‘Preman: Silent Fury’ Gets Blu-Ray and DVD Physical Media Release from Well Go USA

The new Hiyah! original streaming title gets a solid standard release from the studio.

Box art image courtesy of Well Go USA.

Well Go USA continues their physical media trend of releasing their Hiyah! streaming-exclusive titles with Preman: Silent Fury for Blu-Ray and DVD for those who want to own it. The film marks the directorial debut for Randolph Zaini, who’s previously worked for about a couple dozen short films in the sound department. He writes & directs Preman, which follows a slice of the Indonesian underworld of organized crime. “Preman” is the local term for a henchman that carries out the orders of higher-ranking authorities in their respective gangs.

Preman: Silent Fury centers on Sandi, a deaf gangster who we learn has only been operating in the gang to earn enough money for his son to live a more comfortable life after the departure of his wife from the two of them. His son Pandu witnesses a hit being carried out by his father’s gang and is discovered to have seen the entire thing. Sandi now has to protect his only son, which means turning against those he’s worked alongside, fighting for his life to save his son’s and confront Guru, the leader of his group of Premen.

Image courtesy of Well Go USA.

Video:

Preman: Silent Fury is presented in its original anamorphic 2.35:1 aspect ratio for the majority of the film. At the head of some sequences the ratio narrows for dramatic effect, focusing in on weapons or other elements in the shot before expanding back into the normal scope presentation for the duration of the sequence. The colors of the Premen are a hue of orange that catches the eye, especially against the drab surroundings of the film’s surrounding environments, from grey/brown fields to thoroughfares covered in mud, clay, and dirt. Even most interiors carry the same listlessness about them, suggesting the characters hold more interest than the space they take up. While this contrast is struck early on, other characters carry a sort of color theory assigned to them as well.

An assassin hired to take Sandi and his son Pandi out of the equation, known as The Barber, has a theme of green about him but in certain sequences it becomes apparent that the green accents he adorns is noticeably keyed up in the frame, making the natural blacks in shots (especially with superimposition during a scene) extremely lifted, achieving a solarized look that doesn’t initially strike this reviewer as intentional. Other colors used seem to complement the rather limited color palette by drawing the eye to that accent, usually by sticking to oranges, dirty whites, and reds.

Image courtesy of Well Go USA.

Audio:

Preman: Silent Fury comes with two available audio tracks, a DTS HDMA 5.1 mix and stereo in the original Indonesian language, with an option for an English-language dub and English subtitles.

Being a film about a deaf gangster that employs martial arts in his day-to-day life, Preman: Silent Fury’s sound is one of the strongest characteristics of the film. The muting and muffling of what most moviegoers would perceive as extraneous or world-building dialogue (especially towards the beginning, acclimating us to Sandi’s disability) is largely disposable. This feeds into some thematic concerns about the film, which sound can certainly intersect with, but for now I’ll leave it there. Otherwise, between the moments of muted/muffled dialogue & sound effects the sound is utilized in much of the ways one would attribute to an action or modern martial arts film.

For the purpose of this review the 2.0 stereo mix was the chosen audio track due to hardware limitations.

Special Features:

This disc has trailers for other Hiyah! Exclusives in Well Go USA’s Blu-Ray lineup, but no other extras.

Final Thoughts:

Preman: Silent Fury comes across as a decent action title, but its desire to be more of an emotional journey can’t match the follow-through. We should be clued in more to what Sandi is thinking and feeling, but there are only a small handful of scenes where he expresses any needs or desires due to his predicament, otherwise he wears the same expression on his face and remains silent, cutting the audience off from whatever strategy he’s attempting to enact. He’s far more emotive with his son in the film but like the mother who left him we feel disappointed in Sandi, his protection minimal until the moment just before it’s too late.

Image courtesy of Well Go USA.

But it isn’t an issue with him specifically, the characters that take center stage just don’t have a finished feel about them, like an archetype that hasn’t been given true human motivation or personalized by the actor portraying them. This goes for the character of The Barber too, his presence is meant to be a threat against Sandi but that emotion doesn’t cross over to the audience. The fights in Preman also feel not quite there; the choreography rarely shows us more than two or three moves before cutting to a different angle, and Sandi’s unusual weapon of choice, a monkey fist (a tightly woven cord or rope wrapped around a ball or cork forming a tight sphere at the end) doesn’t feel as deadly as the film thinks.

Image courtesy of Well Go USA.

The drama is there too, but still feels all under-baked and underwhelming after everything has run its course. Running underneath the whole thing is Sandi’s past trauma, delivered to us in bursts but never really reaching an apex that clicks for its viewers between him and Pandu, which it’s clearly trying to do. As this is a first-time feature for Zaini these are kinks to work out but the elements are there for a decent martial arts drama. I just hope that he continues to work towards making that a reality. Sandi’s choice to use the monkey fist doesn’t feel unique to him in any significant way. It’s an interesting deviation from the usual weapons used in martial arts films but we don’t get the sense of identity from his usage of it that is teased, and we don’t get a lot of variety in the fights that do include it. While there are some decent fights here both editing and a muddled sense of purpose holds Preman: Silent Fury back from being as intense at it wants to be.

Disclaimer: Well Go USA has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.

Preman: Silent Fury is scheduled for release on September 27th, 2022 by Well Go USA on Blu-Ray and DVD.

[this article was originally published september 7, 2022 on celluloid consomme.]