I may be of the minority when I say I wish that Timo Tjahjanto‘s latest October Netflix launch, The Shadow Strays, instead released in December as did his previous streaming banger, The Big 4 in 2022. This way, at least The Shadow Strays would feel like a proper Christmas action thriller, and not for nothing either considering the film starts in a snow-driven Yakuza safehouse where a boss with a godcomplex awaits his otherwise imminent demise.
The opening action scene alone may well be worth its own whole article, at that, while the film’s current run on Netflix as of last week is now the talk of any and all in the fandom, most notably fans of Tjahjanto who’ve followed the director’s Mo’ Brothers era with a stake in the horror genre that’s conjoined him with the dialogue of Asian film and action cinema fans in the years since Indonesian action resurged with Gareth Huw Evans’ Merantau and The Raid. I say this to underscore at least one fact about The Shadow Strays that our own Shaun Williams iterated in a tweet over the weekend after seeing the film for himself, stating in part “Put simply, there is TOO much to say about The Shadow Strays,” and he isn’t wrong.
Indeed, there is a lot to pick apart with The Shadow Strays, and even as the praise goes on from there, of course, some folks who saw the film felt differently to some degree, and are allowed as much. It’s a tricky tread to tell a story like the one Tjahjanto sells in a near two-and-a-half-hour runtime, and from the perspective of this critic, even as there are a few shortfalls, at best, they are nitpicks long forgotten in the scheme of things considering the full perspective brought into view with what the film accomplishes from start to finish.
The story sees 13, an assassin working for a clandestined organization of killers called “Shadows,” both feared and revered globally enough so as to have the opening prologue read with captions that translate the name of the group in different languages. Mid-attack, 13 kills an innocent bystander, hesitating in a moment that compromises her and leaves off her mentor, Master Umbra, to finish the job her ward couldn’t. Deemed unfit for the field, Umbra assigns 13 back to their facility for psychological reorientation, but not before those plans are soon shelved as Umbra is assigned to a job in Cambodia, forcing 13 to suspend and await further orders at a safehouse in Jakarta, Indonesia. While there, it isn’t long before 13 bears witness to the disturbing events of her 11-year old neighbor, Monji, left newly orphaned after the death of his mother at the hands of an unsavory group of politically connected criminals.
As a bond slowly begins to grow between 13 and Monji, their friendship takes a dark turn when Monji disappears, and a lackey named Jeki is sent to clean up whatever evidence may have been potentially left behind. In an all-or-nothing moment, 13 sets off on her own journey of retribution and self-discovery, turning Jakarta’s underworld upside down to deliver her own brand of justice. The film also reveals Umbra’s own impasse with reality during her scrimmages in Cambodia with an armed resistance specifically targeting the Shadows. It’s a core moment in the story as things come to a head for 13 whose actions soon bring her face-to-face with not just the vertically intergrated gangsters eyeing to rule Jakarta, but also, her organization in a violent reckoning that will determine her fate.
I give Tjahjanto a lot of credit in creating these kinds of stories. As good as he is at teasing his SMS fanbase, he especially has a way of crafting these stories, layering them nice and thick with an almost world-building appeal, and with plenty of opaque moments that even have some of his own Twitter followers up-in-arms one moment and second-guessing themselves the next. Combining this will his fair share of homages and easter eggs to any number of beloved IPs, and you get a film replete with fan service that is as substantial in its dimensions and overall presentation as it is enriching, particularly as a film that doesn’t ride the coattails of other films to try and pass muster.
Sure, it follows the subgenre of assassin thrillers where the protagonist fights back against their own in a quest for revenge and redemption in some capacity. And, you can point to any number of titles that reflect this point, including Tjahjanto’s The Night Comes For Us. Nonetheless, this doesn’t subtract from the energy and personality Tjahjanto emits in his films. Just as with The Night Comes For Us and The Big 4, and his 2016 co-directorial work, Headshot, The Shadow Strays has its own heartbeat, and reaffirms its viewers with solidity and authenticity throughout.
That fact also speaks to the cast, led by none other than Aurora Ribeiro, whose starring addition to the film reportedly inspired Tjahjanto after seeing her in Gina S. Noer’s 2022 film, Like & Share. Ribeiro would begin training for the action flick at 18 before filming a year later when she turned 19, transforming herself from – by the director’s own words – “a dainty teenager” to “having a Ronda Rousey physique & could literally choke out a grown man to sleep.” It’s an exciting premiere performance for a lot of us Westerners just discovering Ribeiro for the first time, while for others who’ve seen the actress on screen beforehand, the difference might as well be night-and-day to an amply impressive extent.
The best example of this might as well be the opening action sequence in which our protagonist can be seen slicing and dicing her way through a guard of Yakuzas after slaying her target. Soon as her character is briefly neutralized, the carnage continues with actress Hana Malasan’s Master Umbra taking the wheel and finishing the job before ushering 13 back to health and onto their plane. It is in these opening moments where The Shadow Strays lays clear the pecking order and intensity between student and master. The dialogue here ebulliently conveys 13’s displeasure with taking orders, through her demeanor when told that despite taking out her target as intended, she still “failed” when a momentary pause left her vulnerable, shot, unconcious and otherwise saved by the durability of her armor.
