If you’re a fan of The Raid and other propulsive action flicks, Timo Tjahjanto should’ve long been on your radar. The Indonesian filmmaker behind Headshot and The Night Comes for Us is back and bringing his style of martial arts to Netflix with The Shadow Strays. And based on this first teaser, it will not disappoint if you know what to expect from Tjahjanto.
Indonesian actress Aurora Ribero is shown doing a rigorous series of pushups, while we’re also shown scenes of vicious combat. Ribero plays 13, a member of a deadly team of assassins known as The Shadows. What do assassins do you really well? They fight and they kill, and it looks like there will be plenty of both.
The blood runs fast and deep, so deep there’s a decapitation in the promo poster. Not often you see that!
SYNOPSIS: “The Shadow Strays follows the story of Codename 13, a young assassin who finds herself suspended after a mission gone wrong. During her downtime, she bonds with Monji, a boy who recently lost his mother to a crime syndicate. When Monji disappears, 13 embarks on a quest to find him, even if it means going against her mentor and the organization she belongs to, ‘The Shadows.’”
If you like tight hallway showdowns, edged weapon kills and blistering gunfights, The Shadow Strays will be for you. There’s a reason that David Leitch plucked Tjahjanto out of relative obscurity to direct Nobody 2. This could be a breakout film domestically for Tjahjanto, who is due for it. It could be the same for Ribero, a multi-talented Indonesian actress, model, and popular singer.
The Shadow Strays hits Netflix on October 17th, but first it’ll premiere next month at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival in the Midnight Madness section.
