Aahana Swrup
Directed by Timo Tjahjanto, the Netflix Indonesian film ‘The Shadow Strays’ charts an intense action-filled story about a teenage assassin and a life-changing mission. Agent 13 belongs to a secretive mercenary organization that operates in the Shadows and brings gory, brutal deaths to their targets. In a moment of unusual respite, she’s stationed in Jakarta to wait until further orders. During this time, her paths cross with Monji, an 11-year-old boy who is unlucky enough to be entangled with the local crime syndicate. Consequently, after the boy gets abducted, 13 decides to go against every protocol and sets off on a self-appointed rescue mission. In the process, she becomes a target for not only the crime syndicate but her own mentor, Umbra, as well.
As 13 blazes a vengeful path to arrive at her vulnerable friend, Monji’s rescue, she ends up unearthing certain truths about her past in connection to the organization Shadow Agents like her work for. Thus, by the time her reckless adventures come to their conclusion, the assassin finds herself facing a whole new reality. SPOILERS AHEAD!
The Shadow Strays Plot Synopsis
Rumors of the Shadows—trained warriors known for their bloodthirst—run rampant, treated as a myth or a feared reality from person to person. Therefore, when Kenjiro of the Onori clan receives word that his master, Yoshinori, is next on the Shadows hitlist, the Yakuza leader dismisses his right hand’s worries. Nevertheless, that night, the Onori clan finds themselves in for a reckoning after two Shadow Agents infiltrate their lair and wipe them out in a gloriously bloodied battlefield. Even though the mission is a success, Agent 13’s mentor, Umbra, remains disappointed in her performance.
For a moment, 13 had gotten distracted by the innocent Geisha in the room, who died after getting caught in the crossfires between the Shadow and the Yakuza gangsters. As a result, Umbra had to step into the mission and revive 13. Consequently, as Umbra embarks on her next mission in the forests of Cambodia, her student gets sent to Jakarta—benched for the foreseeable future. 13 spends weeks in Jakarta, awaiting instruction and growing restless under the weight of her nightmares that only subside with special pills. Although she keeps her head down, she can’t help but notice one mother-son duo, Asti and Monji, in her apartment complex.
Asti seems to be entangled with some local gangsters, which brings trouble to the family’s door one night. The next morning, 13 wakes to find the authorities taking the woman’s dead body away, leaving Monji an orphan. Inevitably, he falls into 13’s orbit after she shares a meal with him. Although the boy pretends to be happy about his addict mother’s death, it remains evident that he’s really burning with fury and wants to kill Haga and his men, who are responsible for his mother’s death. Thus, Monji and 13 bond after spending the night together, with the teen taking the kid out to see his mother’s grave.
However, 13 wakes the following day to find Monji missing from his apartment. Instead, she finds Jeki—one of Haga’s men—snooping around the place. As such, overpowering him in a fight, 13 pushes the man to take her to Haga, suspecting the gangster must have Monji. On the drive over, she learns about the city’s busting criminal world, that Haga and Ariel, a politician’s son, run. Shortly after they arrive at Moonrose, 13 lays ruin to Haga’s club, killing the man and inviting the ire of his twin, Soriah, and Prasetyo, the gangster’s close friend who is also the police department head. Although the venture doesn’t get her any closer to Monji, it puts her and Jeki on Ariel’s radar.
The same night, Prasetyo and his men attack Jeki’s house to get information about the girl who killed Haga. After 13 intervenes, she finds the perfect opportunity to track Ariel down by following the crooked cop to the other man’s lair. Nonetheless, in Ariel’s domain, she ends up getting overpowered by his men—but not before she ruthlessly kills Prasetyo. In the end, she finds herself locked up in a cellar, facing down the barrel of Ariel’s manic anger. Yet, before the man could kill her, his father interjects. As it turns out, after witnessing her stellar skills as an assassin, Ariel’s father decides to offer her a deal: Monji’s life for her services.
The Shadow Strays Ending: Does Monji Die? Does 13 Save Him From Ariel?
Monjis mother, Asti, was mixed up with the wrong crowd for as long as the boy can remember. The woman was addicted to drugs and worked for Haga at his Moonrose Club. Consequently, her paths inevitably crossed with Ariel, who ended up impregnating her. Given Ariel’s political connections, neither the man nor his father could afford the controversy Asti could bring to their public image. For the same reason, Ariel has her killed to neutralize her as a threat. However, after her death, Haga had to ensure nothing could tie the woman to Ariel. As such, he kidnaps Monji and hands him over to his friend so that the kid never reveals the truth about his mother’s demise.
Fortunately, 13 emerges as a glimmer of hope. Despite only knowing Monji for two days, the assassin grows attached to the kid after forging a connection with him that her Shadow training never otherwise allowed. Thus, 13 undertakes the dangerous journey to save the young boy after learning about his predicament. Ultimately, it brings the assassin to a familiar place. Ariel’s father wants to exploit 13’s skills by manipulating her into carrying out an assassination for him. In exchange, he promises to spare Monji’s life, who has spent the last few days as his son’s personal punching bag. Given the circumstances, 13 is hardly in a place to refuse the deal.
