Killers

Interesting psychological drama.

This movie had the potential to be brilliant. The first half, the set up, was excellent: Japanese killer contacts Indonesian journalist due to a common interest. Intense game of wits and a sort of mentor- student relationship, interspersed with some fairly graphically violent scenes.

However, given all this potential and a fine platform from which to build, the writer and director don't know what to do with it all. What develops from there is clumsy at times and the second half feels random, and the conclusion unprofound.

Even once we have a seemingly satisfactory conclusion, the movie doesn't end there. The writer and director didn't know when to stop the roller-coaster that is this movie!

Ultimately, a fairly good movie, but could have been even better.

Two men from different cultures, a journalist investigating a corrupt rich man in Jakarta, and a banker turned serial killer from Tokyo meet in a chat room and form an unholy alliance. The Japanese man abducts and tortures women on camera and uploads them on to the internet. The Indonesian writer becomes fascinated by the videos, and through a series of events becomes a killer himself. The movie switches back and forth between the two characters in a fairly seamless fashion. The acting is excellent, with vivid camera work, but be warned of some explicit and bloody violence. It runs a bit too long at two hours and eighteen minutes, but I still recommend Killers as one of the better films of 2014.

this is not a bad movie at all,but it has too much flaws to be a great movie. when i first see the movie backdrop,it sounds very bloody and macabre-ish,but it turns out wrong. this movie is too violent and bloody for mainstream audiences,but too soft for slasher hardcore fan. its like somewhere in the middle. i think mo brothers wanted to disturb the audience by its story rather than the killing scene itself. to me its like a drama movie with serial murder spice in it. don't get it wrong,its good and refreshing since I've never seen things like this in local box office and pretty rare in Hollywood,but Mo Brother failed to hold the tension,this movie gives you a good chills and fun discussion after watching it but obviously far less powerful than Snowtown, (an Australian serial-murder drama,most disturbing movie I've ever seen). i think k.kitamura and o antara saved this movie,their acting skill is top notch and the major high light in this movie!,and im glad im gonna watch this duo again in the raid 2! :D

The synopsis of this Japanese and Indonesian collaboration did have my interest grabbed, and I was somewhat excited to sit down and watch the movie. However, I had set the movie up on a pedestal of sorts, because it didn't impress me one bit, and I found it to be just a very mundane and mediocre movie at best.

The story is about two very different men, one in Japan and one in Indonesia, whom meet on a disturbing site that posts real videos depicting the moments of death of mutilated victims. While far apart, the two men have something in common; they are both killers. One kills simply out of sadistic pleasure and the other kills for a perverted sense of justice.

Right, well the story was good at certain aspects, but at other aspects it was just a muddled mess which made very little logic or sense.

What worked out for the movie was the acting, as the two main talents Kazuki Kitamura (playing Nomura) and Oka Antara (playing Bayu) really pulled their weight throughout the movie with their individual performances.

The effects were also working well in favor of the movie. And there is a fair amount of brutality and gruesomeness throughout the movie, so take that into consideration if you are easily offended by visual violence.

However, the movie just had very little entertainment value, aside from showing some brutal and deranged murder scenes. The storyline was just not functioning on a grander level. It was as if I was watching two different movies; one taking place in Japan and one in Indonesia. And directors Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto (known as The Mo Brothers) were not really successful in trying to intermingle and merge the two story lines into a coherent and fulfilling movie.

I found the overall result of the movie to be a tepid and mediocre one, and as such then I am rating it five out of ten stars.

KILLERS is something different, a hard-hitting and explicitly violent serial killer outing made as a co-production between Indonesia and Japan. It's a film of two halves, one that tells two separate story lines that gradually merge before meeting up at the climax.

The initial storyline is a Japanese-based tale about a guy who goes around murdering beautiful young women in the most vicious way imaginable. Even worse, he uploads footage of his crimes to the Internet for other users to enjoy. This is in the same territory as THE CHASER or I SAW THE DEVIL, absolutely disturbing viewing without dwelling on needless protracted torture or the like. Needless to say it's gripping, with subtle acting and a mature approach to the story.

The second storyline is set in Indonesia, and brings to mind the world of THE RAID and its sequel; a couple of actors from those films feature prominently. It involves a journalist who fails to bring down a crime boss and soon finds himself driven into his own murky world of vigilante violence. The film's heart is present in the form of the likable Oka Antara, a guy who goes on a dark yet gripping journey.

The storyline is unpredictable throughout, only becoming predictable for the violent climax. But for the most part it's exemplary: dark, harrowing, exciting, the sort of wide-reaching storyline that can only be told through cinema screens. The reason it's so good is that it focuses on the psychology of the killers, which makes this much more than another boring slasher. It's outstanding, in fact.