THE RAID Director Made a Badass Samurai Short Film — Check It Out!

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Gareth Evans, the director of The Raid films, made a badass samurai short film that you need to watch now! Evans is easily one of the best action film directors working today, and while we wait to see what his next film will be, we are treated to this short which centers on three dueling warriors. Evans called on the cast of his previous films to star in the short, including Yayah Ruhian (The Raid, The Raid 2), Cecep Arif Rahman (The Raid 2), and Hannah Al Rashid (V/H/S 2 “Safe Haven”). It must've been fun for this team to get together again to create something so awesome. Here's the synopsis:

In a time of civil war, a young warrior is given the task of delivering a treaty between two rival lords. During her journey through the woods however, she finds herself hunted by two assassins intent on intercepting her message of peace in a bid to maintain the fear, instability and violent rule of their leader.

The director also offered some production details that tell us what went into making the movie. He explains:

The following is a test action sequence designed by Yayan Ruhian, Cecep Arif Rahman and Gareth Evans. It was designed in a bid to create choreography that maintains the style and rhythm set out in their prior work (The Raid 1&2) while staying within the parameters of a PG-13/12A audience friendly certification.

Designed in under a week, it was shot over the course of 3 days on location in Hirwaun, WALES. The short sequence was shot using a Sony NEX-7 with only the Director and Cast on location. No other crew and cast worked on this project during the shoot.

Post production was handled in-house with Gareth Evans handling the offline edit while Fajar Yuskemal and Aria Prayogi continued their collaboration by providing an instrumental score tailor made to the project that would call upon cultural elements (the mix of Japanese and Indonesian instruments) inherent in the design of the film.

They have also undertaken the recording of ADR with the cast, foley and editing all sound FX before completing a final stereo mix.

Now watch the short and enjoy! If for some reason you can't watch the embed below, click here.

Storyline: In a time of civil war, a young warrior is given the task of delivering a treaty between two rival lords. During her journey through the woods however, she finds herself hunted by two assassins intent on intercepting her message of peace in a bid to maintain the fear, instability and violent rule of their leader.