Ong-Bak - The Thai Warrior
by Prachya Pinkaew
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Chumphorn Thepphithak, Petchtai Wongkamlao, Pumwaree Yodkamol, Suchao Pongwilai, Tony JaaDirector: Prachya Pinkaew
Brand: TCFHE
Producer: Prachya Pinkaew
Writer: Prachya Pinkaew
Producer: Darin Vosbein
Producer: Luc Besson
Producer: Mehdi Sayah
Writer: Panna Rittikrai
Writer: Suphachai Sittiaumponpan
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-30
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Movie Reviews of Ong-Bak - The Thai Warrior
Movie Review: Just sit back and watch what Tony Jaa does in this movie
Summary: 5 Stars
"Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior" combines old school filmmaking techniques and really old school martial arts. The tagline for this film gleefully announces: "No stunt doubles. No computer graphics. No stings attached." Yes, they are doing astounding and beautiful things with wire work in movies like "House of Flying Daggers," and there would be no "Lord of the Rings" without massive amounts of CGI, but there is something to be said for watching a young man race through along the large branches of a giant tree or doing all of the things that Tony Jaa does in this 2003 film from Thailand and director Prachya Pinkaew that has finally come out on DVD here (being a stunt man is a honorable professional, that should be recognized by the Academy Awards, but the fact that some movies use stunt men is taken for granted in contemporary film making).
To be clear, Ong-Bak is not the name of the Thai Warrior. Ong-Bak is the name of the Buddha in the Thai village where Ting (Jaa), the Thai Warrior, lives. At the start of the film Ting has been taught all there is to know about the Muay Thai martial arts, after which his teacher kindly asks him never to use them to fight. But then a bad guy named Don (Wannakit Siriput), unable to swindle a local out of a cultural artifact, makes his anger known by chopping off and stealing the head of Ong-Bak. Ting is sent to fetch it back, and since he is willing to die to bring back the Buddha's head, using his Muay Thai skills is hardly going to be a problem.
When he arrives in Bangkok he finds Humlae/(Petchthai Wongkamlao), who left the simple life of the village long ago to become a petty criminal named George in the big bad city. Ting brings Humlae a letter from his father, and we get the idea that there is more to George than being the comic relief sidekick for the Thai Warrior. George has his own sidekick with Muay Lek (Punwaree Yodkamol), a young woman who says as much in any given scene as escapes Ting's lips in the entire movie. Getting Humlae to help find Don and therefore find Ong-Bak's head becomes Ting's immediate hurdle, and leads Ting to a local fight club where he shows what a Muay Thai master can do against all comers. There we meet the real bad guy of the film, the local Godfather Khom Tuan (Sukhaaw Phongwilai), who makes smokes through the hole in his throat and holds up an electronic device to make himself heard. He keeps making the mistake of betting against Ting, and he does not take his loses lightly.
For most of the film the narrative simply seems like a reason not to have wall-to-wall action sequences, which are certainly the high points of the film. What makes the fighting look different is the really old school martial arts of Muay Thai, which thinks that driving you thigh or your forearm through the head of your opponent is a good thing. The comparisons to Bruce Lee has to do not so much with the particular fighting style but the fact Jaa is out there doing this all on his own. But Jaa is also like Jackie Chan in that he does acrobatic stunts that have nothing to do with fighting. The first time when we see Ting and he is racing along the branches of the tree is as impressive as anything else in the film, although the boxing choreography does stand out the most.
The photography of the film is decidedly dark, as if every interior and night scene was lit by candles (maybe they were), but you get used to that after a while. The action sequences are immensely entertaining, which is what you want in a martial arts film, regardless of how they do the stunts. Still, knowing that Jaa is just out there doing all of this stuff on his own is a large part of the fun and even if you consume martial arts films in mass quantities, this one should still be unlike anything you have seen before (it obviously was for me). However, I ended up rounding up on this one in the end because I liked the way the film did not back off from the resolution of the Humlae subplot. Plus the graphic way the film indicates it is not good to cut the head off of a Buddha.
Summary of Ong-Bak - The Thai Warrior
When the head of his village's sacred Buddha statue is stolen, simple country boy Ting (Tony Jaa) is sent to Bangkok to retrieve it. Raised by a monk who has trained him in Muay Thai, Ting has vowed to never use his lethal martial arts skills. But once he arrives in the big city, Ting is forced to fight. It's non-stop action as Ting infiltrates Bangkok's seedy underworld and takes on a series of lowlifes and criminals in his quest to obtain the sacred head.No computer graphic can ever surpass what a real human body can do--and what the body can do is on spectacular display in Ong-Bak, a Thai action movie starring the lithe and flexible Tony Jaa. When the head is stolen from a holy statue in Jaa's rural village, he goes to Bangkok to get it back. Of course, it just so happens that the thief is connected to a bar where criminal big shots gamble over bare-knuckle brawls, and Jaa is--despite his virtuous efforts--drawn into the game. But that's only the beginning; a chase through the city streets rivals the ingenious acrobatics of Jackie Chan, with Jaa leaping between panes of glass, over a bicycle in motion, and through a wreath of barbed wire. Jaa's fighting prowess has been compared to Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and just about every other martial arts master, but he has an equal degree of charisma as well. He won't win acting awards, but his engaging presence carries the movie. One word of warning: The numerous fights will make you wince as much as gape in astonishment. Ong-Bak follows the action-flick tradition that the hero needs to be as battered as possible before he ultimately triumphs, and the battering is intense. --Bret Fetzer
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