The director of the film, Gareth Evans , studied film in the UK and was obsessed with action films. The early Hong Kong Kung Fu films had a profound impact on him. He once told the media that it was because he was obsessed with Jackie Chan's films, such as "Project A" and "Armour ". Of God" , "Police Story" , etc., finally made him determined to embark on the road of film, and chose "Merantau" as his feature film debut, also intending to show the unique charm of Indonesian martial arts on the big screen.
Criticized and influenced by previous years for "action movies are all action scenes", Gareth Evans paid particular attention to the drama of the story. His films strike a perfect balance between plot and action, with minimal fight scenes and smooth plot development. The director said that for him, all this is new, he has to find other people's shooting methods from previous films, to observe their films, to find the trajectory and techniques of camera movement.
