Now streaming on Netflix is The Shadow Strays, in which writer-director Timo Tjahjanto revisits the ultraviolent landscapes of his 2018 film The Night Comes for Us. Tjahjanto is really good at this – he’s been tapped to direct the upcoming sequel to Nobody – and in Shadow Strays, the filmmaker has two eager leads in Aurora Ribero and Hana Pitrashata Malasan, who go on offense against any foe they encounter until it all comes down to what they mean to each other. Prepare yourself for positively Wick-esque levels of henchperson deaths, flying fists and feet, people catching the hacking blades of swords with their hands, and gun fights that break out inside of existing gunfights. Also appearing are Adipati Dolken, Andri Mashadi, and Yayan Ruhian, fresh off his funny (and also violent) turn as the Shaman in Boy Kills World.
The Gist: It depends on where they strike next, whether they’re known as Bayangan, Schatten, or Shi No Kage. But whatever you call them, in whatever country you’re from, you’ll be dead before you ever see a Shadow. Agents of the mysterious group don’t discriminate, and they kill only on contract, morals be damned, as a yakuza oyabun and his clan of henchmen discover early on in The Shadow Strays. Long swords, fragmentary nail bombs, and POV kills through the lens of a thermal headset – it all happens with such cold, bloody efficiency, it’s surprising when junior agent 13 (Ribero) is scolded by Umbra (Malasan), her veteran Shadow trainer. “You were distracted. That’s why you failed. Our mission is never easy. But never complex. We’re neutralizers. Not rescuers nor negotiators. We strictly kill.”
With her ampules of adrenaline and a regimen of pharmaceuticals designed to deaden senses and maintain discipline, 13 is prepared to be her best Shadow. But it’s not long before she realizes her conscience can’t stay fully on mute. In Jakarta, Indonesia, when a neighbor kid is harassed and eventually abducted by a gang of ruthless human traffickers in league with a pair of crooked, murderous father-son politicians, 13 feels compelled to stomp numerous criminal thugs and crooked police officers en route to freeing her young friend from his unscrupulous captors. When a psycho gets more satisfaction from slipping on his zipper mask than he does from his torture dungeon, you know shit’s fucked up.
Eyes gouged, skulls crushed between fists, swords run through attackers and already dead goons being used as shields against automatic weapons fire – it’s all here, it’s all bloody as hell, and it’s all soaked in Indonesia’s incessant monsoon rain. The Shadow Strays takes a few beats to set up its factions, and the sense of protectiveness that emerges in 13 as she dwells on how she came to join up with the Shadows and be trained to kill. But when the inevitable showdown finally occurs, in between all the bullets flying and cars crashing is 13’s fraught relationship with Umbra, whose own conscience isn’t necessarily as vacant as her bosses in the secret society of killers expect.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? If you haven’t caught up with Timo Tjahjanto’s The Night Comes for Us, it’s a must-watch if you’re into this kind of thing. (It’s streaming on Netflix.) And Jung Byung-gil’s 2022 film Carter, also on Netflix, takes bloody action spectacle to ADD levels with the addition of stylized continuous shot pacing.
Performance Worth Watching: As highly-trained killer 13, Aurora Ribero is utterly unstoppable in The Shadow Strays. But it’s also up to her to shoulder most of the film’s emotional heft, such as it is, and Ribero also makes that stuff work. (Additional Performance Worth Watching honors go to the sound design on Strays. Everything sounds so squelchy and full of menace, from the donning of a black vinyl zipper mask to the biting off of an adversary’s ear.)
Memorable Dialogue: “What does a drug-dealing politician’s son, a crooked cop, and a human trafficker have in common? Answer: none of them are supposed to be our fucking concern.”
Sex and Skin: A brief, unsettling scene of sexual assault.
Our Take: To stray from a group like the Shadows seems like it’s a death sentence. All this group does is kill, and with such terrifying precision that other organizations without the compunction for violence exist in fear of them. So when 13 gets it in her head that maybe gobbling the pills they provide and waiting around for her next murder mission aren’t the end-all of her existence, you know she’s asking for trouble. The Shadow Strays is remarkably one dimensional in that. Since everybody in this world knows the score, it doesn’t consider it necessary to bog us down with backstories and personal conflict. That “13” is Aurora Ribero’s character’s only known name – even to her – becomes a significant plot point, since it illustrates the bone-dry discipline the Shadow Strays beat into their personnel.
At the same time, that’s not why you called. The bulk of Shadow Strays consists of extended bouts of firearm and fist and swordplay that result in so many satisfyingly gruesome kill shots, you might have to turn the sound down for want of worrying the neighbors. All of it is handled with skill behind the camera – Timo Tjahjanto isn’t afraid to topsy turvy the perspective as bodies are inverted or fly sideways, and blood spatter hits the lens more than the film’s nearly constant rain. But it’s the professional skill and personal bond between Aurora Ribero and Hana Pitrashata Malasan that establishes and eventually pierces the heart at the center of Shadow Strays.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Obviously this is the time of year for Fright Fest watches. But if you’re thinking instead of streaming an out-and-out Fight Fest, then The Shadow Strays more than fits the bill, especially when one woman army Aurora Ribero really gets going. You’ll be bleeding by the end of this one.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.