Netflix’s Indonesian action film The Shadow Strays is definitely the most violent film I’ve seen all year. I suppose when 70% of a film is gore, then there’s nothing more to it than just CGI blood and some insanely long action sequences that keep giving even when you’re full. The Shadow Strays tells the story of a 17-year-old assassin, 13, who is part of a global mercenary group called “The Shadows.” You know, your typical action epic premise. 13’s first mission is to obliterate a Yakuza group, alongside her tutor Umbra. The first 10 minutes of the movie are spent watching 13 ripping through these men without any fear or worries. It’s like watching an animated character that’s never meant to lose. However, when she ends up accidentally killing a geisha at the scene, 13 is completely disoriented. So, Umbra has no choice but to put her on the bench, so to speak. For two long weeks, 13 finds herself taking medication to “deal” with her emotional problem, but she doesn’t hear back from her trainer. This leaves her stressed out and more emotional than if she were actually doing any work (tsk tsk). 13 keeps having dreams about an incident from her childhood; it’s something that keeps waking her up every morning in a cold sweat. She then goes full throttle into her daily routine, yet something’s permanently bothering her. 13 notices that a young boy and his mother get tormented in the building by a gang of drug dealers. She doesn’t like how it looks, but she’s obviously not meant to interfere. However, when the young boy’s mother is killed off, 13 decides to take it upon herself to look after him. Let’s see how that turns out for her.
Spoiler Alert
What Happens to Monji?
The young boy named Monji tells 13 that his mother had drug problem and the men that were troubling them killed her. The men had been Monji’s mom’s clients. They beat him up and killed her because she likely wanted out. 13 takes Monji to see his mother’s grave to make him feel better. They split up at night, but the next day when she goes looking for him in his apartment, he’s nowhere to be seen. Instead, she finds a young man named Jeki linked to the crime syndicate that killed Monji’s mom. He leads her to a man named Haga, who has taken Monji away, presumably to put him to work for the syndicate. Jeki tells 13 that the people she’s trying to mess with are terrible people, and she really can’t do anything by herself. Obviously, he doesn’t know she’s an assassin; he just thinks she’s just really strong.
Now Haga is friends with a detective named Prasetyo and Ariel, the son of a to-be governor. As you can imagine, it’s a group of criminals who’ve got the law on their side. Anyway, as you can imagine, this is a powerful group of people to mess with; however, 13 really doesn’t care. She’s stuck on one thing only: saving Monji. Her first kill of the three is Haga, the drug dealer and club owner. It’s an instant death in all honesty, but she still doesn’t have Monji. Jeki helps her out of there because now the gang will think he’s on her side, considering he brought her there. This is also because the cops have shown up from the sheer ruckus created by 13. Jeki says bye-bye as soon as they’re out of reach, but 13 knows they’re going to meet again. In the meantime, Umbra and another fellow from her team are sent on another mission. What Umbra doesn’t know is that they’ve been assigned to kill their own agents who have gone “stray.” Umbra meets an agent named Volver who is pregnant, but the guy with Umbra, Troika, doesn’t hesitate in killing her. Instead, he tells Umbra that she shouldn’t go soft. This is the kind of training they have as an assassin group.
Prasetyo, the cop, shows up at Jeki’s home with a group of masked people. They’re there to get 13, but as we know, she’s not there. Jeki looks after his old grandmother, and she’s the only family he has, but he’s got no information for Pras, so what does the guy do? Threaten his grandmother. But of course, 13 won’t stand any injustice, so she shows up and kills all of Pras’ men. Eventually, there’s a chase, and when Pras catches 13, she bites his ear clean off and then squishes his eyeballs Game of Thrones style, leaving him dead. Whoops, two down, 1 to go. Now 13 learns that Monji is with Ariel and his dad, and she won’t stop until she has the boy with her.
Why Did Ariel Kill Monji’s Mom?
It turns out Monji’s mother was blackmailing Ariel because he once slept with her. I suppose Ariel wanted the boy to pay for the sins of his mother (yuck). So he ended up beating the little kid, which makes 13 even angrier than she already was. Anyway, Ariel’s dad realizes that they can use 13’s skills and tells her that she can have the boy if she helps him kill a man. At the mission, Jeki’s in the car with the dad and a bleeding and bruised Monji. Jeki pleads with the dad to take Monji to the hospital, but he doesn’t agree, and Monji dies right there. Jeki calls out to 13 immediately, even though the dad tries to shut him up, and when 13 hears him, all hell breaks loose. Now the other team realizes that she’s there to kill them, so they decide to kill Ariel’s crew, including his dad. The old man gets brutally shot in the same car as Monji. As you can imagine, some crazy action follows, but 13 emerges victorious, killing Ariel too. Jeki drives her off with Monji’s body, and the two of them actually become friends. However, before they can actually say anything to each other, their car’s hit, and they wake up in the middle of nowhere.
What Happens to Umbra?
Now it’s 13’s boss who is here to set the record straight and yell at her for messing up their whole system. He has to clean up after her, and he’s not happy. She shouldn’t even be involved in this at all. There’s a big fight between Umbra, the man, and 13, which leads to the man’s death. Umbra’s also shot by the guy because she hesitates to kill 13. Here’s when we get the big reveal. Umbra was the one who killed 13’s mother and then “saved” her or recruited her to become an assassin. Before Umbra takes her last breath, she tells 13 that her real name is Nomi, so I suppose it’s in a way setting her free from this assassin life. Nomi then buries Monji and sits by his grave.
Will There Be A Sequel?
During The Shadow Strays’ ending, another group of assassins come after 13. It’s “14” and her gang. However, a strange man shows up and kills them all too. This happens to be Master Burai, the guy who trained Umbra. He asks 13 if she killed Umbra, but before she can answer, I suppose he can see the respect in her eyes for his pupil, so he decides to take responsibility for her. The end of the film leaves an opening for a sequel because now Burai and Nomi are a team. She also knows her name, so there’s a chance we could get a backstory of some sort.
The Shadow Strays’ ending implies that Monji was to Nomi what Nomi was to Umbra. Though the assassins are trained to be heartless, their emotional side always comes through. Nomi went after Monji’s kidnappers because she felt like she needed to protect a child who was as vulnerable as she was when her own mother died. Though she couldn’t really remember exactly what happened back then, she can probably remember the emotional impact of the situation, and I guess in a way, she doesn’t want Monji to end up like her, or worse, in the wrong hands. The end of the film feels like a full-circle moment for Nomi because she finally knows her name and is free from the life of an assassin, the two things she was struggling with at the beginning of the film.
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