U.S. DVD Release
Oppressed by a murderous Dutch regime, the people of Indonesia have only one hope for freedom, a warrior with incredible strength and cat-like reflexes with enough faith in Allah to move mountains, he is Jaka Sembung (Barry Prima)! The Warrior, Parmin, must prepare to lead his people into battle against Dutch military and dangerous mercenaries and wizards, can the rebels prevail or will Parmin fall at the hands of the deadly, black magician Rawe Rontek (W.D. Mochtar)?
What’s not to like about The Warrior? This Gope Samtani produced, Indonesian action film contains everything a cult cinema fan requires for a genuinely entertaining viewing experience including fantasy, martial arts, horror, religion/black magic, gore and beautiful women! Barry Prima is the quintessential hero, the ass-kicking Indonesian messiah, an incorruptible man of the people that shares more than a few uncanny similarities to the Biblical characters of Samson and Jesus Christ. Prima’s on-screen martial arts may look crude and the fight choreography clunky but his good looks and heroic charm will instantly endear him to viewers. If this is your first time seeing a Prima film, you’re in for a major treat!
I’m all about gory rubber body parts, air-bound mannequins, floating decapitated heads and the clash between “Javanese” black magic and Islam so The Warrior hit my sweet spot; I plan to seek out more from Rapi Films now.
Mondo Macabro have done cult cinema fans a great service by releasing this film as it’s just an incredible amount of fun to watch; the dubbing is wonderfully cheesy and the film transfer features only a few minor visual flaws. It’s a shame we’ve not seen respectable releases for the Jaka Sembung sequels, The Warrior and the Blind Swordsman & The Warrior and the Ninja, but perhaps we’ll get lucky and Rapi Films will license them to Mondo Macabro someday.
The Warrior disc also features some awesome extras including a documentary, Mondo Macabro trailers, Rapi Films trailers, two interviews and some actor bios. Check it out now, CULT ACTION GOLD!
Kudos for a great review!!! And I totally follow you; Old Indonesian action films are totally entertaining! Indonesia was like a wild west of Asia in the 1980s. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you while waiting for the sequels. Before “The Warrior” came out I asked Pete Tombs (of Mondo Macabro) about them and he said they would consider putting them out if the first one sold well enough. Well, the DVD came and… somebody put it on a Torrent site after which the DVD sold nada in the US. This isn’t speculation but from Tombs himself. Too bad. Too fucken bad. I’m not here to blame downloaders or anybody but just to moan a lost chance to see these films on proper DVD.
The two sequels you mention are actually out on English dubbed VHS so they’re available if you look around but actually there are no less than FOUR sequels (the last two being “Bergola Ijo” and “Jaka Sembung Dan Dewi Samudra”) plus a spin-off film (“The Blind Warrior”) and the last two sequels have never been released translated to English which makes it even more of a bummer! Boo-hoo!
“The Blind Warrior” is out on DVD in the UK and Germany but it’s OOP.
PS: I don’t know if the evil Danish Vikings (from Denmark) ever made it to Indonesia but the evil people who colonised the country came from Holland, i.e. they were Dutch.
Damn. I would have indeed loved seeing the sequels. Perhaps in the future Tombs will release a collection on a two DVD set.
Hmm…Dutch…Danish…Holland…YOU SCANDINAVIAN BASTARDS. Correction made.
Hahaha. We actually discovered America 900 yrs before Columbus but unlike him we didn’t kill the natives and steal the land. We had a pow-wow with the indians and then went back home again (and then the Viking empire fell apart but that’s another story, haha).
PS: and yes, a two disc set would indeed be awesome!!
If you’d have staked permanent homesteads, you and I might be neighbors today! Then my old lady would never see me!