The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman Review
Two years after the release of popular Indonesian martial arts/magic film The Warrior (aka Jaka Sembung), Barry Prima returned to the titular character with The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman, introducing another heroic title character played by Advent Bangun and adapting Djair Warni’s comic series. Unlike the first film, this one features a lot less of Jaka Sembung as a character in favor of developing the Blind Swordsman – real name Soca Indrasukma – and a group of magically-endowed women led by the nefarious Goddess Magi (Gudi Sintara). Also of note is the relative lack of Dutch colonial involvement; whereas The Warrior quite heavily documented the struggles of native Indonesian peoples against Dutch incursion and conquest, The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman only tangentially touches on the evils of the East India Company’s involvement and influence over Magi’s group of female warriors.
With that said, this outing might actually be the better of the two films when it comes to entertainment value. While The Warrior had its fair share of mystical battles, this adventure showcases a lot more fights utilizing the Rawa Rontek form of magic. Mystical powers are at the forefront in most of the fight sequences, which tend to seamlessly blend mixed martial arts hand-to-hand or weapon-to-weapon combat with colorful streams of cast magic. Magi and her dojo in particular use a blend of magic that forces them to sap energy from male slaves that they use for sexual purposes in a surprising harem-esque way; The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman is the rare movie to deal with male sexual assault, although not in a particularly serious or thought-provoking sense.
As noted previously, Jaka Sembung – and by way, Prima – actually doesn’t get that much screentime here, and similarly director Worod Suma casts the Swordsman to the wayside much of the time too. It’s also worth pointing out that most of the time the viewer tends to forget about the Blind Swordsman’s handicap, since the film does not really make use of the disability in any meaningful way and he fights without impairment thanks to, as the film describes, his ability to see through his skin pores (!). But the film’s pairing of the two fighting together against Magi and, in turn, the Dutch company who have bankrolled her, further develops the idea of rebellion against Dutch invasion. This sequel also improves on some of the gore special effects from the first movie; it’s certainly not as over-the-top, but a couple of sequences involving Jaka Sembung’s decapitated head are quite effective in their realism. Likewise, a number of scenes involving flight using visible wires are included much like the first film.
The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman ups the ante here with its magic and its ridiculously overlong final fight sequence which involves good choreography, gun battles, and even a cannon. For viewers that enjoyed the first outing of Jaka Sembung, this one should also entice due to its additional characters and a swift-moving plot. However, this one does lose some of its spaghetti western influences in favor of a much more streamlined approach to martial arts cinema.
The Warrior and the Ninja Review
Again two years after the release of The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman, Jaka Sembung returned in 1985 with the final officially recognized film in the trilogy The Warrior and the Ninja. This time around, the story replaces Advent Bangun with a new Robin Hood-esque masked ninja named Bajing Ireng (Zurmaini), whose noble pursuits include stealing riches from the Dutch East India Company and returning it to the rebels. Here Barry Prima also returns as the title character, albeit with shared screentime between Bajing Ireng and a group of Dutch henchmen. Also of note are the multiple baddies that they both have to fight, leading to some epic-scale fight sequences.
The Warrior and the Ninja is directed by H. Tjut Djalil, most notable for the wacky Lady Terminator. Here, his direction waxes and wanes; for the most part, this film is sort of a mess in terms of pacing. It pretty consistently mimics the first two films for plotting but doesn’t do a very good job of managing the boring backstory with the fights. This means that there are a lot of ups and downs as the film goes through periods of lulls only to pick back up for a particularly well-choreographed and hectic battle. When The Warrior and the Ninja focuses on the martial arts, it showcases some very good artistry and even incorporates some more complex elements that weren’t done in the first two movies; and despite the fact that this iteration has relatively little magic, there are more than enough zany inclusions (like a guy literally falling apart after a punch) to keep it within the realm of mysticism. But these periods are dispersed too much, leading to viewer fatigue when the plot remains rather staid.
This one certainly pales in comparison to its predecessors, but it does offer some more fun Jaka Sembung action, and includes him a bit more than The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman was wont to do. Clearly the idea of the Warrior was running out of steam here, and at almost 100 minutes, this movie feels entirely too long – especially considering the film’s first ten minutes have a prolonged volcano eruption. It’s still worth a look for those completionists looking to finish the original series though.
Blu-ray
Both The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman and The Warrior and the Ninja are presented on the same Blu-ray disc, and it looks as though both of these transfers are from a prior scan. The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman fares the better of the two, with a more consistent color grading as well as better overall detail; while it does occasionally suffer from some negative-related ailments including damage and some striping throughout that is more noticeable during darker scenes. Grain scale is surprisingly minimal, which can sometimes give a waxier appearance to skin tones. For The Warrior and the Ninja, the overall quality is step down altogether, often showing color fading or inconsistent grading, occasional reel warping, and at the beginning even some smeariness. With that said, these are still the best ways one can experience both movies in the US.
Both films get English and Indonesian 2.0 mono tracks. For The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman, the Indonesian track is the better of the two with more robust dialogue audio and sound effects, with the English dub suffering from a few distortions. For The Warrior and the Ninja, the opposite is true; the English dub sounds much better due to the Indonesian track suffering from some extreme muffling at times. English subtitles are included for both films, specific to the Indonesian translations.
There are no included extras on the disc. As mentioned in my review of The Warrior, I did receive both of these Blu-rays in stand-alone cases despite the fact that Mondo Macabro did release them in a trilogy with an essay booklet. The essay was included in this double-feature release, so I will also touch on it here. This essay by Ekky Imanjaya dives into the origins of Jaka Sembung and the series’ release, as well as its lasting impact in Indonesian culture.
Verdict
Both of the films on this release continue in a similar vein as Jaka Sembung’s first outing in The Warrior, to varying degrees of success. This release includes no extra features and no new transfers, but does present the best way to currently watch these films on home video.
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