Silat Warriors: Deed of Death - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Silat Warriors: Deed of Death

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras: :
Final Score:


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Movie
As a huge fan of the martial arts “conglomeration” of Silat, I was expecting fun things of Silat Warriors: Deed of Death. However, I had kind of forgotten that Silat wasn’t just practiced by the ever popular Indonesians who have been pumping out great action movies for years (Silat was popularized in the west by Iko Uwais with his The Raid films as well as Merantau a few years earlier), and immediately thought we were getting another Indonesian/Thai action. Oops, that’s what I get for not paying attention. The Malay people also practice a form of Silat, and this was a passion project created by an INCREDIBLY poor country, with a very weak film making production. That’s not an insult at all to them, but rather a statement of fact. Malaysia isn’t exactly known for high budget productions, but low budget passion projects that turn out amateurish compared to big budget Asian films.

Silat Warriors: Deed of Death most certainly follows the traditional pattern of these low budget passion projects. The story is pretty incomprehensible with a meandering plot about a group of loan sharks and criminals fleecing innocent farmers and land owners out of their land. The main hero’s family is about to lose their land due to the misdeeds of their brother Mat Arip (Fad Anuar) who gets in over his head with gambling debts. Naturally the big bad guys come to make good on their debts, and his family pays the price. While Mat Arip decides to use his fists and muscle to make things right, his sister Fatimah (Feiyna Tajudin), Father (Namron) and brother turn to their faith in Islam to find a peaceful solution.

However, things get taken too far when Arip goes down for the count thanks to the overwhelming force of the gangsters. It may take about 2/3rds of the film to get to this breaking point (which is filled with car chases, gambling fights, random fights, and proselytizing about religion by all involved), but once that last 1/3rd of the movie kicks off (yes, pun intended) the action picks up substantially, to the point of he last 30 minutes being one long battle.

I have mixed feelings about Silat Warriors: Deed of Death. On one hand it has some very weak acting and directing by a lot of first timers, and REALLY bad editing. But on the other hand the scrappy first timers really give the film their all. The typical martial arts themes of debt, honor and dignity are on full display, and everyone involved in the picture are really give it everything they have. The fights are gutsy and filled with lots of single take scenes. Unlike western actioneers, they actually show an ENTIRE fight in one take (or as close to one take as possible), forgoing all of the cheesy “billion cuts” for one fight scene to cover up the fact that the choreography is weak and the actors can’t really do the stuff they’re portraying. Choreography is solid, but it does show some of the limits of first time film makers, and stuff that action choreographers in Honk Kong, China, Thailand and Korea figured out decades ago. You can see the stiff “1-2-3-4” motions of hesitant choreography that was typical in the 1970s for American Chuck Norris films, and the blows and impacts are hilarious in their “over” acting at each blow.

That being said, those Malaysians threw themselves into the action body and soul, and I visibly winced more than a few times as you saw a body slam into the dirt, or bounce off of a metal frame and you just KNOW that they really threw their body around like that. The action is ok, the cinematography weak, and the plot fairly nonsensical. But at the same time I have a really hard time throwing the film under the bus because this was done by a first time film director in a country that doesn’t have the same history of action movies that Hong Kong and America and the bigger nations have mastered. It’s kind of like kicking the white belt around and feeling good about beating them by comparing them to their much older and wiser students. As such I’m giving a sort of “in the middle” grade, as I really liked what they attempted to do, even if I have to critique them on their delivery.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA




Video:

The digitally shot film was OBVIOUSLY shot on a shoestring budget, and there’s tons of those budgetary constraints on full display. The film is generally shot at night where digital noise swarms, blurry shots are pretty normal, and general colors are just muted and dull. Blacks are swarming with noise and they tend to crush very very heavily. Daylight sequences are much better, although still show off plenty of digital noise. The “fast and furious” car race with Mat Arip shows off some really bright pinks and blues on the car, but otherwise this is a rather grungy and gritty looking film. There’s some obvious color banding that Well Go USA is known for, but really that isn’t that problematic. It comes and goes, but the budget constraints of the film just really overshadow any technical glitches that happen.






Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track in the native Malay tongue is a little better than the video, but also suffers form budget constraints. Dialogue is usually very clear and intelligible, but it’s pretty obviously overdubbed as well (especially in the fight scenes). Surround activity is pretty muddy and murky, with indistinct noise coming from a lot of the channels. Bass response is really nice and healthy though. Solid enough of a mix, but nothing that really is going to blow you away.








Extras:

• Well Go USA Previews.
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

Silat Warriors: Deed of Death is a scrappy little film with lots of heart and lots of first timer issues. It’s not a bad film, and I rather enjoyed the action sequences. However, if you’re going in expecting something on the level of The Raid, The Raid 2: Redemption or the like you will come out sorely disappointed. The Blu-ray is rather mediocre simply due to the fact that it was shot on a shoe string budget with digital cameras in the dark. As such there’s lots of noise and problems, and the audio is just decent. If you’re a hardcore fan of martial arts film as I am, it’s definitely worth checking out to see a new variant on the old honor and dignity martial arts film. But general audiences will kind of look down their noses on it.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Namron, Khoharullah Majid, Feiyna Tajudin, Fad Anuar, Azlan Komeng, Salehuddin Abu Bakar
Directed by: Areel Abu Bakar
Written by: Areel Abu Bakar, Hafiz Derani
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: Malaysian: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Malaysian DD 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: Well Go USA
Rated: NR
Runtime: 101 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 6th 2021

Recommendation: For the Martial Arts Fans