Wira

Netflix provides another fine fight film from Malaysia

Directed by Adrian Teh

Starring: Hairul Azreen, Fify Azmi, Ismi Melinda, Dain Iskandar Said

Malaysian

109 mins

Netflix has been a boon for fight fans, titles such as Buybust, Jailbreak, The Night Comes For Us, Furie and Revenger has been given the opportunity to reach a wide audience and now Wira joins the list of quality titles to hit the streaming platform. After the highly successful military based film Paskal: The Movie the team returns once again for a martial arts fueled drama.

Former military man Hassan (Hairul Azreen) returns home after departing from his troubled past leaving behind his sister, father and now departed mother. The town is run by Raja (Dain Iskandar Said) a local businessman cum crime boss who rules over the town with his power and money while offering work and housing to the locals at a minuscule wage. Hassan’s father is displeased with Raja’s oppression and has been a thorn in Raja’s side but it is not until Hassan’s sister, Zain (Fify Azmi) who gets into trouble with Raja that the trouble escalates and Hassan hopes to remedy this by using his pass connection with Raja. Things don’t quite go as planned and both Hassan and Zain are forced to fight Vee (Ismi Melinda) and Rayyan (Josiah Hogan), children of Raja’s, in a chance opportunity to clear their debt and permitted forgiveness. Being the despicable villains they are Vee does not take her loss lightly and plots revenge in which her plan fails and results in casualties, this in turn incurs the wrath of Raja and he sends his thugs to attack Hassan’s father. This in turn fuels Hassan and Zain’s anger and they storm Raja’s factory and puts an end to his tyrannical days.

Wira is very basic in terms of narrative and it acts as framework for the action to take place. The film falters most when trying to instill dramatic elements, often coming across as forced and very staged. Hairul Azreen narration is also very stilted and he lacks the charisma or acting chops to carry the film. Things are not helped by some very exposition heavy moments that feel like it is there to inform the audience opposed to something that any of the characters would be saying. Newcomer Fify Azmi gives the most impressive performance and her bouts of pain, pride and humiliation is handled with great efficiency. Dain Iskandar Said oddly flips between bouts of English dialogue and Malay which can be rather off putting, though his performance is serviceable he lacks the on screen authority or power that such an important figure should possess. Ismi Melinda comes of a bit caricature with her snarling in the background and menacing smiles as well as constant suckling of a lollipop.

Wira is directed by Adrian Teh is probably best known for his Malaysian military film Paskal: The Movie, While Paskal: The Movie was more heavily stylized in the same vain as Operation Red Sea or Wolf Warrior, Wira is more confined in approach, the smaller scale makes the film more refined and its basic plot helps in preventing itself from diverting its focus. Of course these films don’t have the budget afforded to them in comparison to Hollywood productions and it is occasionally apparent during moments of large crowds such as the fighting ring, where there is sparsity of spectators.

What makes the film so endearing is the fight scenes, though comparatively it’s not as innovative or spectacular as say Revenger, The Raid or Jailbreak it is very well crafted with some nice techniques and combinations. Serving as the films choreographer is Indonesia’s Yayan Ruhian and the style of fights is something akin to the likes of Furie or Buybust with some hints of The Raid. Azreen possess great skill and offers some nice kicks and hand techniques but it’s both Fify Azmiand Ismi Melinda that steal the proceedings, there opening battle in the ring is brutal and hard hitting both fully committing to the intensity. Further in both get to demonstrate a greater variety of techniques. Mid way through is a brawl on a moving bus which is not particularly fancy but it provides some variety to the proceedings. The film makers attempt to incorporate some of the camera techniques employed in films such as The Raid or Villainess where the camera would crash with the impact or the camera would flow from inside a window to the outside and back again. Now a days it’s hard to innovate with choreography so it is the choreography of the camera that has to compliment the action and with Wira it manages to do just that. Audience can be thankful that the fights are not edited to shreds and that for the most part framed to allow maximum impact but it is not always ideal, there are moments where a supposedly impactful kick does not connect or occasions the framing being a tad too close obscuring the full extension of the kick but luckily these moments do not take away from everything on display.

For fight fans this is a welcome addition to Netflix’s growing library of quality action flicks and its definitely worth your time if you enjoyed; Furie, The Night Comes For Us, Buybust, Maria or/and Jailbreak.