If you haven’t heard, I am a massive fan of Timo Tjahjanto. From his early work alongside his pal Kimo Stamboel as the Mo Brothers for 2009’s Macabre to Headshot in 2016 to his Netflix film The Night Comes For Us (2018) which is one of the only things justifying my continued subscription to that service, I will never stop admiring his signature style of horror, action, and action-horror film that literally pulls no punches*. The release of his newest, exactly today on Netflix, got me thinking (or continues my train of thought, after films like Everything Everywhere All At Once and, more recently, The Substance) about maximalism in filmmaking. I’ve always been attracted to a “more is more” approach to the movies, and The Shadow Strays (2024) is a bloody valentine to that sensibility, bathed in pink and purple light.

20 minutes of purestrain carnage by way of guns, knives, and bombs right off the top of The Shadow Strays is enough to tell you that this is Midnight movie fare. and the cheers and hollering from the Midnight Madness audience with whom I saw The Shadow Strays at TIFF confirm that. When the decapitations start, it’s a blazing neon sign telling you exactly what you’re in for. Opening on the Sea of Trees near Mount Fuji, a bumbling and self-assured Yakuza crime boss awaits his geisha plaything but instead is treated to a violent takedown from 13 (Aurora Ribero), a deadly but rookie assassin who is part of an organization called The Shadow. Clad in the coolest of tacti-cool ninja accouterments and boasting an arsenal of guns, swords, and bombs, 13 nearly takes down the entire crew of gangsters. But 13 accidentally kills the geisha she is meant to save, and suffers a ‘fatal’ blow at the last moment. Fortunately, because the world of Tjahjanto is closer to a video game than our own mundane world where such things are final, 13’s coldhearted mentor Umbra (Hana Malasan) swoops in to eliminate the last of the clan, administer a health potion to 13, and bring her charge back to life. 

But Timo doesn’t stop there and frankly, he doesn’t stop anywhere. For the entire 144-minute run, as is his trademark at this point, Tjahjanto puts our leading lady and anyone that dares to stand in her way through hell. Having failed her mission (or at least not completing it to the satisfaction of Umbra and her employers in The Shadow), 13 is given a frankly patronizing lecture from Umbra (“our mission is never easy, but never complex”) and sent to Jakarta to be warehoused for a while. While dormant, she stops taking the daily pills meant to keep her both emotionless and loyal to The Shadow and almost immediately begins to question her allegiances. This is further cemented when 13 befriends Monji (Ali Fikry), a young boy who she rescues from the petty gangsters who murdered his mother. But at least one of the gangsters is more influential than he seems and is the mediocre failson of a powerful politician. When he and his cronies kidnap Monji, 13 takes it on herself to make good on the title of this movie by straying from The Shadow to carve her way through the Indonesian underbelly to rescue him. 

Timo is kind enough to bring us, the real sickos in the audience, along for the ride through the back alleys of Jakarta and culminating in a one-on-one battle between teacher Umbra and student 13 of the sort that takes my breath away. Like the iconic fight scene between Julie Estelle’s The Operator and Hannah Al Rashid’s knife-wielding Elena in The Night Comes For Us, it instantly seared itself into my brain. Fight choreography is the most artistic of the martial arts and martial art-adjacent arts, and both that fight and the final encounter in The Shadow Strays are impeccable examples. The hits are graceful and expedient while also feeling brutal, and the seamless integration of weapons (including, in Umbra and 13’s fight, nail bombs!) add both unpredictability and a kind of textural element beyond kicks and fists**. People will be stabbed by things that aren’t knives. And through it all, 13 and Umbra will attain a catharsis that brings their relationship into sharp focus.

As far as my favourite of the directors outings, it’s still The Night Comes For Us for me, but The Shadow Strays shows an ability to marry Timo’s hallmark brutal violence, frenetic pacing, and a tenderness from a place that you’d never expect. The Shadow Strays draws on many of the same ideas as The Night Comes For Us including, most obviously, the idea of an assassin breaking the chains of a shadowy underworld organization. And though his prior film had elements of softness, The Shadow Strays fully encapsulates it’s uncompromising bloody violence in a heart-shaped box awash with the kind of lighting you might expect if Nicolas Winding-Refn just walked in the room. You’ll think of La Femme Nikita, or perhaps Léon: The Professional, but you’ll quickly snap back to the realization that this is Tjahento’s world, through and through.  I can’t say for sure that the pinks, purples, and blue tones that permeate The Shadow Strays are part of an authorial intent to imply that Umbra’s relationship with 13 is anything more than twistedly maternal, but the door is certainly open to that possibility. 

Fans of Timo are, as the kids say, eating very good right now. Staying true to the maximalist approach in his films, Tjahento clearly takes the same view of his schedule and never seems to be without projects in the ideation phase, on the go, and recently completed. Having just wrapped production on a sequel to 2021’s Nobody, Timo’s talked about reuniting with his fellow Mo Brother Kimo to remake Macabre, to develop a film for Joko Anwar’s Bumilangit Cinematic Universe (Indonesia’s counterpart to the Marvel films – check out Carol’s thoughts on another entry here), a US remake of Train To Busan, a sequel to The Night Comes For Us (which may or may not be teased in a scene from The Shadow Strays which caused me and several other audience members to explode out of my seat with joy) and probably ten other things we haven’t heard about yet.

The Shadow Strays is a memorable addition to the Timo Tjahento canon, and one which further embraces the director’s love of more. Bigger locations, bigger fights that demand rewatches, and more ostentatious lighting choices. It’s also memorable for introducing the world to Ribero and Malasan and characters 13 and Umbra that I can’t help but want to see more of. It’s memorable for evolving Tjahento’s now-signature visual style and particular flavour of action choreography that so expertly walks that line between an elegant dance and a massacre. It’s not only maximalist and an embrace of more, but it’s more of all the things I like.

The Shadow Strays is currently playing on Netflix, but I saw it as part of the Midnight Madness programme at the 2024 Toronto International FiIm Festival.

Sachin Hingoo will never flee his shadowy underworld assassin ring, because their benefits include an excellent vision care plan.

*it also pulls no stabs or garrotes

**not to take anything away from kicks or fists, please do not come for me in the comments.