Going into Umbra, I actually love what Tjahjanto did in developing her character. It’s a little transparent at first, but I did get a thrill out of just seeing where the story went. The scene in Cambodia, also featuring the towering Daniel Ekaputra in the role of Troika, was pretty important, even though it feels like an excess to the rest of the story. It’s in this particular chapter of the film where a confrontation with another killer finds Umbra somewhat in the same predicament that she reprimanded 13 for being in. It’s not exactly a “come to Jesus” moment either for Umbra, and mainly because of the inaction that follows in a scene wherein a character potentially dies; If you follow Tjahjanto (on the site I still call Twitter), there’s a short exchange he had with another user to whom he does allude to the character not necessarily being dead. Do with that what you will. It definitely doesn’t reflect anything positive toward Umbra though, and so it’s a cross that she bears right down to her 1v1 with 13.
As good as an action film like The Shadow Strays is with essential coming-of-age reluctant dark heroes like 13, the film matches its ambitions via its antagonists. In this case, we have the hazed out and drug dealing Haga (Agra Piliang) and his maniacal shotgun-wielding twin sister Soriah (Taskya Namya), corrupt cop Prasetyo (Adipati Dolken), and Ariel (Andri Mashadi), the sadistic son of Soemitro (Arswendy Swara), a gubernatorial candidate for Jakarta. Each of these antagonists come packaged with Tjahjanto’s approach in crafting larger-than-life, evil characters deserving of their comeuppance when it arrives.
The only character who stands redeemable within this mix of hoodlums is the role of Jeki, played by the ever talented Kristo Immanuel who led among the main quintet of stars in Tjahjanto’s The Big 4. We first met Jeki when he ventures into Monji’s apartment to clean up any and all potential evidence until he decides to take it upon himself to hit up a stash of drugs in the place for a quick fix. Within minutes, Jeki’s high gets a rude awakening by a tenacious 13 who presses him for information on Monji’s whereabouts. As the story develops, the story reveals Jeki’s slightly more complex environment, essentially hinting that Jeki isn’t as shameless and evil as his employers constrain him to be, and we eventually see the extent to which Jeki himself is willing to risk everything with 13 and Monji caught in the crosshairs.
Ali Fiskry plays Monji for his screentime alongside Ribeiro. We see what he’s forced to endure long prior to the moment he and 13 have their first heart-to-heart over a single plate of food. His pain and anger are immediately understandable, as is 13’s understanding of his emotional state which speaks to a layer of her character she’s quite possibly already in touch with. When Monji suddenly goes missing, we firmly get the gravity of 13’s concern and discontent, and sheer will to do anything it takes to find him, and given what we see later in the film happening to Monji, the importance of this task becomes all too clear. What the film also lays bare is the bleak and looming tragedy pursuant of these events, an aspect of this story that only fuels 13’s violent quest in the second half.
For a modestly-budgeted action thriller, the size and scale of The Shadow Strays aims to please. I love the intricacy of the sets and designs, as well as the tactical costumes Tjahjanto’s “Shadows” wear. The action goes big when it needs to, and doesn’t relent in the least on the fronts of gore and blood. Fight choreography here comes courtesy of Muhammad Irfan who worked with Tjahjanto on several of his films and other TV shows including Disney+ Hotstar series “Tira,” and when it comes to the action he features in Tjahjanto’s films, Irfan is nothing if not consistent. Action sequences are mostly blade-based with weapons ranging from sword and longswords to guns when and wherever needed. Sword action design goes exceptionally hard and fast with hand-to-hand materials serving ancillary to the former, heads left dangling off of necks as bodies go from vertical to lifeless, intricate facial battle damage, and blood geysers to accomodate demands.
The action featured bodes even better when considering the work the actresses themselves put in, including Ribeiro apart from her training, naturalizing her stunt/fight trainer’s movements to incorporate her own (instead of the other way around) along with fight choreography to adapt better to the role. It definitely speaks to the amount of lauding Tjahjanto gives his star, and it’s well deserved, and for a film among several that distinctly succeeds at being as R-rated as it is in its visceral presentation of action design for a Southeast Asian film production.
Flatly, where so many others still fail, Tjahjanto succeeds. Quite possibly, it could be why he’s the man at the helm for his Hollywood debut with a sequel to 2021’s Nobody. Tjahjanto’s understanding of cinema and its language, arbitrarily puts him centerstage where he belongs for anyone who follows film and film discourse with an eye for action. Moreover, he understands his audience, which makes his consistent world-building caliber so frustrating considering all that factors into Tjahjanto and the expectations we put on him to this day, concurrently, with all the sequel hopes we can muster. This surely extends to The Night Comes For Us which still reigns supreme as a top notch watch since bowing in 2018, and that the numbers were so low upon its release on the streamer that any immediate sequel or spin-off talk fizzled in the years that followed, still speaks – in a way – to the potential that could come given Tjahjanto’s ceremony.
This is where the discussion begins (or continues depending on your standing), primarily. We all have high hopes for Tjahjanto and whatever crew he works with going forward – a fact made clear by the reception of The Shadow Strays since premiering for the Toronto festival crowd ahead of its streaming launch. Invariably though, Tjahjanto isn’t just going to direct action films for his whole career, and so with Nobody 2 to hold us over in the new year, it’ll be inviting to chew over what the man will be onto next, and just how big he’ll go. Tjahjanto is already testing the waters among Tweeters about the future of The Shadow Strays. There’s also the “Si Buta dari Gua Hantu” comic adaptation that’s been long in the works, and the Under Siege redux announced back in 2021. Who knows? Maybe “The Operator” will make her deadly return? Or… OR…
Decisions, decisions…
Watch The Shadow Strays on Netflix, and follow @fuforthoughtpod on Instagram.