Punching above his weight: Interview with Gareth Evans

Quick to laugh and with a Welsh accent that envelops you like a bear hug, Gareth Evans seems like he’d be great fun down the pub.

Then you remember that, in his world, a bar is the perfect venue for a violent brawl rather than a friendly pint. His films The Raid and The Raid 2 introduced the western world to the Indonesian martial art of pencak silat, with vicious, breathtaking choreography that left every other martial arts film begging for mercy.

It’s been an interesting road for a man who originally wanted to make pretentious European arthouse movies. “They just seemed like a more realistic possibility – Welsh people aren’t exactly known for their rich history of martial arts films!”

When Evans travelled to Indonesia with his wife to work on a documentary, he discovered silat, and became determined to make a film that would not only be intelligently plotted, but would break the mould of fight choreography. He even took up the intricate fighting style himself, though he quickly discovered he’d never challenge his star, silat artist Iko Uwais, to a fight.

“I’m the world’s worst practitioner of silat – it’s this beautifully intricate and balletic artform that is not made for tall, clumsy, overweight Welsh lads! I’m an observer, not a fighter!” Evans laughs. “I did study it for a year before we started on the first film, because I wanted to suggest things for the fight scenes and choreography. I wanted to come from a place of knowledge, as opposed to me just guessing or making preposterous demands. I didn’t want somersaults or sped-up moves; I wanted to show expert fighting by real martial arts guys. It’s extreme, but, from day one, it was vital the fighting was grounded in reality.”

What a terrifying reality. The Raid 2: Berandal sees Evans push the boundaries of fight choreography, transforming everyday locations such as train carriages and even the backseats of speeding cars into the setting for violent action sequences, unlike anything you’ve seen previously. Shockingly, some of these unbelievable sequences are based on real events, such as a scene where hero Rama (Iko Uwais) blindly drives a car through a square while lying on the floor, ducking to avoid the knives and machete.

“A friend of my brother was in the Metropolitan Police and was covering the London Riots,” explains Evans. “He came under attack in a similar way when he was in the patrol car, and needed to duck onto the floor of the car and use his hand to press the accelerator. I heard that story and knew it would be perfect for our blend of genres. It would be the horror scene where that sense of claustrophobia is extreme, the possibility of death so palpable. It was a key scene, all the more terrifying because it was based on something real.”

But while the fights are getting all the attention, Evans should also be praised for his intricate plotting. Featuring complex characters with twisting motivations, his film echoes crime dramas such as The Departed or Infernal Affairs.

“I never saw these as being pure martial arts films. The first is a survival horror where the action is martial arts. The second is a crime story. I want to tell stories that play out like a normal film, but we just heighten the action to fuse genres together. And people can easily ignore that; it’s the same for horror films. They don’t get the respect they deserve. So there is that desire to defy limits and change perceptions of the genre. For me, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was incredible: it elevated martial arts into something beautiful and emotionally engaging. With my film I wanted the fights to feel like they came organically from the plot.”

The Raid 2: Berandal is in cinemas now.