A martial arts action thriller you’ve never heard of, but won’t soon forget, has now unleashed its first footage. Debuting at Fantastic Fest back in September, the action outing has been hailed as one of the best martial arts movies in years, as well as an “unforgettable tale of revenge, full of kicks, punches, and epic fight sequences.”
The movie is Ikatan Darah (aka, Blood Ties), and comes courtesy of The Raid star Iko Uwais’ new production company, Uwais Pictures. Alongside the war movie Timur, which sees Uwais both direct and star, Ikatan Darah promises to deliver the same visceral action and fight scenes as the modern genre masterpieces The Raid and The Night Comes for Us. And, based on the footage, it will deliver exactly that.
Directed by Sidharta Tata, Ikatan Darah stars Livi Ciananta (Bonnie) in the lead as a “former martial arts athlete must face a network of loan sharks to save her younger brother, who is trapped in online gambling debt and risking their family’s safety,” as per the official synopsis. The rest of the cast includes Derby Romero (Cult), Ismi Melinda (Wira), T. Rifnu Wikana (Night Bus), Abdurrahman Arif (Impetigore), Rama Ramadhan (The Raid) and Agra Piliang (The Shadow Strays), and you can check out the trailer below…
‘Ikatan Darah’ Promises “Balls to the Wall Action”
Ikatan Darah will give action cinema another female lead to root for, as Livi Ciananta’s character, Mega, fights her way through an onslaught of enemies to save her brother’s soul. The reactions that followed its debut at Fantastic Fest have been nothing less than glowing, with several attendees taking to Letterboxd to share their excitement at what they’d witnessed.
“It takes about 30–40 minutes to move all the pieces into place and get the plot set up, but once it does, it turns into an hour and ten minutes of pure carnage. High-octane martial arts like this just haven’t been seen in a while,” said Sean Chandler, alongside a near-perfect rating of 4/5. Another 4/5 comes via user Kelvin Hatle, who added, “You think it’s about to end, then a new climax hits. One of my favorites of the fest. It’ll wear you out in a good way.” While Movie Talk With Brock summed things up by simply calling Ikatan Darah “Balls to the wall action.”
Jazzmin Crawley of Dread Central, meanwhile, awarded the action thriller an impressive 4.5/5, concluding, “It felt like being strapped into a roller coaster that spent the first 20 minutes building up to the drop, while the rest of the movie takes us through loops and turns of martial arts and broken bones at 200 miles an hour.”
‘”Ikatan Darah’ is an unforgettable tale of revenge, full of kicks, punches, and epic fight sequences.”
Ikatan Darah has not yet been given a wide release, but alongside Uwais Pictures’ Timur, and the upcoming The Furious, this year is proving to be an outstanding one for lesser-known action movies and the audiences who can’t get enough of them.
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