Last month, Welsh filmmaking wunderkind Gareth Evans treated the world to the gift of violence with a one minute teaser for The Raid 2: Berandal, his forthcoming sequel to 2012's The Raid: Redemption. Absent of context, the clip nevertheless did precisely what it was supposed to by introducing us to the action of the film in the most succinct, economical manner possible; no one walked away from the bit with a grasp on the story beyond basic comprehension, but that's fine. Evans got the point across - The Raid 2: Berandal is gonna bring it.

Today, the director has presented audiences with a full-on international trailer for his movie, and once again, the message rings clearly: The Raid 2: Berandal is one of 2014's must-watch action experiences. The original teaser might be a good bit bloodier, but this footage has scope and scale to it (not to mention a poetic, operatic overtone); the martial art throwdowns and high-impact gunfights Evans orchestrates won't be confined to a single location as they were before. Instead, he and his cast are operating on a city-wide level of chaos.

Of course, the trailer does echo what we already knew about The Raid 2: Berandal's plot: this time, our stoic hero, Rama (Iko Uwais), is going to jail, working from the inside to neutralize the ruling body of Jakarta's criminal element while rooting out corruption among his law enforcement colleagues. However, it also expands on that knowledge, introducing some new characters to the mix and and establishing their importance within the film's narrative. (Turns out that Jakarta is under the control of local mob boss Bangun (Tio Pakusadewo) as well as the Japanese Goto family.)

Essential to both aspects of Rama's mission is Uco (Arifin Putra), Bangun's son and a possible link to the two-timing going on among Rama's fellow police officers. Have a look at the full synopsis below for further detail:

Written and directed by Gareth Evans, THE RAID 2 picks up right where the first film left off and follows Rama (Iko Uwais) as he goes undercover and infiltrates the ranks of a ruthless Jakarta crime syndicate in order to protect his family and uncover the corruption in his own police force. His mission is to get close to a new mob boss, Bangun, by befriending his incarcerated son, Uco. Rama must hunt for information linking Bangun with corruption in the Jakarta Police Department while pursuing a dangerous and personal vendetta that threatens to consume him and bring his mission–and the organized crime syndicate–down around him.

The-Raid-2-Berandal-Bangun

That's a whole lot more intricate and involved than The Raid: Redemption aspired to be, but Evans' talent should blend all of the intrigue here seamlessly with the whopping seventeen action scenes he shot for The Raid 2. That said, what's most exciting about all of this is that the highly anticipated sequel is only a few months away, and will make its world premiere at Sundance in January; the wait will be over before you know it, and we'll all be able to revel in Evans' (hopefully) jaw-dropping fight sequences.

So sit back and enjoy seeing Hammer Girl in action, watching Rama wield a baseball like no other, and replaying the mud-soaked prison yard brawl over and over. The Raid 2: Berandal means business.

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The Raid 2: Berandal opens in US theaters on March 28th, 2014.

Source: Yahoo! Indonesia