Ong-Bak
Submitted by MICKEY MAO on Sat, 2005-01-01 08:00.
Holy shit. After watching Ong-Bak, it's tempting to exhaust a thesaurus of every superlative possible to describe its action sequences. In this age of cabled-up, CGI-enhanced action flicks, it's refreshing to watch newcomer Tony Jaa wirelessly ignite the screen. The incredibly athletic young star would easily give Jackie Chan and Jet Li a run for their money. Granted, the two superstars are arguably past their prime, but yes, Jaa is that good. Too good, perhaps, for a career confined to his native Thailand. Ong-Bak follows the adventures of nice-guy Ting (Jaa) who leaves his rural home in search of a stolen treasure, the head of his village's sacred Buddha, "Ong-Bak." Once he gets to the city, he gets caught up in a sleazy underworld of illicit drugs, stolen artifacts, and (oh yes) underground fighting. To recover the severed head, Ting seeks out George (Petchtai Wongkamlao), a small-time scam artist who used to live in the same village. Ting had promised his master not to fight. Yeah, right: what's a boy to do when a whole village is counting on him? So, boy loses head, boy goes to big city, boy kicks ass repeatedly...you know the rest, nothing too groundbreaking.
Ong-Bak is a showcase for Jaa's devastating Muay Thai skills. The action is exciting and violent, with lots of crashing furniture, jumping over moving vehicles, and even a crazy tuk-tuk (Thai three-wheeled public transportation similar to the Filipino "tricycle") chase sequence. The soundtrack of cheap techno is negligible when shit's going down on-screen. As an actor, Jaa is nothing to write home about, but he's the best at opening the proverbial can of whoop-ass in a long, long time. The film contains many slo-mo instant replays--usually a cheesy cinematic device. But Jaa is so amazing on screen, first-time writer/director Prachya Pinkaew can be forgiven--no need for viewer double takes. Could Jaa be the Thai Bruce Lee? We'll see...
Augmenting the DVD are a DTS mix, "Tony Jaa in Hong Kong," interviews with Jaa and Pinkaew, a Muay Thai demonstration, photo gallery, trailer and TV spot, and cast/crew filmographies. Note that before some wise American company picks up this film's rights (possibly via Luc Besson, who revised it for France), you're stuck with watching it on this region 3 DVD. You'll need one of those "special" DVD players, but it's very much worth it if you're a fan of the action genre. login to post comments
