For many moviegoers, the phrase “American remake ofTrain to Busan” is offensive. Who could possibly match that film’s blend of horror, humor, and pathos? Well, there is that one guy,Timo Tjahjanto— and they actually hired him!The Indonesian filmmaker made an impassioned pleafor open-mindedness on Twitter, but for manyothermoviegoers, it wasn’t necessary. With his contributions to theV/H/Sseries, the horror veteran stands alongsideTi WestandGareth Evans; his 2018 filmThe Night Comes for Uswas truly theRaid 3of our dreams. Gruesomely ultraviolent, the Netflix martial arts film rivaled the pain thresholds of even South Korean extremes likeI Saw the DevilandSympathy for Mr. Vengeance. In December 2022, Netflix dropped another Tjahjanto epic,The Big 4, which made the top ten in 53 countries, including the U.S. More of an action comedy, it nonetheless blends his signature gore with slapstick and even some heartfelt drama.
The Big 4 of the title are assassins, introduced in the film by liberating an orphanage from organ harvesters. This sort of dirty work calls forJohn Wick-style gun-fu, a bomb extracted from a man’s butt, and maybe just a little wrath. These assassins were foster children themselves, adopted by a kindly man named Petrus (Budi Ros). How assassination figured into their upbringing isn’t important, and the film’s flexible tone invites a suspension of disbelief. The butt bomb vaporizes a group of people inside its fiery explosion, and by the close of that opening sequence, there’s been enough vomit and blood to situate the audience in a cartoon world. The Big 4 walk away from the carnage in a slow-motion hero shot set to ‘70s funk, as if the filmGrindhousefinally made its way to Southeast Asia, and Tjahjanto had notes. For one, this cartoon may be silly, but it isn’t a farce. This is the kind of movie that closes with a theme song reintroducing all the characters, whose names are important enough to be song lyrics.
RELATED:‘The Big 4’ Trailer Brings Assassins Out of Retirement to Catch a Murderer
The Big 4 Is a True Night at the Movies
If anything,The Big 4recalls an older tradition of American blockbusters, when the competition hadn’t multiplied so exponentially and a single film was a whole experience. Laughs and awe and even poignancy, without the demarcation that allows for modern marketing to niche audiences. In this way, Indonesia feels like a young film industry, despite being as old as any other. With Netflix funding productions by filmmakers like Timo Tjahjanto andJoko Anwar, there’s money and creative freedom, making for bold, exciting strokes as well as possible growing pains. Maybe bothThe Night Comes for UsandThe Big 4run long, but Tjahjanto takes care to build a world for these stories to take place. One doesn’t seeJawsfor shark attacks alone, but they do watchGodzilla vs. Kongfor whatever’s suggested by the titleand absolutely nothing else. Arguably, this is inefficiency, and it may not survive creeping budgets, but inThe Big 4, there’s a welcome sense of establishment. These characters have relationships and backstories and desires, all communicated before the introduction of something called “Lucifer’s Fart.”
By the first 30 minutes, we’ve witnessed brains splatter the walls, and a woman, completely devastated, wailing over her dead father. What sounds like whiplash, from absurdity to actual drama, is anchored by the best performance for each job. In this case, it’sPutri Marinoas the police officer Dina, who’s just discovered the body of Petrus. Dina is Petrus’s biological daughter, and their relationship has always been complicated. He’d often be late to or outright miss important events in her life because he was secretly watching over his family of adopted outcasts. When Dina investigates his death, she crosses paths with this secret family – the Big 4 – on the sun-soaked Bersi Island. There’s a considerable cultural gap between Dina and these goofy assassins, led by eldest brother Topan (Abimana Aryasatya). Where she’s upright and serious, we find that the Big 4 have retired to jobs befitting their silliness, not least of which Alpha’s (Lutesha) “sunset mermaid” show. And yet, there’s an unshakable morality that connects all of them, and they’re thrown together when Dina is targeted by a ruthless gang.
The Big 4 Finds Comedy in the Unlikeliest Places
The gang may be ruthless, but sometimes they explain tardiness with “traffic.” Their vengeful leader is Antonio Sandoval (Marthino Lio), a man who tries to play it cool, but his sunglasses and salsa dances conceal a barely contained rage. A good villain is difficult because character arcs generally bend toward sympathy, which may not be appropriate. If the bad guy is destined for defeat, why not make that process entertaining? Sandoval gradually loses his cool as his efforts are thwarted by Dina and the Big 4, and Marthino Lio captures the cockiness and hysteria both. It’s a movie where the comedy tends to work, even despite its predictability. During the extended action climax, Alpha challenges the bazooka-wielding henchwoman (Michelle Tahalea) to a fist fight – in typical macho posturing – and is promptly beaten up. In particular, when the punchlines are literally punches,The Big 4also captures the spirit ofJackie Chan. In one memorable scene, Topan fends off two assassins while struggling to divert Dina’s attention.
In another, Topan fights with an equally-matched opponent to the rapid-fire rhythm ofKensuke Sonomura. In truth,The Big 4was choreographed byMuhammad Irfan, but it feels like a knowing, even winking tribute. Of course, by now the film as described here must sound like a pastiche of influences. However,The Big 4is also infused with its director’s specialties, not least of which is cinema violence. Tjahjanto manages wide spaces with dozens of combatants, and the spectacle is easy to follow and full of splatter. But what’s so refreshing about the splatter is that, despite the bodily fluids, it never feels gross. With his films, he’s signaled a disinterest in the violence against women that characterizes a shock-meister likeTakashi Miike. Part of the world-building inThe Big 4is egalitarianism, which was no doubt aided by co-writerJohanna Wattimena. Whether Dina or Alpha or that badass henchwoman, there is no sense that this is a boy’s-only club. If that’s disappointing, refer instead to pretty much the rest of the action pantheon.
And unlikeJohn Wick, or the films of Jackie Chan or Takashi Miike,The Big 4is proudly an Indonesian movie. The last genre in this multi-hyphenate is “tourist ad,” because while Bersi Island is fictional, Tjahjanto realizes it with stunning color and beauty. Shooting in Bali and Timor,the director wanted to showcasein one location the country’s islands, in addition to what he terms the “urban decay” of Jakarta. Overall, it’s a vision of Indonesia – and perhaps greater Southeast Asia – that doesn’t comport with Western stereotypes. People here go fishing and work on cars and live their lives. The violence is so outsized as to come from a demented mind, not postcolonial commentary. There’s so much more to Indonesian cinema, and the industry is growing steadily like South Korea was in the early 2000s. Tomorrow’s superstars of the Asian movie world may have already arrived, andThe Big 4is the perfect introduction.
