Iko Uwais interviewed by Robert Mitchell at the 2011 The Raid World Premiere
As a way of introducing myself, and also to take a little time to do a
some reminiscing, I wanted to talk about my first Midnight Madness
screening.
It was a Saturday, the second day of the 2003 film festival and the
second year I was attending. I was set to watch two films that day. The
first was Takeshi Kitano's latest film Zatoichi at the Elgin theater theater at the base of Yonge street followed by a screening of Alien
with Sir Ridley Scott in attendance. That is already an amazing day of
cinema. Little did I know what the night would bring. Suffice to say Zatoichi
was amazing and I wasn't the only one who must've thought that because
several days later the film would win the audience award.
Leaving the theater and stepping into the bright early September daylight I slowly wandered up Yonge street bopping in and out of stores looking at DVDs. My mind wandering, thinking of the amazing sword sequences I had just watched.
By five o'clock I found myself standing in what was supposed to be my
second and last line up for a film that day. Perhaps because of kismet,
the unifying field or just one of those things, the woman who stood
directly in front of me had stood directly behind me hours earlier
while I waited for Zatoichi.
We began to talk about many different films and she asked me if I
would be going to Midnight Madness that night. I replied that I had
heard of Midnight Madness but that I had never gone. She then informed me
that there was a film playing that night entitled, Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior.
Since my teenage years encompassed skateboarding, eating pizza and
watching kung fu films every Saturday, I was always up for a good
martial arts film, but, alas, I did not have a ticket. The woman informed me
she was a volunteer and that she would use one of her vouchers and procure
me a ticket. True to her words she came back from the box office with a
ticket for Ong-Bak and what would become my first Midnight Madness film.
Oh yeah, the Alien reissue was amazing and, not only was Sir
Ridley Scott in attendance, but Yaphet Kotto sat in the audience with us
and watched the film ... but I digress.
Cut to INT.: The Uptown Theater Saturday night around 11PM.
With the usual energy that comes with a warm Saturday night, this
particular night had the added excitement of a world premiere. The crowd
had changed, they were younger and much more enthusiastic. Although it
was a long day and I was fighting exhaustion, one could not not get caught up
in the moment and feed off the energy that you were surrounded with.
We were finally seated in the amazing theater that was the Uptown 1 (see above photo (R.I.P))
and a man came onto the stage and introduced himself as "Colin Geddes,
the Midnight Madness programmer" to a huge amount of applause and
cheering. He then went on to relate a tale of seeing Ong-Bak at the buyers market at the Cannes film festival and that Luc Besson, the director of La Femme Nikita, had already bought the film.
Colin Geddes then introduced the director of the film, Prachya Pinkaew, who
had almost not made the screening due to being held up by customs and
had to resort to taking a cab from the airport to the theater to make
the screening on time. In fact, he had had no time to stop off at the hotel
to unpack his luggage. When Prachya stepped out and onto the
stage you would never have known that a mere hour or so before he had
been on a plane coming from the other side of the world.
With the introductions finished the house lights dimmed and the
curtains were slowly drawn and little did we know what we were about to
see. You could look in a thesaurus and no amount of adjectives could
ever do Ong-Bak justice. The film was completely and utterly
amazing. When the final credits rolled and lights came back on, sitting
in that theater - which was now in the wee hours of Sunday morning -
you knew you had just witnessed the emergence of a new talent unleashed
upon the world. The star of the film Tony Jaa without a doubt would become the next big action star.
As Colin and Prachya came back onto the stage the crowd
rose in a standing ovation and if you had ever been in the Uptown 1
you can attest to how many people that was.
After the Q&A I stumbled out of the theater and into the night,
dizzy from the amazing I had just watched. Wandering around the
local neighborhood I popped into a store and bought a chocolate milk,
when the thought crossed my mind to double back to the theater and
see if I could get a picture with the director.
Outside of the box office stood Colin and Prachya with a few other
people. I approached them and asked if I could have a photo. Colin
then snapped a picture at a crazy angle and the moment was captured.
I'm the dork with the red beard standing beside one of the greatest
action directors to emerge in the twenty first century.
I don't speak a word of Thai and I believe Prachya didn't speak much, if any, English. But, when I said to him that Ong-Bak was the best fighting film I had seen since Drunken Master II, a flicker of recognition passed through his eyes. We had bridged the language gap through action films.
When the house lights came back on that Sunday morning I immediately
thought to myself how many times are you going to be in a world
premiere audience and be able to say I was there the night the world
was introduced to the next big thing. In an instant I was hooked and
have been attending Midnight Madness ever since. This will mark my sixth year.
I also would like to thank that volunteer for taking me to my first Midnight Madness screening.
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