‘The Shadow Strays’ Review: Too Self-Indulgent by Half, Timo Tjahjanto’s Bloodlust Hits Epic Levels | TIFF

It’s good to every once in a while just revel in a brutal action movie, where everyone knows what they’re here for. Films like The Raid, The Raid 2, and Kill (another TIFF Midnight Madness hit) are great examples of this – if you’re here for the characters and the story, you would not only be disappointed, you would probably be laughed at. But sometimes too much of a good thing exists. If you’re not careful, surplus becomes excess. That is the case with The Shadow Strays, a film in perpetual teetering, as Indonesian action sicko Timo Tjahjanto attempts to take his 2018 bloodbath that was The Night Comes For Us and dial it up further. 

Returning to his underground world in Jakarta, Tjahjanto opens The Shadow Strays with the lore of an elite assassin organization known as the Shadows. They ask no questions. They bear no morals. For the right price, they will kill anyone. Our new Shadow recruit, known as 13 (Angela Ribero), struggles with this code. Even as she is brutally slaughtering the Yakuza clan – in a blood-splattering sequence that looks like one of Quentin Tarantino’s wet dreams – she still has the empathy and moral center to protect an innocent young geisha. But once she accidentally murders her in the middle of the fight, it’s enough of a distraction for 13 to lose focus, so much so that her mentor Umbra (Hana Malasan) has to come in to clean the mess.

13 is then sent to Jakarta to wait for further instructions, which, at least in the narrative of the film, sounds like code for being put on time out. But 13 can’t sit still. She immediately takes a liking to her neighbor, a boy named Monji, who gets swept up into a local gang after they murder his mother. Once again, 13 can’t ignore that glimmer of empathy in her heart, as she goes out of her way to find and rescue the boy, while leaving a trail of horrible dead bodies in her wake. Before we know it, she’s pissed off half of the crime underworld in Jakarta.

It may sound like The Shadow Strays is a simple, effective killing spree of an action movie, based on my description, but Tjahjanto includes so much detail, character, and side plots that the film becomes unnecessarily dense at times. As more characters are introduced and new situations arise, the film confuses “world expansion” with “plot tangents.” Someone in the gang ends up connected to a police officer, who is connected to another notorious gang figure, who is connected to a corrupt bureaucrat running for office. And then we still have to occasionally jump back to the Shadows organization and what they’re up to.

The answer lies in framing. John Wick (at least the first film) avoids the problem of plot tangents, as it smartly frames the world and story as John Wick’s personal journey of payback happens to screw over everyone who’s unlucky enough to get involved. Tjahjanto didn’t have this issue with The Night Comes For Us either, as long as that film is, largely because the plot is kept simple as “Everyone involved in the gang wants Joe Taslim dead, now let’s see how many men he can single handedly butcher.” 

But if you thought The Night Comes For Us was excessive, whether in plot or in violence, The Shadow Strays is a noticeable 23 minutes longer, bringing it to a total of nearly two and a half hours. The benefit is the film offers more than enough carnage, with a plethora of fatalities and unique kills that are bound to get some loud groans and audible reactions out of the audience. One must also acknowledge the brilliance of Ribero as our mostly quiet female action star. Though 13 doesn’t have much going on under the surface, aside from one haunting backstory that comes into focus later, Ribero owns every single fight scene like she’s been doing it her whole life – it’s an impressive feat, given that Ribero claims she has no background or experience in martial arts. Though the film separates 13 from her mentor Umbra for a significant amount of time, both Ribero and Malasan deliver when the scene is finally focused on just the two of them. Just like you would expect from Tjahjanto, the finale is so long, so stretched out and stabby-stabby, until both characters are physically exhausted, with limbs missing and blood all over their face, looking identical in frame that it’s hard to tell who’s who.

In the Q&A following the film’s Midnight Madness screening, Tjahjanto mentioned how when Ribero signed on to play the lead, he joked to her about whether she was ready to suffer for the movie. Whether the plot works for you or not, one thing that cannot be denied about The Shadow Strays is it’s the type of action movie where you can tell everybody poured every ounce of their strength into the shot. The kills are glorious, and you bet that every single fatality was met with cheers and applause – rightfully so. 

But this time, Tjahjanto might have bitten off more than he could chew. The Shadow Strays may be the most satisfying bloody affair when watched in a party late at night, but when your previous film was already dialed up to eleven, what more can be done? The Shadow Strays proves that, for better or worse, you can only stay at eleven for a longer duration than last time, and sometimes fun things are fun because they come in short bursts.

Grade: B-

This review is from the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival where The Shadow Strays had its world premiere. Netflix will release the film on October 17.