Scene of the Week: Merantau (2009)
As a story, Merantau doesn’t do much differently from films like 2003’s Ong-Bak or any other movie that sees its protagonist move from the small town to the big city and find himself in a heap of trouble. What it does magnificently well is introduce us to both Iko Uwais (the future action star) and Gareth Evans (the future action director extraordinaire). It also fits enough pencak silat action into the scenes that for anyone unfamiliar with the martial art, you’ll be begging for more by the end. Speaking of end, the below scene is the finale for the film so prepare for SPOILERS if you haven’t seen it.
Synopsis: A small-village country boy goes on his spiritual merantau into the city. A physical and spiritual rite of passage for him to gain experience outside of his life in the area in which he grew up. He finds a new use for his expertise in silat after he uncovers a human trafficking ring and works towards stopping it.
