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[March Climber]

Video best played at 1.10 speed.



How it started

• Author brings up the upbringing of Iko and his father who trained in Silat
• He states Iko and Gareth Evans met
• Iko was a driver with great martial arts skills
• Gareth begged him to quit his job to give his film a chance
• Iko did so after 2 years and wanted to show the world Indonesian martial arts
• He had to train in a second form of his martial arts and acting before filming their first project
• First film from them was Merantau
• Initially it had trouble finding an audience due to bad timing
• It struck big enough afterwards for them to attempt a second movie (The Raid: Redemption)
• The Raid was such a huge hit that they had more budget for the sequel.
• The Raid 1 and (moreso) 2 grabbed the attention of multiple Hollywood studios and they hired Iko for different roles.

------------------------------
This is where the hollywood problems started happening

• Author points out how Hollywood still did not know how to utilize asian actors properly after the 2000s
• Iko was given multiple roles with barely any screen time or speaking lines
• Iko kept being given villain roles
• Given barely any lines in Snake Eyes
• Had only one small fight in Expendables 4
• Multiple movies with shaky cam effects, quick cuts, CGI, etc. making fans upset when they paid to see Iko perform martial arts
• Iko and The Raid cast were given wasted screen time in Star Wars 7 and had scenes cut
• Iko coreographed multiple lightsaber fights in Star Wars 7 that were considered 'too brutal and gritty' for the property
• Iko felt highly confused in an interview not long ago where he questioned why Hollywood studios don't seem to know what to do with his talents.

-------------------------------
This is where the video author brings up how this has happened before

• Author brings up how this mostly happened to Jet Li a decade prior in the 2000s, but thankfully a few directors utilized his talents properly
• Author brings up how this almost happened to Jackie Chan
• Author brings up how this happened to Tony Jaa
• Jackie Chan's first time with hollywood, he could tell that they were trying to use him to replace Bruce Lee with more serious filmmaking and combat
• Jackie had to reshoot almost the entirety of Police Story
• Both Jackie and Jet Li had to keep some of their projects closer to home due to hollywood interference
• Jackie did it until he was able to call the shots or co-direct, thus we got Rumble in the Bronx, Rush Hour, etc.
• Even Bruce Lee was not immune to this and it took hollywood a while until they finally gave him a shot at filming his martial arts talent
• Donnie Yen succeeded a bit better with serious roles thanks to Jet Li's impact
• Donnie Yen would use his foreign films as a way to bolster his asking power when it came to hollywood
• Donnie Yen would say no to a lot of 'asks' and projects until him and the hollywood studio/director reached agreements about certain projects

---------------------------------
To conclude, a promising future is coming for martial arts cinema

• Author brings up how hollywood constantly fails asian martial arts actors over the years because of their style of 'hiding' the stunt rather than showcasing it
• Most hollywood studios don't know how to tell stories through action like asian cinema.
• Iko today does much better in Indonesian films (Headshot, The Night Comes for Us, Fistful of Vengeance)
• Iko has decided to mostly go back to "build his own base" much like Jackie Chan did but is still open to hollywood projects
• He is inspiring a younger martial artist movement
• Iko started co-producing, becoming lead coreographer for multiple projects, co-directing, and even trains newcomers as a martial arts instructor for silat
• Iko is now directing a movie "Timur" under his new production studio "Uwais Pictures" coming soon
• Uwais Pictures is going to bring more Indonesian action cinema to the forefront this next decade
• Indonesian action directors to look out for who both worked with Iko: Timo Tjahjanto and Joko Anwar

 

[Rentahamster]

Video best played at 1.10 speed.

2x speed or bust!

 

[March Climber]

2x speed or bust!

Lol I said that mainly because of the speaker's original talking speed being a bit slower than others who do this 'video essay/documentary video' style. 1.10 matches the others.

I did find this to be a good watch though for any fans of martial arts cinema, and it's good to see Iko not just let hollywood put him through the ringer and incidentally kill his career as they tend to stumble a ton when it comes to martial arts actors.

 

[IAmRei]

that's bad, i know his movies are cool.
now if only there is the raid game, would be cool though
giving me ideas, hmm

 

[Stitch]

Timo is now doing Hollywood movies. He did Nobody 2 and is now working on Beekeeper 2. I hope he finds some time to do a Shadow Strays sequel.

 

[Represent.]

Fantastic video. Gonna watch his new Indonesian movies.

Fucking shame what Hollywood did to him. Zero vision.

