Wira 2019 Review

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Starring Hairul Azreen, Fify Azmi, and Yayan Ruhian. Wira tells the story of Hassan’s return home from the military only to find his family in debt to the local kingpin and his former boss.

Scrolling through Netflix one day I came across Wira. I’d never heard of it, the trailer looked cool so being a huge martial arts fan. I gave it a watch.

Wira starts with Hassan (Hairul Azreen) returning home from the military to his family. On the way, he bumps into an old friend who is a police officer. Upon returning to his old apartment where his father and sister live. His sister Zain (Fify Azmi) is not too pleased to see him as she holds a grudge against him for abandoning them.

It shows numerous flashbacks of his family and the local kingpin Raja (Dain Said). Raja has a hold on the entire block Hassan’s family live in. He bought the land, tore all the houses down and built a flea pit block for all the people to live in who he also happens to employ in his factory. His factory of course is just a front for drugs. He also puts on very popular MMA fights.

Hassan’s main reason for returning is to get his family out and leave. Hassan also happens to be a local legend, having worked previously for Raja and being unbeatable in the MMA fights. Everyone knows who he is when he returns.

Hassan wastes no time in visiting Raja, hoping his past deeds will put him in Raja good books and he will do him a favour and let his father and sister leave. Here we are also introduced to Raja’s head of security Ifrit who is played by non-other than Yayan (Mad Dog) Ruhian of The Raid fame. I think we know where this is heading already.

Hassan sister Zain is in far deeper than their father who is just a worker. She participates in the MMA fights and is quite boastful with-it displeasing Raja. Raja rejects Hassan’s plea and asks him to return with Zain. Hassan returns with Zain. Raja makes her perform a humiliating task which clears some of their depts. The rest of the debt will be cleared if they managed to defeat Raja’s own son and daughter in a doubles MMA match in the ring.

This being a martial arts flick, the plotline plays second fiddle to the actions scenes which are what we are here to see. Newcomer Hairul Azreen is a general talent. Like fellow Malaysian superstar Iko Uwais, Azreen is a master of Silat and taekwondo on top of that. He has an imposing statue and stands taller than most of his fellow actors and stuntmen. To compensate for their becoming less menacing because of this they just throw more at him. I don’t think I saw a single one on one fight in the entire movie. Azreen seems to take on a minimum of 5-10 opponents at once.

The movie generally starts quite slowly as do the fight scenes. The first fight scene, Hassan barely throws a punch and just directs everyone’s force into objects and other people. But once it all kicks off the actions scenes and set pieces are kicked up tenfold. The fight scene on the bus is quite the sight. We see guys getting smashed through windows and the camera pans out into the distance showing the fight still going on from a distance inside the bus only to zoom back into the action. The fights are full of bone-breaking moves. Hassan sister is also quite the skilled fighter, going toe to toe with knife and machete-wielding thugs. Yayan Ruhian plays his usually cool lunatic self, much the same role as in The Raid. The fight with him is once again one of the best put to film. A long painful-looking brutal fight where again, Yayan Ruhian small statue outmatches his much larger opponents through skill and sheer toughness.

With the arrival of Iko Uwais and Tony Yaa, Malaysian action movies are paving the way for fights scenes. Hollywood should really take note. I remember watching Tekken the movie a while back. With action talents like Gary Daniels, Jon Foo and Lateef Crowder. The fight scenes should have been spectacular but nope. Too predictable and far far too short.

In conclusion once again just like The Raid, Merantau and Ong Bak. Wira is a brutal affair with amazing well-choreographed fight scenes. The plot is predictable but there are some genuinely heartfelt moments and character building. Much like Revenger, watch for the amazing action and fights.

Wira is available on Netflix now.

Rating 3.5/5 belts