As a result, she rolls out with Ariel the next day for a drug deal with another criminal, Kabil. Ariel wants 13 to kill the other man as soon he has secured the funds from him in exchange for the drugs. This way, he can secure the funds he needs for his father’s upcoming campaign while also wiping out a notable rival. As this deal unfolds in a secluded tunnel, Ariel’s father remains inside a car with Jeki and Monji, waiting to kill the kid if 13 steps out of line. Therefore, even though 13 doesn’t wish to carry out the gangster and his father’s plans, she has no choice but to follow through.
Nonetheless, before she can pull the trigger on Kabil, a distraught Jeki creates a skirmish to inform 13 that Monji is already dead. The boy’s injuries and starvation had been too much for his body to take in the face of his captor’s negligence. Thus, once 13 realizes that Monji has died, an all-out war breaks out in the tunnel between the two factions and the assassin. 13 and Jeki are the only ones who emerge from the great bloodbath alive, cradling Monji’s dead body. In the end, 13 loses the one thing she had chosen to fight for on her own. Therefore, it seems fitting when, in the aftermath, Umbra—the woman who made her into a deadly assassin—comes for her.
What is Agent 13’s Real Name? Why Can’t She Remember it?
Throughout the film, Agent 13’s identity remains one of the central secrets that the narrative harbors. Soon after her first mission, it becomes apparent that 13’s existence as a Shadow Agent comes with plenty of exploitation and dehumanizing. The teenage assassin is constantly asked to blindly follow orders and reprimanded for her lack of apathy in the face of human suffering. As such, once she’s momentarily benched—an instance that allows for a rare moment of freedom—she finally finds the opportunity to make choices for herself. Nevertheless, the same predictably invites the anger of her superiors.
By engaging with Haga, Ariel, and their gangs, 13 puts herself in a spotlight that her Agency wants to avoid at all costs. While it isn’t clear exactly how the Agency decides on its missions, it remains evident that morality isn’t the driving motivation behind the organization. Therefore, instead of being horrified by the secrets 13 is uncovering about the inner politics of the city, her superiors take issue with the Agent’s lack of obedience. For the same reason, they send Umbra to terminate the rogue assassin.
As a result, 13 and Jeki wake in a secluded area as Umbra, Troika, and their Handler’s hostages. Although Umbra is expected to kill her ward without any hesitation, the woman can’t help but let her emotions get the better of her, allowing 13 the opportunity to gain the upper hand. Consequently, a fight breaks out wherein the young assassin faces off against three highly trained adversaries. Eventually, after much blood and gore, 13 finds herself pinned down by Umbra. Nonetheless, the woman can’t bring herself to kill the teenager after everything they have been through.
For the same reason, Umbra ends up throwing a knife at her Handler, who, in turn, shoots her dead before bleeding out to his own death. In the end. 13 tries to revive Umbra—only for the older woman to stop her. It remains ambiguous whether she does so due to a lack of desire to continue living or because she knows it’s too late for her body to come back to life. Instead, with her dying breath, Umbra reveals the ever-persistent mystery of 13’s identity. When the teenager was younger, Umbra was sent on a mission to terminate the former’s mother. As such, the older woman laid ruin to 13’s house and delivered her mother to her death.
Afterward, Umbra recruited the young girl, taking her under her wing to be raised as a trained assassin. In order to suppress her traumatic memories, the organization supplied 13 with amnesia-inducing pills that better helped them control the girl and keep her in line. As a side-effect, they also erased her memories of her real name. Once Umbra is at death’s door, she divulges the same secrets to 13 before sharing the girl’s real name with her: Nomi. Shortly after, the older woman dies, leaving Nomi all alone to deal with a burned past and an uncertain future.
Does Agent 13 Die?
In the aftermath of Agent 13’s battles with Ariel and Umbra, the teenager finds herself back in the same city. 13 turns her life upside down to save her friend, Monji’s life. Yet, at the end of the line, she’s left with his body to bury. Despite her grief, 13 pays her respects to the boy by burying him in the same graveyard as his mother, Asti. However, her moment of peace only lasts so long before another adversary attacks her. As it turns out, 13 has only invited further attention from the Shadow organization after surviving Umbra’s attack.
For the same reason, they have sent a new team after her, with Agent 14—another young assassin like Nomi—as their leader. By now, it becomes evident that Nomi has no fight left in her and is ready to embrace her death. Yet, fortune ends up favoring her as one of 14’s subordinates turns on her, killing her entire crew. Consequently, 14 decides to scurry out of the scene, leaving Nomi with her newfound savior, Burai. Burai was Umbra’s mentor, who trained her in the art of killing before disappearing from the Academy.
Earlier, while Umbra was on her mission in Cambodia, she had learned about a group of Shadow defectors who were constantly evading the organization’s hunt after them. As such, it is likely that Umbrai is also one of these people who saw the Shadow organization for what they were and defected in his time. Now that Nomi has also unwittingly become a part of the same group, Burai has decided to help the newly rogue assassin. Thus, Nomi’s story comes to an end as she enters an era of hope after suffering through a lifetime of cruelty.
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