3. Merantau
Merantau has been unjustly overlooked as critics and genre fans alike rushed to praise The Raid, the follow-up to this film from director Gareth Evans and star Iko Uwais. While this is somewhat understandable, seeing as how The Raid is one of the best action movies in a couple of decades, it's still something of a shame that Merantau is not recognized for its own exceptional additions to the martial arts canon.What The Raid demonstrated best was Evans' ability to set up coherent goals for his heroes to achieve, and then the chain of obstacles that would have to be overcome. Merantau displays this same style in its best scene, in which Uwais needs to get to the top floor of a building, but to do so means taking an elevator ride with Eric (Yayan Ruhian).Eric does not want to take an elevator ride. What follows is two silat masters beating the holy hell out of each other while confined in the very limited space of the elevator. Silat is a martial art noted for its acrobatic style, as well as for the way it allows for the practitioner to drop and rise as needed. The elevator fight scene serves two purposes then: It shows off both the huge range of motion and skill of the fighters, while also emphasizing the stomach-churning impact of the bluntest blows. While both Merantau and The Raid featured much more elaborate and complex fights, the elevator fight scene is perhaps the most perfect encapsulation of what makes silat both enthralling and stomach-dropping.