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'Ong Bak' surfs into town on a wave of hype and anticipation generated by leading man Tony Jaa, who was seemingly born suspended on invisible wires mid-round house kick.
Jaa possesses the martial arts skill of his hero Bruce Lee and the chisel-jawed charisma of Brandon. With no wires or digital leg-ups Jaa soars through the air, somersaulting long after gravity should have claimed him, before crunching down on his opponents with perfectly executed Muay Thai moves. Comparisons with Jet Li and Jackie Chan seem inevitable, but this guy is a living, breathing video game character, so small wonder he got started stunt doubling in 'Mortal Kombat: Annihilation'.
But 'Ong Bak' has more to offer than a real-life superhero. Although the postage stamp plot recalls a million kung fu flicks past, the genius is in the telling. Ting (Jaa), a young country boy, journeys to the city to retrieve the head of Ong Bak, the Buddhist statue stolen from his village, and must confront a psychotic crime boss (wheelchair bound and voice-box reliant to boot) who terrorizes the downtrodden. Director and co-writer Pinkaew invests his characters with a vibrant humanity and slyly injects a vein of national pride; Ting, forced to enter an underground fighting competition, works his way through American, Australian, Japanese and Burmese opponents. The morality on display is clear-cut: the warmly-hued village is a good place, the sickly-green, neon soaked Bangkok isn't and profiting from religion is bad, but subtlety is not 'Ong Bak's agenda, just as Bruce Lee, Jet Li and Jackie Chan films rarely muddy the moral waters.
Pinkaew, assisted by choreographers Jaa and Panna Rittikrai, shoots a fight scene with the precision of a grandmaster, moving his camera to capture the power and kineticism of the martial arts sparring, varying speeds to accentuate the physical prowess of a man who is as comfortable fighting mid-flight as he is on terra firma.
As in Bruce Lee's movies the first act teases the audience with brief glimpses of Jaa's ability, before unleashing him in a sustained set piece. Here it is a chase scene (Ting attempts to avoid violence whenever possible) involving Ting, lovable rogue Humlae (Wongkamlao) and the spunky girl Muay (Yodkamol) that places increasingly outlandish obstacles in Ting's path. Watch in awe as he cartwheel between two panes of glass, launch himself through a barbwire hoop, bound over two cars in succession and stepping-stone an escape on his adversaries' heads.
Besides the acrobatics 'Ong Bak' delivers the martial arts goods in spades. Jaa spent four years perfecting the Muay Thai discipline and demonstrates how elbows and knees are deadlier than any number of nunchucks. Through the numerous bouts Ting is forced into, including a showdown in an mountain temple, eye-popping displays of martial arts mixed with WWE style chair and table smashing exhilarate the senses, even as the shattered bones and head trauma occasionally freeze the smile on the face.
Contender Entertainment and Premier Asia have re-scored this release, but any Miramax comparisons end there; the new soundtrack mixes traditional Thai music with a throbbing techno soundtrack, providing a neat emotional complement to the visuals. A sub-plot involving Muay's drug addicted sister has also been pared down, but again not to any noticeable detriment, and the money spent creating a bass-heavy 5.1 sound mix and tidying up the print demonstrate a genuine respect for the film and the genre.
'Ong Bak' is a flashy calling card to be sure, boasting onscreen invitations to Luc Besson and Spielberg via cheekily placed graffiti, but the invention, daring and sheer elation on display announce white-hot new talents in action cinema. A visceral joyride that leaves you bruised, Bak-slapped and buzzing.
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When 'Ong Bak' was released back in 2003, the film was internationally acclaimed for introducing a new action movie messiah in the form of Tony Jaa. This young Thai actor showed a spark that many had thought to be extinct within the action movie hemisphere as he demonstrated an impressive onscreen presence combined with an extraordinary ability in the Martial Arts (not to mention a willingness to suffer a few cuts and bruises for the sake of his art). The huge buzz surrounding Jaa and 'Ong Bak' naturally meant that a follow up film would be on the cards and it wasn't long before 'Tom Yum Goong' came to fruition, but would it live up to all the hype or was 'Ong Bak' a one hit wonder?
