Friday, October 21, 2011

Warrior, The (1981)


Barry Prima  plays rebel chief Jaka Sembung, who is captured by the wicked Dutch officer and his troops. He is send to prison camp, but he manages to escape and he will lead the fight against the evil imperialist who have taken over his country.

Oh man...another Indonesian film that is just pure gold. Lots of bloody action, wicked voodoo kind of stuff: evil sorcerer who can put himself back to one piece after his arms, legs and even head are chopped off.

One of the most memorable scene is the one where Jaka is captured and send to prison dungeon. He is crucified to the wall and his eyes are pierced...  but don't worry, he will get his vengeance (and his eye sight back!). The whole movie is full of WTF moments that leave you scratching your head with disbelief. Barry Prima rules the wide screen as always, he does some really good fight scenes and just gives a really good performance as tortured rebel chief who is about to get even.

Two sequels were made, The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman and The Warrior and The Ninja.

So if you want to see some really good crazy-Indonesian cinema from the early '80s, The Warrior comes highly recommended. Directed by Sisworo Gautama Putra.

4 comments:

Jack J said...

Cool review, mate!

"Cold"? Don't you mean the film is pure GOLD?

In regards to the sequels: Yes, they made two sequels. And then they made another two. LOL.

There are four sequels. The last two are often missing from English language lists because the films were never released in the west (and never dubbed into English). I'm sure they exist. I own them on Malay VCD. :D

And the Blind Warrior from "The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman" has an entire series of his own (only one is released dubbed into English, "The Blind Warrior". It's released on DVD in the UK and Germany).

Kult Eye Bleeder said...

Yes, i meant GOLD, fixed that.

I didn't know about the other two sequels, is there even english titles for them?

Jack J said...

Nope, no English titles. The original titles are:

BERGOLA IJO , dir: Arizal (1983)

JAKA SEMBUNG DAN DEWI SAMUDRA, dir: Atok Sugiarto (1990).

I have a bit of info about the series here:
http://backyard-asia.blogspot.com/2010/08/amazing-warrior-series-from-indonesia.html

Kult Eye Bleeder said...

Good stuff Jack! Yeah, it might be the case that those 2 sequels will never see the light of day in English subtitled versions.

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