This weekend sees the discharge of “No one 2,” and it is a landmark event. Not essentially for star Bob Odenkirk; whereas it is nice to see the “Mr. Present” and “Higher Name Saul” star persevering with to stretch his legs by delving even additional into the motion style, a lot of the novelty has already worn off since the discharge of the primary “No one” again in 2021. As a substitute, “No one 2” entails a distinct debut, that of director Timo Tjahjanto making his first Hollywood studio movie. A local of Indonesia, Tjahjanto has been working steadily in style movies for the previous twenty years. His first foray into filmmaking was as one half of The Mo Brothers, the place he and Kimo Stamboel teamed as much as make three options earlier than placing out on their very own. These films ran the gamut from horror to action-horror and pure motion, proving each males’s prowess inside these genres. In between these films, Tjahjanto additionally dipped his toes into the indie horror world, lending his abilities to a pair of horror anthologies. For “The ABCs of Dying,” Tjahjanto made “L is for Libido,” and for “V/H/S 2,” he and Gareth Evans co-directed “Protected Haven,” which is each the very best single phase of any “V/H/S” movie and one of many biggest anthology shorts ever made.
From there, Tjahjanto was in a position to get some options made in Indonesia, most of which discovered distribution Stateside via Netflix. With every successive movie, Tjahjanto appeared to be reaching for some non-existent award for the bloodiest, goriest film ever made. Regardless of having directed two horror movies solo (“Could the Satan Take You” and “Could the Satan Take You Too”), Tjahjanto’s motion options may very well be extra bloody. They’re definitely extra violent, because the characters in his motion films do not simply get minimize, bruised, and bleed somewhat; they get freakin’ destroyed. Though “No one 2” is being marketed on the power of its brutal, hard-hitting motion sequences, even they can not maintain a candle to certainly one of Tjahjanto’s earlier movies, which may very well be essentially the most violent motion film ever: 2018’s “The Night time Comes for Us.”
The Night time Comes for Us reaches an ideal stage of ultra-violence in motion cinema
For anybody studying a short synopsis of the plot to “The Night time Comes for Us,” they may suppose it is simply a median run of the mill motion flick. The movie is about Ito (Joe Taslim), a former member of the Six Seas, who’re enforcers for the South East Asian Triad. Throughout a Triad operation during which they order the Six Seas to bloodbath a village thanks to some locals stealing medication from the syndicate, Ito comes upon a younger woman, Reina (Asha Kenyeri Bermudez), who causes him to have a disaster of conscience. Instantly leaving the Six Seas (by killing his fellow Triad troopers, naturally), Ito decides to assist Reina escape from the wrath of the Triads, setting off a sequence of occasions that sees an more and more massive variety of killers come to take a pound of flesh from Ito.
On the whole, there’s lots on provide in “The Night time Comes for Us.” For starters, it re-teams Joe Taslim and Iko Uwais from Evans’ groundbreaking motion thriller “The Raid,” with Uwais enjoying Arian, an murderer trying to kill Ito with a view to take his place within the Six Seas. The truth is, the movie is basically a “Raid” reunion, with Julie Estelle and Zack Lee from “The Raid 2” additionally turning up in main roles. The movie’s martial arts work, typically favoring Uwais’ full-body pencak silat type, is prime notch as effectively, and it is exhilarating to look at these actors and stunt-people actually throw their our bodies round. But, the additional sauce that Tjahjanto provides on prime of every little thing is the sheer gnarly influence of the violence. Every physique blow, kick, bullet hit, knife slice, and extra are engineered for max impact, making the movie that rather more intense. The place “The Night time Comes for Us” may’ve been a John Woo or Ringo Lam knock-off (and even felt too beholden to Timo’s pal Evans), it units itself aside by being delightfully ugly.
Timo Tjahjanto’s expertise is one other instance of horror feeding into motion
Maybe the principle motive why “The Night time Comes for Us,” “No one 2,” or any of Tjahjanto’s movies do not feel like spinoff motion films is as a result of Tjahjanto’s main influences aren’t motion films; they’re really horror movies. In interviews, the director has cited films like “Friday the thirteenth” and “The Texas Chain Noticed Bloodbath” as being his inspiration greater than Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan movies, and this speaks to his distinctive method to motion sequences and motion cinema typically. Tjahjanto’s work is simply extra proof that horror filmmakers convey an elevated depth and a heightened expertise to motion films. “The Night time Comes for Us” has a whole lot of proficient martial artists doing their factor, to make certain, however the movie is ready to stand out that rather more due to the sheer quantity of gory gags that Tjahjanto executes.
After all, this sport of ever-increasing violence can backfire. As /Movie’s Chris Evangelista identified when discussing Tjahjanto’s motion epic follow-up to “Night time,” 2024’s “The Shadow Strays,” a perpetually raised bar of excessiveness can start to be extra exhausting than thrilling. Mockingly, that is the place “No one 2” runs into some hassle, as Tjahjanto (whether or not deliberately or in any other case) reins in his typical quantity of gore. Make no mistake: “No one 2” is bloody, however when in comparison with “Night time” or “Shadow,” it appears nearly tame. Thankfully, Tjahjanto’s previous expertise helps make up for this in the way in which he is in a position to make the most of each setting within the movie in intelligent methods, incorporating numerous objects and instruments into the motion somewhat than simply utilizing the usual sharp objects, weapons, and grenades.
Whereas “No one 2” is not even a contender to beat “The Night time Comes for Us” for the title of Most Violent Motion Film Ever, it does appear to vow that Tjahjanto has extra nuance up his sleeve than maybe initially thought. It stays to be seen whether or not Tjahjanto will proceed on this extra muted mode in his future Hollywood movies, or if “No one 2” is getting used as a backdoor to permit him to sneak into the studio system, paving the way in which for him to make a very twisted mainstream motion film subsequent. Clearly, I am hoping the latter is the case.
“No one 2” is now enjoying in theaters.