Yea lets hire the guy who stars in the best martial arts films of all time and film it terribly, give him no lines and have him as a cameo. also.. remove his fight scene in star wars. too violent.

jesus

 

[Boss Mog]

Hollywood is complete garbage these days anyway. Nobody I know goes to the movies anymore.

 

[March Climber]

Hollywood is complete garbage these days anyway. Nobody I know goes to the movies anymore.

I'll give you the same advice I give my friends about this matter: In today's world it's better to follow the creatives that you really enjoy the content of. Whether it's directors, actors, writers, etc.

Sometimes on their imdb they will have a new project or two that Hollywood does not put their marketing weight behind. Sometimes these films will even release in theaters but you don't hear about them. There will be big directors who sometimes film a pretty good indie film, or an actor who decides to do some indie films to show their true acting power and they do a great job.

It's worth looking into.

Part of the reason why some larger Hollywood studios have become increasingly scared to fund and market these smaller/other projects is because people aren't going to see them like they used to. Instead the public are usually sticking to big brands, popular/trending I.P., sequels, remakes, etc. so hollywood keeps feeding the public exactly that.

Edit: Or better yet, if you are still cautious about theaters, look into your favorite critic's top 10 for the year. Assuming they aren't a grifter/only make hate-content, they should have their own personal yearly top 5 or top 10 lists of movie suggestions worth checking out. Try them out for yourself and then if you're really liking any of them, follow the creators behind them.

 

[NotMyProblemAnymoreCunt]

The way he fights is FANTASTIC. I wish we got a Raid 3 instead of Havoc. Not surprised that Hollywood wasted a talent like Iko Uwais but still disappointing to see

 

[Redneckerz]

To be fair, i much prefer his non-Hollywood work over anything he did. Dude's amazing as an artist, same with Scott Adkins. They continue that 90s Action Hero trope i so love and which modern cinema practically has forgotten.

I am looking forward to a new Uwais flick. Bring Adkins along with it

 

[jason10mm]

To be fair, i much prefer his non-Hollywood work over anything he did. Dude's amazing as an artist, same with Scott Adkins. They continue that 90s Action Hero trope i so love and which modern cinema practically has forgotten.

I am looking forward to a new Uwais flick. Bring Adkins along with it

There are some really good low(er) budget action films out there now with Scott, Michael Jai White, and others. Fight choreography has made some quantum jumps in the past few years, much like the gun choreography jump a decade or so back when prop tech/CG allowed for close face shots and a decade prior to that when military style gun skills really penetrated hollywood.

 

[SirKicksalot]

I still don't understand why there's a Japanese calligraphy club roleplaying as Riddick in Star Wars.

Anyway Hollywood knows how to use Asians just as much as Asian cinema knows how to use Westerners. It's an awkward clash of cultures. When they find a balance you get The Matrix or Ray Stevenson in RRR but we shouldn't expect that to be the norm.

 

[Sub_Level]

We could have gotten Raid-tier fights in Star Wars? Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

 

[RedC]

As somebody who's been a big martial arts fan since the 1980s, I think the biggest thing in Hollywood that changed everything was The Wachowski's getting Hollywood actors to train for several months in martial arts, getting a top martial arts choreographer to choreograph the fights, and shooting it incredibly in The Matrix.

 

[March Climber]

As somebody who's been a big martial arts fan since the 1980s, I think the biggest thing in Hollywood that changed everything was The Wachowski's getting Hollywood actors to train for several months in martial arts, getting a top martial arts choreographer to choreograph the fights, and shooting it incredibly in The Matrix.

I think the Matrix was lightning in a bottle, a great movie that brought about change in multiple ways, including cinematography, CGI, stunts, fight choreography, and sci-fi in general. It also showed that western actors could do these fights and were eager to try, if given the time to train and prepare for them.

For some reason though it's influence over fights and choreography has come in ebbs and flows. There were still moments afterwards where a main director of a movie would not trust the fight director to do their job, or at worse butcher their works because they simply had no knowledge or skill on how to correctly film a fight scene.

Most of them wanted the 'cool' factor but didn't understand it, and that essentially sums up Iko's experience while involved with hollywood.

It was extremely apparent in Star Wars, where they just hired him and his crew for a silly scene because they were in the hot/rising action movie at the time. Not much other thought behind it to the point where he almost felt disrespected.

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

I like iko. I did wonder why he dropped off a cliff.

He did get his own TV series on Netflix which wasn't great but still.

Fucking havoc tho lmao.

