Mondo Macabro
Blu-ray Release: November 12, 2024
Video: 2.35:1/1080p/Color (all three films)
Audio: English and Indonesian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (all three films)
Subtitles: English
Run Time: 91:36 (The Warrior), 92:36 (The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman), 98:37 (The Warrior and the Ninja)
Director: Sisworo Gautama Putra (The Warrior), Worod Suma (The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman), H. Tjut Djalil (The Warrior and the Ninja)
Following the glorious ascension of new generation directors, including Gareth Evans, Timo Tjahjanto, Kimo Stamboel, and Joko Anwar, Indonesia has become a haven of bone-crunching martial arts action and gritty folk horror. But Indonesian cult filmmaking didn’t spring up overnight; it was built upon a singular era when, following a military coup, the country had loosened censorship restrictions and become more receptive to Western media imports. During the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, a lush tradition of exploitation cinema developed, set apart from its more prolific European counterparts by a mélange of regional folklore and pop culture, forging a truly unique canon of vibrant cultural mash-ups that barely resembled the Hollywood hits they endeavored to mimic.
The roots of modern Indonesia action, in particular, are found in the comic strip adaptations of the era, which drew clear inspiration from Hong Kong, Taiwanese, and Japanese martial arts cinema. The genre’s biggest star was Barry Prima (Bertus Knoch), a taekwondo master who worked his way up from a small role in Sisworo Gautama Putra’s Italian cannibal cash-in Primitif (1978) to a marquee name, headlining a series of films as folk hero Jaka Sembung, including Putra’s The Warrior (Indonesian: Jaka Sembung, 1981), Worod Suma’s The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman (Indonesian: Si Buta Lawan Jaka Sembung, 1983), and H. Tjut Djalil’s The Warrior and the Ninja (Indonesian: Jaka Sembung & Bergola Ijo, 1985).
Long-time stewards of Indonesian cult cinema in the US and UK, Mondo Macabro, has finally released remastered Blu-ray editions of all three original Warrior movies. While I am covering them in a single review, as they were initially released (the limited edition is now sold out), they are currently available as two separate releases: one featuring the original film and a selection of extras and the other featuring both sequels.
The Warrior (1981)
As a leader of his country’s rebellion against the oppressive Dutch colonialists, Jaka Sembung (Barry Prima) is captured, tortured, and left for dead. But he returns, even more powerful than before. In desperation, the invaders resurrect an evil wizard and set him against Jaka Sembung in a fierce fight to the death. (From Mondo Macabro’s official synopsis)
The Warrior films and director Sisworo Gautama Putra were the product of the Rapi Films production company, who essentially ruled the Indonesian exploitation, horror, and action scenes for decades. Beginning with the aforementioned Primitif, Putra directed several Rapi hits, including the Friday the 13th cash-in Wolf (Indonesian: Srigala, 1981) and seminal horror classic Slaves of Satan (Indonesian: Pengabdi Setan, 1981). While a comic book action spectacle at heart, the tone and imagery of the Rapi brand of fantasy horror was an important component, along with leftover inspiration from colonial Dutch costume melodramas.
The mash-up works in spite of budget and technological constraints, because everything, no matter how strange, is presented so sincerely. The plot and characters initially feel so stock that they lull the typical kung fu audience into a false sense of security, only to smack our expectations in the face with exotic folklore and outrageous gore. The Warrior doesn’t feature anything as jaw-dropping as the fetus-sucking penanggalan seen in Djalil’s Mystics in Bali (Indonesian: Leák, 1980), but it does include a scene where the hero is turned into a boar, a magical eye transplant, and a final boss who can reassemble his severed body parts. Comparisons to the Shaw Bros. Black Magic films and Golden Harvest’s jiāngshī movies are inevitable, especially given the time of release, but the flavor of supernatural threat and religious/spiritual affiliations of the battle wizards are purely Indonesian.
Jaka Sembung himself is a combination of American superheroes, whitehat gunfighters, Bushido samurai, religious martyrs, and other folk heroes, like Robin Hood or Wong Fei Hung, the historical martial artist and physician whose exaggerated exploits became the basis for an entire subgenre of kung fu movies. His unabashed anticolonialist slant is probably the most astonishing part of his character, at least to North American audiences. We definitely mythologize our forefathers, but rarely tell stories of them winning revolutions with mystical powers. On a somewhat related tangent, The Warrior is rare among world exploitation cinema for featuring white-face, rather than the more common black and brown-face seen throughout European and American films.
