04/25/06 Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior (2003), directed by Prachya Pinkaew

watched solo; DVD (borrowed from Jason) @ home

Beginning with what could be one of the craziest and transfixing scenes in film, you know from the get-go that this action film was special. Set in a small Thai village, in what appears to be a local virility custom, men covered in mud race to scale a huge tree, wrestle each other off, push opponents down plummeting to earth, and be the first to retrieve a flag to bring back to the crowd watching. It's an insane scene, and shows tons of motions that are obviously done with no special effects. That theme of action and grace is captured throughout this a-typical "martial arts film." Lead character Ting (soon to be star Tony Jaa) wins the competition, as he has been trained in the ancient Muay Thai technique of martial arts. Upon thievery of his village's sacred Ong Bak statue, Ting volunteers himself to be the town's savior in bringing it back home. He then heads to the big and corrupt city of Bangkok in order to find the bad guys and save his village from misfortune. Along the way he meets a long lost loser cousin, who at first wants nothing to do with his old village...yet soon realizes the importance of helping. With his fighting prowess, Ting becomes sucked into a world of a gambling fight club and the local ganglord that runs it. It is soon revealed that the gang has a horde of collected ancient relics, and only Ting can save the day. With all the evil henchmen that are thrown his way, he gracefully destroys all of them. The choreography of the chase & fight scenes are awesome. It's what Jackie Chan tries to do, but without all the slapstick. There is enough subtle comic relief thrown in by the cousin character, but Tony Jaa's action is brilliant. Perfect example...while being chased by about 20 dudes with weapons down busy city market street, and heavy vehicular traffic, Jaa deftly slides via doing a split underneath a moving SUV without a scrape to elude the henchmen. Eat that Chan. A modern day Bruce Lee if you will.

5 out of 5 stars