TIFF 2021: Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash
TIFFComma-splice aside, Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is easily the most engaging title in the TIFF 21’s roster of films. The Indonesian genre mashup, which is an adaptation of a book of the same name, remains a love story through its runtime despite its heavy congestion of wildly converging tones, styles, and antics. Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is such a massive scramble and cinematic madhouse that the romance – flawed as it is – ends up being the film’s chief form of stability as it marches down various disjointed paths off the main trail. We get martial arts fights, unwanted pregnancies, romantic triangles, ghost stories, gangsters, and traumatic childhood experiences. When the poor, lost audience member struggles for their bearings or to decode the presence of a woman who appears and disappears before ultimately becoming a ninja, they can rest assured that the gritty and petite killer Iteung (Ladya Cheryl) still loves the impotent street thug and brawler Ajo (Marthino Lio).
At the end of the day, the film’s director, Edwin, is reconciling way too much to end up with a cohesive film. The structure of the central romance finds Ajo and Iteung meet under extremely ‘hard’ circumstances – possibly the film’s best sequence, a martial arts duel set in a rock quarry involving a number of the work site’s heavy equipment – but the romance can’t sustain itself because of Ajo’s shame and the personal issues revolving around his erectile dysfunction. This theme of ‘hard’ male roles and ‘soft’ male roles in Indonesian society may very well be a decent discussion. However, Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is all over the place with what it wants to bring to the table. Never mind the fact that impotence, a thematic curiosity though it may be, isn’t really a strong enough idea to maintain Ajo’s character arc, much less keep this film grounded.
Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is an ambitious venture, for sure. It seeks to blend comedy, action, martial arts, suspense, and notably some sexually violent and morally dark backstory. Thus, the thematic and tonal landscapes are a mess. The story of a penis getting slammed in a cupboard is one thing, but some moments have a cringe-worthy intensity and are significant plot-point bombs that cannot be casually swatted away as fleeting action or comedy. Baby abandonment and 11-year-olds being forced into sexual situations aren’t dramatic content that one can quickly move on from although this film tries. It feels as if that is what Edwin is doing here – he’s pounding out the pages of the book into a film without giving appropriate weight to what he comes across. Themes about male toxicity in Indonesian society may naturally transport from the novel to the movie, so it exists here as a theme. However, the abuse and baby abandonment elements of the story are shockingly cast to the curb. Edwin is far more interested in paying homage to exploitation fun of the 1970s. The occasional martial arts spectacle or action scene mostly aren’t too notable in their execution – the production probably wasn’t permitted to wreck the motorcycles or trucks that were borrowed. More so, they represent having some kung fu or violent fun. Lost is the weight of the themes, the seriousness of some of the content, and many of the ideas that the script brings up. Say all you want about impotence, but the film’s madness, aggression, and exploitation-film homage makes it feel like the work of filmmaker trying to overcompensate for something rather than deal with actual emotion.