Kham (Jaa) and his father live the simple life in the heart of Thailand, raising two beloved elephants who they hope will eventually be offered up as a token of their love for the majesty of Thailand. However, before they are able to fulfil their destiny, the elephants are stolen by an international mafia syndicate who smuggle them out of the country. Kham is furious and decides to follow the gang to their native land of Australia in an effort to bring the missing members of his family home. Once there, Kham finds himself being chased by both sides of the law despite doing nothing wrong and it doesn't help that he has no grasp of the English language. Luckily for him, he manages to beat the information out of members of the gang and it isn't long before he is hot on the trail of his elephants. Now Kham must go head to head with some of the most powerful fighters around in an effort to reunite his family!
As far as the story goes for 'Tom Yum Goong', its highly likely that this outing will suffer slightly more during the translation process than it's predecessor did. This is not to say that it possesses an overly complicated scenario but rather that it relies heavily on the spiritual significance that elephants hold in Thailand, a concept that will undoubtedly be considered outlandish by an often blinkered mainstream Western audience. Unfortunately, this isn't aided by the fact that the plot often fails to go beyond the extremely basic "man searches for elephant" boundaries and is regularly used as nothing more than groundwork for the next fight sequence. That said though, what this film does offer is a lack of typical Western action movie clich?as it maintains its own distinctly Thai roots for points of reference. This gives the film a refreshing approach and style that, although lacking in the slick production values of it's Hollywood counterparts, is attractive in a raw sense and brings back a little of that magic that once dominated Hong Kong cinema in its early stages. What worries me though is that Jaa's films (much like a lot of the kung fu films of the 1970s) have already built up a small following that may never experience the film's distinctively Thai elements as these are the same people that have the tendency to fast forward through all the so-called "boring bits" just to see the action.
Assessing 'Tom Yum Goong' on acting merits is another hefty challenge considering there is very little room for any of it's stars to prove anything beyond their adeptness at on-screen fighting. It is obvious to anyone though that Jaa is a talent who is very capable of holding down a leading role as he employs all the heroic mannerisms where necessary and clearly grasps your attention with ease (although I would say his voice is occasionally weaker than it should be). Alongside him, Wongkamlao pops up once again as the comic relief although quite where his humour lies is often beyond me but it is fair to say that I may be missing out on some superior wordplay thanks to the language barrier. However, he can't really use that excuse too regularly here as he attempts to speak English for the majority of the film (which is sometimes very difficult to understand) and his lines are basic and more often that not unwelcome ones. The western cast however easily win the award for worst performers as their line delivery is truly atrocious, making one wonder whether the casting directors just waited outside the 'Neighbours' studios looking for any possible cast offs that would work for free.
In all honesty though, all of the above can perhaps be considered secondary as a huge majority of people watching this film will approach it with high expectations on the action and little regard for the surrounding cinematic fundamentals. On this basis alone, I'm happy to report that 'Tom Yum Goong' will not fail to entertain and delivers on almost every account. Tony Jaa is once again absolutely outstanding in his displays of physical dexterity and stuntwork, making the fights here invigorating and exhausting to watch. Rittikrai also does him proud by choreographing each sequence with a refreshing originality and inventiveness that has rarely been seen in action cinema throughout recent years. One sequence that perhaps highlights this fact sees Jaa fighting a group of bad guys as he ascends numerous flights of stairs but what makes this standout is that the entire scene is all shot in one single take! This type of action does come at a price though and even though it is amazing to watch, one can't help but feel that a lot of the sequences are centred around showcasing Jaa's obvious talents and often appear transparently staged. In my opinion, viewers need to feel a sense of urgency and danger within these scenes (an element of action cinema that Jackie Chan has down to a fine art) to allow you to become fully immersed in the film and without this, we could just be watching any fighter's showreel.
Let's face it though, no matter what reviewers like myself report on this film it is still going to be a huge success because the action alone makes it standout from the crowd. However, I am happy to say that 'Tom Yum Goong' is definitely a worthy follow up to 'Ong Bak', maintaining it's uniquely Thai flavour and serving up some action that is truly out of this world but just don't expect a storyline to match.
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