The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman (1983)
A Dutch commander organizes a martial arts tournament to select the best warrior to defeat Jaka Sembung (Barry Prima). The winner is a mysterious blind swordsman (Advent Bangun), who returns with Jaka’s decapitated head. But things are not quite what they seem and grow more complicated when a seductive sorceress, Dewi Magi (Gudi Sintara), sets her sights on the swordsman. (From Mondo Macabro’s official synopsis)
The first Warrior sequel, The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman, begins as more of the same with Dutch colonialist villains trying to find a martial artist who can take down the invincible Jaka Sembung. But it quickly sets itself apart by doubling-down the mystical wackiness and fantastical characters, beginning with a Street Fighter select screen’s worth of nameless maniacs, who quickly kill each other during the opening tournament. The amusingly complicated plot and motley crew of new faces leaves Jaka a supporting player, setting the titular Blind Swordsman, Soca Indrasukama, as the lead for much of the film. It’s a fun change of pace, especially as the story completely shifts course around the 30-minute mark.
Viewers, myself included, might assume that the Blind Swordsman is the Jaka-verse’s answer to Japan’s Zatoichi, but Soca Indrasukama is this film’s version of Barda Mandrawata – another, possibly more popular Indonesian comic folk hero with his own extensive publication and film production history, who originally appears in Ganes Thiar Santosa’s 1967 series Si Buta dari Gua Hantu (The Blind Man from the Haunted Cave). Lead antagonist Dewi Magi fits another common character type, that of the sex-starved sorceress. Most of the greatest Indonesian exploitation movies feature an evil queen/goddess/witch who seduces men, sapping them of their lifeforce. Yet, in spite of their evil acts, Dewi and her Amazon-like harem are surprisingly sympathetic figures, especially after it is revealed that they are in the thrall of a greater evil. It’s genuinely sad to see them delivered their comeuppance during the gory, explosively over-the-top climax.
According to IMDb, this is Worod Suma’s only directing credit. Some sources claim that Purple Fog at the Shore (Indonesian: Kabut Ungu di Bibir Pantai, 1981) writer/director Dasri Yacob was a co-director, leading me to believe that this was either a group effort or that Suma was replaced at some point. Assuming Suma was in charge the entire time, he arguably has a better handle on the staging and cutting of action & shoe-string special effects than Putra.
The Warrior and the Ninja (1985)
Jaka Sembung (Barry Prima) teams up with a female freedom fighter known as Bajing Ireng (Zurmaini) to fight Dutch colonialists, an evil sorcerer, and an invincible fighter set loose by a recent volcanic eruption.
The final entry in what fans know as the original Warrior trilogy, The Warrior and the Ninja, is a bit more grounded than the first two films. Its plot is nearly identical to The Warrior, but with its fantastical elements muted and its tone clouded in unexpected melancholy. The titular ninja, Bajing Ireng (The Black Squirrel), was another popular comic character and another Robin Hood figure for Jaka to team up with. The big heavy, the iron-skinned Balung Wesi, has the ability to burn his victims with his touch, but is otherwise a down-to-earth brawler who can’t reassemble his body parts or shoot laser beams from his fingertips. He’s also dispatched pretty early and replaced by cruel, opportunistic politicians who would be right at home in any historical revolutionary costume drama. This all results in a different experience and a film that isn’t as much fun as its predecessors, but which arguably has more dignity.
H. Tjut Djalil (sometimes credited as Jalil Jackson) is perhaps the best-regarded director of classic Indonesian cult action and horror. Here, he’s only occasionally dabbling in the extreme imagery of the aforementioned Mystics in Bali, Lady Terminator (Indonesian: Pembalasan Ratu Pantai Selatan, 1989), or Dangerous Seductress (1992), specifically in the deaths of two villains: one who is literally shattered and the other who has her face peeled off, revealing the screaming skull beneath. It’s actually sort of surprising that he didn’t direct The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman, because horny sorceresses became his stock-in-trade.
Prima continued playing Jaka types in Ratno Timoer’s The Devil’s Sword (Indonesian: Golok Setan, 1984), Ackyl Anwari’s Mandala, The Tar Tar Conqueror (Indonesian: Mandala penakluk satria tar tar, 1988), and M. Abnar Romli’s Pancasona (1989). He returned to the role officially for S.A. Karim’s Jaka tuak (1990) and Atok Suharto’s Jaka Sembung and the Ocean Goddess (Indonesian: Jaka Sembung dan Dewi Samudra, 1990). I made a ‘Jaka-verse’ joke earlier, but have since learned that Joko Anwar, Timo Tjahjanto, and other major Indonesian filmmakers are actively pursuing a Bumilangit Cinematic Universe using characters currently owned by the Bumilangit production company. However, a Jaka Sembung film is not currently in production.
