Director Timo Tjahjanto's The Night Comes For Us offers a fantastic reunion for action fans. The film is the first feature to star both Joe Taslim and Uko Iwais since their collaboration on Gareth Evans' The Raid, and offers up another festival of ass-kicking (albeit with the protagonist and antagonist roles switched). As you would hope, the movie's climax is a ridiculously awesome, drawn out beat down between the two actors -- and while some of the hits landed during filming, there's a good reason why neither of them really minded:
Joe Taslim: We hurt each other for eight days to shoot the fight - the final fight. But at the same time, the love is strong.Timo Tjahjanto: You've got to remember, for them punching, getting punched and kicked, it's like kisses for them.Joe Taslim: We laugh about it.
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Joe Taslim and Timo Tjahjanto last month while covering The Night Comes For Us' premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and had the pleasure of discussing their intense, over-the-top collaboration. While discussing the work done on the action scenes, I asked if there were the occasional hits that accidentally connected -- and Joe Taslim almost laughed giving his answer. Apparently making contact is just a part of the nature of the beast, and the stars have learned to joke about it.
When you really watch the action sequences in The Night Comes For Us, with all their impressive choreography and intensity, you definitely don't get the sense that there were dozens of takes; it just feels raw. When you look at the way characters go at each other -- particularly Joe Taslim and Iko Uwais -- you get the sense that it would have been impossible to pull off what they do without the occasional "love tap" -- while at the same time safety is surely a major concern at all times.
Based on an original screenplay by Timo Tjahjanto, The Night Comes For Us stars Joe Taslim as Ito - one of the elite killers operating for the Triad crime family. During a particularly violent execution, he makes the decision to turn against his team and save a young girl - and as a result finds a ridiculously huge target on his back. For a taste, you can watch the trailer for the movie below:
If that preview got you excited for The Night Comes For Us, the extra awesome news is that the film is available to stream right now on Netflix. It features some of the best action you've seen in a movie in years, and comes paired with an energy that is simply non-stop. Check it out. And take a look at our Netflix streaming guide to see what other new originals are available on the service.
