Indonesian action thriller film “The Shadow Strays”, which was released on Netflix on last Thursday, is extremely violent and incredibly excessive. While it continues the trend of those bloody and violent Indonesian action flicks mainly represented by “The Raid: Redemption” (2011) and its 2014 sequel, the movie also often feels blatantly overlong with its relentlessly overpowering presentation of big physical actions, and that made me more aware of its glaring deficiency in terms of story and characters.

The opening sequence of the film is clearly influenced a lot by “Kill Bill: Volume 1” (2003) and “John Wick” (2014) and its sequels. During one very snowy night, the headquarters of some big Japanese criminal organization is ambushed, and we see a bunch of gang members being brutally eliminated by two ruthless assassins sent from some mysterious assassin group called “Shadow”. Needless to say, this barbaric massacre eventually culminates to the final fight on a snowy ground, and we soon get a dramatic shot showing the snowy ground strewn with blood.

These two assassins are a young woman, who is simply called 13 (Aurora Ribero), and her longtime mentor Umbra (Hanna Malasan). Although their mission was accomplished on the whole, Umbra later chides 13 for making a serious mistake in the middle of the mission, and 13 is subsequently sent to a slum neighborhood of Jakarta, Indonesia for staying quiet during her following suspension period.

All she will have to do is living anonymously for some time in a shabby apartment building, but 13 soon comes to notice the ongoing problem of one of her nearby neighbors. There is a female prostitute living with her 11-year-old son, and it is apparent that she gets herself involved with a bunch of very dangerous criminal figures. Not long after 13 witnesses something serious happening between the prostitute and those criminals, the prostitute dies under a rather questionable circumstance, and then 13 approaches to the prostitute’s son because, well, she comes to feel sorry for the boy as her mind is haunted again by some old memory from her childhood.

It looks like 13 can be a sort of protective big sister to the boy, but, unfortunately, things soon become quite complicated when the boy decides to confront those criminals clearly responsible for his mother’s death. Shortly after he is disappeared, some small-time criminal comes into the boy and his mother’s residence for looking for something important, and, of course, 13 becomes quite determined to take care of this matter for herself.

As our heroine embarks on going after whoever is holding the boy, we get to know a bit more about those criminal figures associated with the boy’s mother. There is a loony but vicious pimp who has controlled over many other prostitutes just like the boy’s mother, and he and a certain local cop are closely associated with a powerful local crime lord, who turns out to be the son of a certain influential political figure in the city.

Even after learning more about how powerful her opponents are, 13 is not daunted at all as willingly throwing herself into the criminal world inside the city, and we are accordingly served with a series of well-made physical action scenes which are striking for not only their remorselessly extreme violence but also their slick style. Director/writer/co-producer Timo Tjahjanto, who previously made “The Big 4” (2020), is apparently eager to demonstrate more of himself as a filmmaker with a particular set of skills, and you will not be disappointed at all if you are a fan of “The Raid: Redemption” (I am not, by the way).

However, as shown from the unevenly distracting mix of comedy, action, and melodrama in “The Big 4”, Tjahjanto is not a very good writer, and his screenplay struggles to provide a narrative engaging enough to hold our attention. While its heroine is a merely effective killing machine without much personality to observe, many of the supporting characters in the story are too broad to generate any interest, though I must confess that it is sometimes amusing to watch how several main cast members playing the villains of the story often try to chew their scenes as much as Al Pacino did in “Scarface” (1983). The movie later tries to humanize its heroine a bit via the subplot between her and mentor, but this part is mostly redundant while only functioning as an excuse for more action (and running time) later in the story.

Anyway, the movie sets the ground for a possible sequel around the end credits with the surprise appearance of a certain recognizable Indonesian actor from “The Raid: Redemption”, and Aurora Ribero shows here that she deserves a sequel where she can show more of her potential as a new action movie star to watch. She and Hanna Malasan are convincing during several demanding physical action scenes of theirs, and it is a shame that the movie does not bring more human substance to their characters’ supposedly complicated relationship.

Despite its several competent action scenes to be appreciated, “The Shadow Strays” does not engage me enough for recommendation mainly due to its narrative deficiencies. I know well that good action movies do not always require good story and characters, but the movie goes a bit too far in my humble opinion, and I hope that its flaws will be rectified in its possible sequel.