Movie review - Walid

Walid *** (out of 5 )(NR) This film from Malaysia actually seems like two movies. For about 50 minutes, we’re watching a rather slow subtitled drama about Mr. Walid (Megat Sharizal) a quiet teacher who runs a school for poor children in his village. Their parents can’t afford the “public” schools. Walid is so ardent about literacy and education as essential for the country’s future that he runs an open-air classroom on his own. This arouses the curiosity of an immigrant tween, Aisha (Putri Qaseh), who learns on her own just by hanging around outside the classroom. Meanwhile a couple of rough gangs are snatching children from streets and play areas for a large human trafficking operation.

The first 45-50 minutes include one highly unlikely, but very cool, fight scene amid a lot of setup and little action. Most of that half is social commentary about the ills of class and immigrant prejudice for those at the bottom, and how it impedes Malaysia’s success as a nation.

Then Walid kicks into rescue mode, hoping to recover the taken children before they’re shipped abroad for sale. The rest of the film runs for about 50 minutes of nonstop, hard-nosed action as a few good guys take on a legion of thugs. The action mostly takes place in a vast, cluttered warehouse that winds up hosting several simultaneous arenas of action, as the cameras switch among them. Walid looks nothing like the kind of fighter he turns out to be. Sharizal has Bud Spencer’s girth and dark beard, but doesn’t evoke any confidence in his martial skills until it’s Go Time.

The gritty action is fairly exhausting to watch. Minimal music. No f/x other than enhanced sound. Almost no guns, as everyone fights with fists, feet, swords, knives and assorted tools they find. Every time things seem to be winding down, another thug joins the fray; or one who was knocked out revives for another round. A couple switch sides, and a few more good guys arrive to help free the captives. The gang members look a lot tougher than Walid, the two cops and the few others, but that can be deceiving. The action is fast and vicious, rapidly alternating among the several separate areas of mayhem in and around the building.

As the first-listed screenwriter, Areel Abu Bakar tends to be rather preachy in the first half and the epilog. But as director, the dude serves up more action than a collaboration between Sam Peckinpaugh and Quentin Tarantino would yield in one long sequence. The action gets a bit confusing as to who is doing what to whom, but never dull. When combatants pause for a breather, the audience needs it almost as much as the fighters.

(Walid, in Malay with subtitles, opens in Los Angeles on 8/11/23)