Gareth Huw Evans, Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian are doing what good buddies do: bantering with each other and chuckling at their own jokes.
But what they do is no laughing matter: The Raid: Redemption, directed by Evans and starring Iko and Yayan, is the latest Asian movie sensation to hit North America and Europe. The fast-paced, action-packed thriller - which revolves around the unrelenting fight between an elite Swat team and the violent underlings of a ruthless drug lord in a run-down Jakarta building - won awards in the Toronto and Dublin film festivals, knocked out movie critics, and became a smash hit in the US when it opened in March. It is set to open in Hong Kong on Thursday.
Much of the praise has gone to the intense combat scenes, which feature pencak silat, the indigenous martial arts of Indonesia, and were meticulously choreographed by pencak silat masters Iko and Yayan, and the British-born director.
True, Asian action movies have long enjoyed a strong following in the West. But The Raid is unique in that it's the brainchild of a Welshman. Even Evans admits it wasn't something he had ever dreamed of. 'People from Wales don't tend to make martial arts movies. I never thought of it as part of my future.'
The actors were equally surprised by their cinematic success. 'It's a gift from God,' says the soft-spoken Yayan, 42, who plays sadistic henchman Mad Dog in The Raid. Iko, 29, who worked as a driver of a telecom company before he starred in Evans' films, concurs: 'I never dreamed I'd become an actor. Having been an athlete, I didn't have any experience in front or behind the camera. I also think this is a gift from God, and I thank my parents for their prayers.'
The director, too, partly owed his career to his father, who introduced him to action flicks and, thus, Asian martial arts. 'I grew up watching Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li movies,' the 32-year-old says. 'Every weekend, my dad would rent different videos from video shops. Almost all of them were martial arts movies.'