Yayan Ruhian

Ruhian was a pencak silat instructor first, teaching the Indonesian martial art professionally from 1988 and travelling to run classes in other cities and abroad. He was in his forties before film found him, which is roughly the age most action performers are being quietly retired.

Gareth Evans brought him in on Merantau and then built two films partly around him. As Mad Dog in The Raid he is the small, unhurried, entirely unbothered fighter who is more dangerous than anyone twice his size, and the reason the role became famous is that he does not perform menace at all: he just moves faster than the film seems to allow. Prakoso in The Raid 2 is the opposite approach, a long-haired enforcer with a family and a sadness, and it is a better piece of acting than the first film ever asked for.

What followed was an international career built on that reputation. He was Tasu Leech in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a shinobi in John Wick: Chapter 3, the police chief in Beyond Skyline and again in Skylines, the Shaman in Boy Kills World, and Master Burai in The Shadow Strays. He has stayed anchored in Indonesian cinema throughout, from Photocopier to the Gayong films, and he still teaches the art as well as performing it.