We had chemistry.

And we trusted each other.

There was the fact that there's
this gradual degradation of the fight...

...from super complex, focused ,
sharp movements at the beginning ...

...to this, like, crazy melee at the end .

It's a sign of how good
their choreography is...

...that they can sell that.
Because when it comes to action films...

...like, there's something
about action as a genre...

...that doesn't get so much respect...

...in terms of a critical level
when it comes to performances.

But what a lot of people
don't realize and don't see...

... is that when you've got a fighter
in a role doing these shots...

...they have to remember and have
a consistency to their performance...

...within two-second slots,
two-second segments.

It's not like doing drama...

...where you do an entire take of a line
of a scene of dialogue.

And you can find your pace,
find your position, find that role.

We shot that scene in about 8 days,
just for that scene.

About 1 95 shots.

And the fact that the fight kind of
just flows so cleanly till the end ...

...that's a huge testament to their skill .

Not just as fighters,
but also as a performance base, as well .

And l think that sometimes
gets overlooked .

It's an absolute ballet
of fight choreography.

Those are two guys
at the top of their games.

And it's not something
we could ever replicate.

It's not like we could get two actors to
do that. Or even two other martial artists.

It was one of those things
where it was a special time and place...

...and we got two guys at the very peak
of their abilities, duking it out.

Of course in every scene,
the emotions are different.

And in every action scene...

...the emotions are different as well .

The fighting scenes...

...are not the same as the others.

The emotion fluctuates.

The best example
is probably more like the prison riot.

Because for that one, it's like
a six- or seven-minute sequence...

...and on a visceral level ,
it delivers a certain sort of, you know...

...a certain amount of entertainment,
purely as a spectacle, in terms of the fight.

But deep down, behind that...

...there's plot
and there's character motivation .

There's a character arc as well .

I mean , the whole thing starts off
with Rama starting to grow paranoid ...

...that he'll be attacked .

That he'll be this target
for this, you know, surprise attack.

And when he realizes that he's not
the target, but it's Uco who's the target...

...then all of a sudden ,
he has to switch ...

...from looking after himself
to becoming protector of him .

Because if anything happens to Uco...

...his mission's over.
lf he gets killed, he's done.

Then he has to stay in prison
for no reason whatsoever.

He'll have gone in ,
and then his mission's wasted .

So he becomes protector
to have to keep this guy alive.

I n the process of doing that then ,
there's a moment where...

... Uco, up until then, has been talking
about whether he should kill Rama.

This idea, there's this sort of--
Almost like a resentment in him .

And then suddenly, he sees in this guy
that, you know, he hated ...

...rescued him, saving him ,
keeping him alive.

So then
by the end of that fight scene...

...you've gone through
these three different plot points.

And it kind of sets us up,
then, where we get to have...

...one shared look, and then we get it.
We understand now. He's in .

We don't have to belabor the point
by having them talk later.

So we could go straight from that scene,
bam, cut, two years later...

...and when he comes out of prison ,
it doesn't feel weird that he picks him up.

So the bond is already established then ,
through the fight.

Julie Estelle, the actress
who plays Hammer Girl ...

... is an established actress in lndonesia.
She's really well-known there.

Is usually the lead actress in films.

And so she's kind of like
an l ndonesian sweetheart, right?

And then suddenly, l'm giving her a call
asking her to audition ...

...for-- You know, auditioning , first of all ,
is unusual for her.

Usually it's just offered . l was like:

"You gotta come in. You gotta audition .
And it's gonna be a five-day audition ...

...for a role that's got two fights
and no dialogue."

She was like, "Okay."
So she looked at the script.

She was a fan of our work from before,
so she came in and did the audition .

She's a beautiful woman ...

...and very...

...elegant. But when ...

...we tested her as a fighter...

...everything changed .

And the first four days
was just learning the choreography.

The fifth day
was the final presentation .

On the first four days,
l was like, "Okay.

She's all right, getting there.
lt's not great yet, but let's see."

Second day, bad but better.
Third day, better again.

Fourth day, "My God ,
she's actually becoming a contender."

The fifth day, when we did the
presentation, she did stuff in that office...

...that, if it was the real location , real
characters, we'd have put in the final film.

She was at that level .

I n everything that she did , she never...

...complained .

She never did that.

At practice she had lots of bruises
on her legs and knees...

...that was once perfect.

Her skin color changed to brown , blue,
and other colors.

And she didn't care.

I n terms of, "Why the hammers?"

It comes from Merantau, our first film.

I n the first movie,
we have this style of silat...

...called harimau, which is "tiger style."

And with that basis, you use your palm
to hit. You keep your fingers like a claw.

So you can hit,
and then grab, and then pull .

Or rip, or drag , or anything .

And basically, the idea was that...

... l wanted her to have
some kind of weapon ...

...to use as an extension
of the palm and the fingers.

And the only weapon l could think of
was a pair of claw hammers.

You got the flat part and then the claw.

And so we adapted the style
of silat harimau...

...to include in terms
of the hammer usage.

So that was the whole design of it.

And then we created this whole backstory
for her as well, and she nailed it.

She was really great
in terms of performance.

And the result...

...exceeded our expectations.
Very satisfying .

For someone like Baseball Bat Man ...

...his second section
was all one shot, anyway.

So yeah . We didn't give him
much breathing room for that.

He's an incredible talent as well .
That guy, his name is Very Tri Yulisman .

And he used to be--

He's still a student, actually,
of the same school of silat as l ko.

And he was in The Raid 1.

He was one of the guys
that gets killed in the drugs lab.

He came in , became
part of our choreography team...

...and helped train Julie
for Hammer Girl .

And we hadn't cast Baseball Bat Man
at that time.

And we saw the chemistry they had
in practice, and we were just locked in .

We were like,
"Let's offer it to him. See how he does."

Again , l've been really lucky.

Very, Yayan , l ko and Cecep,
these four guys...

...they come in without any experience
at all in terms of being on-screen .

And each of them , in their first roles,
exceled at whatever l expected of them.

Sam Peckinpah and John Woo
and Jackie Chan ...

...those guys, for me...

...at different stages in cinema,
have kind of defined action cinema.

And you know what it is,
what l love about them?

That sense of,
when they do an action sequence...

...you're always aware
of your surroundings.

You always understand
the geography of the place.

And there's a clarity and a detail there.

And also a willingness to show
the choreography full and clean...

...that a lot of modern action films
just don't do anymore.

A lot of modern action films, they cut in
super close. Shake the camera...

...add sound effects of hits
and blocks and kicks, and tell you :

"You just saw an action scene."
You didn't. You just heard one.

And for me, it's important
to kind of like--

If my guys are gonna do all this
choreography design ...

... my responsibility is to show that.

That's why l get involved in the
beginning , so l know the details.

I know what that wrist lock is about.
l know what this is, you know...

...the purpose for that move
in order for him to do this move.

And so then l can kind of be,
you know, the guide, in a way...

...for the same way when
they're doing those presentations.

L'm looking down, trying to see
where the movement's following .

That's what l have to do,
but as the camera.

So that everyone who's watching
can do the same thing.

So they can get a sense of,
"Yeah, l get it.

I see where this is going ."

Without it feeling telegraphed .

I don't think we're doing anything new.
We're taking a step back.

Just going back
to that older style of filmmaking ...

...where you could still see everything .