Bibliography
Mondo Macabro: Weird & Wonderful Cinema Around the World by Pete Tombs (St. Martin's Griffin, 1998)
Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe by Steven Jay Schneider (FAB Press, 2003)
Video
There are VHS version of the three Warrior films available, but none were produced specifically for an official US release (I see some mention of an Acorn Media VHS, but that appears to be a similarly named, unrelated film), so curious fans needed to seek out bootlegs until Mondo Macabro finally put out an anamorphic DVD in 2008. Mondo’s advertising copy doesn’t specify what went into their new 1080p Blu-ray restoration, but does state that they were working from the original negative and I’m guessing if it was a 4K scan they would’ve released a limited edition 4K disc. Given the film’s age, obscurity, and low budget, I’m very impressed with this transfer. The image is clean, neatly detailed, and about as consistent as F.E.S. Tarigan’s sometimes foggy, sometimes sharp photography will allow. There’s room for improvement – black levels are sometimes weak and there are some minor digital artifacts throughout – but textures are rich, grain levels appear accurate (though inconsistent), colors are vibrant, and print damage is minimal.
The two sequels are making their official North American debuts and all-around world Blu-ray debuts. Previously, fans traded second generation VHS tapes with burnt-in Dutch or Greek subtitles, only recently upgrading them with HD Indonesian television rips. Each 1080p transfer more or less matches the quality of the Warrior disc, though they have their own challenges to overcome. The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman is a particularly soft film with a lot of diffused light eating up its fine detail, while The Warrior and the Ninja is largely overcast and made up of almost exclusively earthy tones, which makes for a somewhat dimmer and rougher experience. Given these limitations and previous lack of availability, it’s hard to complain about the latter transfer’s inconsistent color quality or occasional sheen of noisy artifacts. I actually found screencaps from the HDTV versions and can verify that this is an improvement, especially in terms of compression.
Audio
All three films include English and Indonesian language tracks in uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound. I assume that, like their Hong Kong counterparts, Indonesian filmmakers were shooting without synced on-set sound, so both tracks were dubbed. The English dubs are in better condition with higher volume levels, cleaner dialogue, and a better FX/dialogue/musical balance.
The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman is the opposite, featuring a surprisingly dynamic Indonesian track and a muffled English track that my stupid sound system kept trying to make into a stereo mix whenever distortion occurred. Still, it’s a very enjoyable dub, so I recommend sticking with it. The Warrior and the Ninja sports the biggest differences between mixes with the English dub coming in much clearer with more effects and music than its Indonesian counterpart.
The Warrior’s music is credited to composer Gatot Sudarto, who really goes above and beyond with a somewhat poppy mix of tribal drumming and Morricone-esque melodies. The music is so muted and muffled on the Indonesian track that I at first thought it was an alternate score. I couldn’t find a composer credit for the second film, but the third is credited to Sudarto again, so maybe he scored all three?
Extras
Again, these films are currently only available as two separate releases, one featuring The Warrior and all of the special features below, and the other featuring only the two sequels.
2024 Interviews:
SFX maestro El Badrun (22:51, HD) – Badrun looks back on his early life, his love of movies and comics, breaking into the industry, creating effects for The Warrior, and some of the films he has worked on over the years (including clips).
Director Joko Anwar (37:03, HD) – The director of Impetigore (2019) and the 2017 remake of Satan's Slaves speaks at length about his love of Indonesian horror, action, and exploitation, his own films, personally meeting and working with Barry Prima on Janji Joni (2005), reading Pete Tombs’ Mondo Macabro book, and the whole of the Warrior trilogy (also including clips).
Screenwriter Imam Tantowi (21:03, HD) – Tantowi, who was not credited on the final film (Darto Juned gets the sole writing credit), talks about the cultural influence of Javanese comics and novels, adapting the Jaka Sembung strips, and behind-the-scenes disagreements about writing choices.
Archival Interviews
Getting Started (9:43, SD) – An older discussion with Tantowi about his work and The Warrior.
Gope T. Samtani (11:59, SD) – A career retrospective with the producer.
The Warrior, The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman, and The Warrior and the Ninja trailers
The images on this page are taken from the BDs and sized for the page. Larger versions can be viewed by clicking the images. Note that there will be some JPG compression.
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