Review Detail

That One Guy did a brilliant job with Berandal. The creative decision to have a more elaborate gang war story in the sequel to The Raid was good, but it always felt like an excuse to include one huge action setpiece after another, and it's shocking how little That One Guy's major edits actually impact the overall proceedings. The main character, Yuka, can now just be seen as a violent, loyal, dangerous badass, and the edit makes you realize how the whole 'undercover cop' angle is just faked character development. I would have liked Prakoso's scenes being kept to make his death hit harder, but other than that, all the edits outside the opening fade in/fade out transitions are unnoticeable, and racket up the pace to near breakneck speeds in a fantastic way. Highly recommended for old-school action fans, and one of the most surprising edits for me in how smoothly a film can still work with 40+ minutes excised from it.