Vic Film Club Presents: THE RAID REDEMPTION

Doors and Pre-show: 7 PM
Movie: 7:30 PM

For the first-ever Vic Film Club screening, I was always going to pick The Raid. It's a film that demands to be seen on the big screen, with a can of beer in hand and an audience fully locked in to every ruthless blow. For that reason, it had to be at The Vic, because the crowd is always in step with the movie. I don't know when the last time people in Victoria had an opportunity to see The Raid was, but I'm excited to make this happen. I've also ensured that if you've seen the film before, it'll be like watching it for the first time...

In 2024, director Gareth Evans oversaw a 4K restoration of the film, which also included a completely new colour grading that vastly improves its look and makes everything stand out even more. It's the same film, just way better looking than ever before, with much clearer visuals, so it's kind of like you're watching it for the first time. That's the version you'll see in May, unless something goes horribly awry in the process. Comparison shots below of the original colour grading above the new one.

To ensure maximum energy, I've decided to use the international score by Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park and Joseph Trapanese (who would later score The Raid 2). The original Indonesian score adds this level of tension and matches the obvious John Carpenter influence from Assault on Precinct 13, but the international score further enhances the chaos, making the film hit harder once it got a wider release.

It took almost no time for Gareth Evans' Indonesian martial arts masterpiece, The Raid: Redemption, to become canonized. Its brutal, kinetic, propulsive, and tense action is stitched together with economical, minimalist storytelling, serving as a testament to what cinema can achieve when it is at its most visceral.

The film will have premiered 15 years ago this September, when Midnight Madness audiences at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival were the first to discover a new breed of action cinema that infused survival-horror elements with dizzying kicks and flurries of fists. Since then, it has become a touchstone for the genre and an obvious influence on many action directors worldwide.

It stars Iko Uwais, Joe Taslim, and Yayan Ruhian, all of whom have crossed over to Hollywood from appearances in Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, The Expendables 4, Mortal Kombat, Star Trek Beyond, and Fast & Furious 6. However, they all continue to demonstrate their action prowess in their home country, Indonesia, and work on productions in Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand, and Hong Kong, where their presence often elevates already incredibly impressive works.

This is where it all began for them, though. Ruhian and Uwais' film debuts were in 2009's Merantau, directed by Evans. Taslim had two credits on his call sheet before joining the other two in The Raid: Redemption. A showcase of the pencak silat martial arts style in its most technically impressive and visceral form, the three performers deliver gut-churning violence in the confines of an apartment building overseen by a paranoid slumlord.

It's going to be an action-packed night, beginning at 7 PM with a pre-show featuring curated trailers for international action movies from the past 15 years. So even if you've seen The Raid, you might find out about something you've never even heard of just by showing up a little early and securing your seat. Then brace yourself for 100 minutes of absolute carnage.

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