 

[jason10mm]

Hollywood has also stopped hiring martial artists as lead actors. Back in the day Chuck Norris, Jean Claude van Dam, Jeff Speakman, Bruce Lee and Brandon Lee, Wesley Snipes, Steven Seagal in his way, all had the physicality for their roles to really sell it. Even guys like Dolph Lundgren had a bit of a fighting background. Asian dudes are never gonna be a big sell here, it just is what it is. And this obsession with putting women out front in action films further reduces their chances.

If we get back to hiring actors with the proper skillset then I think we will see more properly choreographed action. America loves their guns though so while there is some hand to hand in stuff like Reacher and Terminal List, its always gonna be gunplay over fisticuffs and high kicks. Add in the low bar for CG guns, makes it even harder to justify 4 weeks of rehearsal on top of 6 months of training to have a dynamic no holds barred fight scene.

 

[March Climber]

Asian dudes are never gonna be a big sell here, it just is what it is.

And they don't need to be a sell anymore. Ever since streaming has opened up avenues to other countries and covid accelerated that effect, people are watching all sorts of subbed media from other countries.

Sometiemes for multiple weeks at a time you'll see asian movies and shows dominate the 'most watched' section.

This is a net positive because it means that hollywood doesn't have the power to gatekeep all of it anymore.

 

[Reizo Ryuu]

Multiple movies with shaky cam effects, quick cuts, CGI, etc. making fans upset when they paid to see Iko perform martial arts

This is the kind of shit that blows my mind over and over, you've got these amazing physical performers, yet you shoot in a way that's only suitable for actors who can't actually fight; I'm not sure if this is a direction or production issue.

 

[jason10mm]

And they don't need to be a sell anymore. Ever since streaming has opened up avenues to other countries and covid accelerated that effect, people are watching all sorts of subbed media from other countries.

Sometiemes for multiple weeks at a time you'll see asian movies and shows dominate the 'most watched' section.

This is a net positive because it means that hollywood doesn't have the power to gatekeep all of it anymore.

I'm not sure how valid those internally created lists are, but you are correct, there has been a FLOOD of awesome shit from parts of the world we'd never even get a VHS/DVD from back in the day.

 

[KyoZz]

Iko coreographed multiple lightsaber fights in Star Wars 7 that were considered 'too brutal and gritty' for the property

I'm still mad about that. Also that Deadshot movie was such a promising project with Evans.

 

[jason10mm]

This is the kind of shit that blows my mind over and over, you've got these amazing physical performers, yet you shoot in a way that's only suitable for actors who can't actually fight; I'm not sure if this is a direction or production issue.

Jackie Chan has talked about it. Western directors and DPs don't have the same skill with showing physicality in fights. Even the slight frame jump to hide a punch can not connecting can matter. We had a certain level of competence with Arnie throwing haymakers but nothing at the level of JC jumping through the window of a moving car and landing a punch on the driver.

I'm not sure we have the stuntmen anymore, though you can see the glorious excess in Fall Guy. The talent pool is too shallow, same with practical effects and set building. No creature shops anymore either, CG has eaten them all.

 

[March Climber]

This is the kind of shit that blows my mind over and over, you've got these amazing physical performers, yet you shoot in a way that's only suitable for actors who can't actually fight; I'm not sure if this is a direction or production issue.

It's a bit of both. Years ago Jackie Chan discussed how the process frustrated him:

Hollywood safety rules frustrate Jackie Chan

Jackie Chan, famous for his daredevil stunts, says he’s frustrated by Hollywood’s safety rules.“There are so many safety and insurance rules to follow,” Chan said in an interview on his Web site Sunday. “I know that they want to make sure that I’m safe when I do my stunts, but sometimes they...

www.today.com

"I know that they want to make sure that I'm safe when I do my stunts, but sometimes they insist that I use protective gear for even simple things, and that is frustrating. It takes so much time."

Chan, best known in the United States for the "Rush Hour" movies with Chris Tucker, said he feels less encumbered when making films in Hong Kong.

"In Hong Kong we just go ahead and do what needs to be done. There is no safety captain on the set. I use my own stunt team because they have experience and I trust them to make the action and stunts safe" he said.

Based on how he spoke of it, it seemed like there was more of a division in how things are done in Hollywood. It's middlemen speaking to other middlemen before they would finally ok a stunt that needed to be done.

 

[bender]

I had such a hard time getting through the RAID. I probably started it a half dozen times before finally powering my way through it. I've still never finished the sequel. I love martial arts movies and with how everyone raves about these two films, I feel like I'm on the outside looking in. Their cinematography feels so claustrophobic.