Some of the most exciting films being made today are coming out of Korea, Japan, and most recently, Indonesia. In 2011, the Jakarta film scene exploded onto American screens in Gareth Evans’ The Raid, which did very well at the Toronto and Sundance Film Festivals. Killers is the latest film to come out of Jakarta, produced both in Indonesia and Japan, and if the trailer is any indication it keeps the tradition of insane, frantic action alive.
Killers tells the story of two killers, one a psychotic serial killer in Tokyo and the other a vigilante in Jakarta. After posting videos of their killing sprees online, the two find each other online and become locked in a deadly game of oneupmanship. The film comes from the Mo Brothers (Timo Tjahjanto and Kimo Stamboel). Neither of them are strangers to the horrific. Timo Tjahjanto co-directed the superbly disturbing V/H/S/2 segment Safe Haven with Gareth Evans (The Raid). Killers is his second collaboration with Stamboel, the first being Macabre (2009), where the two proved their aptitude for bloodletting. And bloodletting is certainly on display in the trailer below.
Killers will have it’s US premiere at the Sundance Film Festival as part of the Park City at Midnight Series. Here’s the official synopsis provided by Sundance:
Mr. Nomura is an eerily handsome, sharply dressed, sociopathic serial killer who preys on the women of Tokyo. In Jakarta, a world-weary journalist named Bayu finds himself unexpectedly falling into vigilantism after brutally killing two sadistic robbers. When each posts videos of his violent sprees online, the pair find one another on the Internet and begin a toxic and competitive duel. While Bayu clings to the hope that he can resume a normal life, Nomura continues to spill blood without remorse. Killing, advises Nomura, is something everyone ought to consider.
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