My first Thai movie, and I’m impressed.
Movie: Ong Bak- Muay thai Warrior
Genre : martial arts
Rating : worth a watch
The movie has a simple plot. Antique collectors (bad guys) come to a remote village and steal the head of an idol of a revered god (ong-bak) and the village orphan (good guy, raised and trained in the deadly martial arts by a priest) goes to bangkok to bring it back home.
The plot is pretty good for an action thriller, what the movie lacks is a script-writer. Itty-bitty scraps of a story cling to this skeletal plot with the rest of the form made-up of some spectacular martial arts sequences.
The lead, tony jaa (apparently an up and coming actor on the thai circuit), is a talented martial arts exponent. The style of the action is fast and very reminiscent of the old hongkong films (kung-fu of the bruce lee and jackie chan kind). the kind of cinema that existed before computer effects, wire tricks and jet li came and spoilt everything. This movie is one of the old generation, and the stunts are doubly spectacular because you realize that there is no gimmick here.
The characters and situations are pretty cliche’d, though. A cold-blooded crime lord, his coke-snorting honcho, several kick-boxing thugs and a girl who seems quite lost in the story. my favourite part of the film was a high-speed chase sequence featuring auto-rickshaws (called ’tuk-tuks’ in thailand). These three wheeled monsters seem to be much faster than their tottering indian counterparts and are an absolute treat to watch as they rip, skid, crash and fly off bridges.
Ong-bak could easily be remade into successful tamil(or telugu or kannada) movie (I suspect it will). It’s got almost every ingredient of that perfect formula, except some dance sequences, a (not) funny side-kick and a lot of dramatic slow-motion (thunder and lightning optional) whenever the lead character appears on-scene.
Basically, if you dig martial arts flicks and stared open-mouthed through classics like ’’enter the dragon’’ and ’’drunken master’’, if you’re sick of action heroes getting all teary-eyed and sentimental, ong-bak is the two hours of kick-ass hardcore action you need.