# Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash Review: Pulp Romance > Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is Edwin's 1980s-style Indonesian pulp romance about a brawler and a fighter, bold, funny and deliberately rough-edged. Canonical: https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/vengeance-is-mine-all-others-pay-cash-2021-review/ Published: 2026-07-22 Last updated: 2026-09-24 Author: Kaiser Khan — Founder & Editor Language: English Review basis: direct-viewing Spoilers: none Rating: 4/5 ## Verdict Yes. It is a daring, entertaining genre hybrid for viewers who like action, romance and satire in one package, though its episodic second half loses some grip. ## Is Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash worth watching? **Yes. Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is a wild, witty and surprisingly tender Indonesian genre film that uses 1980s pulp action to take apart ideas of masculinity, and it is unlike anything else in the country's recent cinema.** Director Edwin blends fistfights, romance, absurd comedy and real pain, and the retro style is more than decoration. The reservation is structural: after a terrific first half, the story becomes more episodic and its shifts in tone grow harder to follow. ## What is Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash about? In late-1980s Indonesia, Ajo Kawir (Marthino Lio) is a young brawler who picks fights with anyone, anywhere, as if daring the world to test him. Behind the swagger is a secret he is ashamed of: he is impotent, and his violence is a way of proving something he believes he cannot prove otherwise. When a job brings him face to face with Iteung (Ladya Cheryl), a tough, fearless fighter who is his equal in every way, the collision turns into a romance, and his carefully built persona starts to crack. Adapted from Eka Kurniawan's novel, [Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/vengeance-is-mine-all-others-pay-cash-2021/) is an Indonesian film in Indonesian, directed by Edwin and running 114 minutes. [Reza Rahadian](https://celluloidscore.com/stars/southeast-asia/indonesia/reza-rahadian/) appears in the supporting cast. It won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival in 2021, and it carries a 17+ rating in Indonesia and an 18 certificate in the UK. ## A love letter to cheap thrills, with a sting Edwin gives the film the texture of old Indonesian action pictures: grainy film stock, saturated colours, trucks, dusty roads and fights staged with a pleasingly scrappy physicality. It feels like a lost video-shop discovery, but the nostalgia has a purpose. The macho heroes of that era are exactly what the film is interrogating, and the retro style lets Edwin celebrate the genre's pleasures while exposing the fragile ideas of manhood beneath them. The fights themselves are playful and often funny, closer to brawls than to polished choreography, and that suits the story. Ajo Kawir's aggression is a performance, and the film stages it as one. ## Ladya Cheryl steals the show The romance is the film's beating heart, and it works because Iteung is never simply the hero's reward. Ladya Cheryl plays her with a wry, confident physicality, a woman who fights better than most of the men around her and is completely unimpressed by bravado. Her first encounter with Ajo Kawir is one of the most charming meet-cutes in recent Asian cinema, a fight that turns into flirtation without missing a beat. Marthino Lio matches her with a performance that shifts between cocky and wounded, and the film is at its most affecting when the swagger drops away and the shame underneath shows through. The frankness with which the film handles impotence, as both a comic premise and a real source of pain, is one of its boldest qualities. ## Where the pulp loses its grip The film's first half is propulsive and joyful; the second half is looser. As the story widens to take in new characters and darker currents, the episodic structure becomes more noticeable and the film's mix of absurdism, violence and melancholy is harder to balance. Some developments feel compressed, and viewers unfamiliar with the novel may find certain threads, including a more surreal element, puzzling rather than enriching. It remains watchable throughout, but the energy of the opening hour is never quite recaptured. ## Who should watch Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash? It suits adventurous viewers who enjoy genre films with an arthouse sensibility, fans of retro action cinema and anyone interested in Indonesian film beyond horror. It is intended for adults: there is frequent violence, sexual content and nudity, discussion of sexual trauma and strong language. Other Indonesian films to pair it with: - [Ada Apa dengan Cinta?](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/ada-apa-dengan-cinta-2002-review/), the teen romance classic in which Ladya Cheryl first came to wide attention, for a very different kind of Indonesian love story. - [The Raid](https://celluloidscore.com/reviews/the-raid-2011-review/), for Indonesian action at its most intense and technically precise, the polished opposite of this film's scrappy brawls. - Further picks on the [action shelf](https://celluloidscore.com/genres/action/), where it sits among the genre's more playful experiments. ## The verdict Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash is a bold, funny and unexpectedly moving film that turns 1980s pulp into a sharp study of masculinity. A looser second half keeps it from greatness, but its style, humour and two terrific lead performances make it a distinctive and rewarding watch. **Rating: 4/5** ## Related title - [Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (2021)](https://celluloidscore.com/movies/vengeance-is-mine-all-others-pay-cash-2021/) ## Editorial - [Editorial standards](https://celluloidscore.com/about/editorial-policy/) - [Report a correction](https://celluloidscore.com/about/corrections/)