The Shadow Strays (2024) Review: Timo Tjahjanto’s Blood-Soaked Action Thriller Packs Enough Visceral Thrills But Suffers From a Bloated Length
Timo Tjahjanto is back with another blood-soaked action mayhem in The Shadow Strays, marking his second Netflix feature after the impressive go-for-broke action-comedy The Big 4 two years ago. The movie gets off to a promising start as an interval pair of masked assassins (Aurora Ribero’s 13 and Hana Pitrashata Malasan’s Umbra) dispatch the Japanese yakuza clan in the Sea of Trees, Japan.
As expected, Tjahjanto fulfils the promise of no-holds-barred action sequences. Blood sprays like a geyser from the result of a sword decapitation. Vigorously repeated stabbing through the chest, gunshots riddled all over the body full of bullet holes — all these within the first 15 minutes. What an adrenaline rush because Tjahjanto sure as hell knows how to stage the action as visceral as possible with the assistance of fight choreographer Muhammad Irfan, who was previously involved in The Big 4 and The Night Comes for Us.
But Tjahjanto’s screenplay suffers from the unnecessarily bloated 144-minute runtime. It’s not like this is his first time making a longer-than-usual action movie since The Big 4 also clocks more or less the same length. The difference is that the latter was fun and entertaining enough to keep me occupied throughout the movie. How I wish I could say the same thing for The Shadow Strays but Tjahjanto’s penchant for opting the self-indulgent route to tell an otherwise straightforward story is desperately in need of a tighter edit.
Once the mission is accomplished, the assassins who worked under the elite Shadows organisation led by the nameless handler (Chew Kin Wah, making quite a lasting impression in his otherwise small role) where we learn 13 is a protege while Umbra serves as a mentor. Despite 13 manages to kill the yakuza leader (Nobuyuki Suzuki), she breaks one of the Shadows’ most important codes and that is, shows no empathy of any kind. And somehow she did after attempting to save an innocent geisha, resulting in a punishment of sorts by suspending her until further notice. She is temporarily grounded in Jakarta and that’s where she subsequently finds herself befriending an 11-year-old boy named Monji (Ali Fikry). She even discontinues her routine of taking the pills given by the Shadows, which are meant to suppress her emotions.
It doesn’t take long before things go sideways when Monji’s mother is murdered and the boy ends up being abducted by a local crime underworld. From there, it’s a do-or-die mission for 13 to track down Monji at all costs. The movie introduces more characters from the sleazy pimp Haga (Agra Piliang) to his crazy girlfriend Soriah (Taskya Namya) and the psychotic drug-dealing son of a corrupt politician Ariel (Andri Mashadi), who loves to put on an S&M gimp mask whenever he’s out to torture someone.
As colourful as these supporting characters occupy the movie, most of them are sketchily written. Even the earlier friendship between 13 and Monji is rather perfunctory, making me hard to root for either of them. As for 13, I admire Aurora Ribero’s level of commitment in her physically demanding role. She certainly impresses with her sheer agility in terms of hand-to-hand combats and weaponry skills. Pity about her underdeveloped character, though.
While the story fizzles with the over-reliance on expository dialogue that makes the movie even more tedious than it already is, the action remains the saving grace here. Once the bloodshed resumes with more graphically violent kills, Tjahjanto’s all-out direction is on full display. The relentless camerawork keeps up with his hyper-kinetic approach with every action scene pushed to the physical limit, complete with some creative camera angles such as the nifty POV shot of a swinging baseball bat. Just when I figure The Shadow Strays is a one-off (and frankly, it should have stayed that way), Tjahjanto ends the movie teasing there’s a sequel to come. But for now, the current movie itself already overstays its welcome.
The Shadow Strays is currently streaming on Netflix.
