The Protector (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bongkoj Khongmalai, Nathan Jones, Petchtai Wongkamlao, Tony Jaa, Xing JingBrand: Wellspring Media INC
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Thai (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Vietnamese (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 81 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-01-16
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Weinstein Company
Movie Reviews of The Protector (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: Dragon Dynasty's release of The Protector AND Tom Yum Goong
Summary: 5 Stars
Director Prachya Pinkaew, action director Panna Rittikrai, and co-action director/star of the film Tony Jaa set out to make the most amazing stunt and fight filled movie ever and they achieve it. No doubt in some scenes you will just have a confused look on your face from the questionable story but it only leads to more and more fights. The storyline does have a few holes. One of the villians has a signal he can give to call on a gang of rollerbaders, skateboarders, and bike riders that will come to fight for him. It does make for a very fun scene including one stunt that has to be seen to be believed. Unlike 'Ong Bak' they take away most of the comedy and make this a very serious film. Tony Jaa will not win an Oscar but he plays his role very well showing intensity at all times. He also has the fighting skills to back up that mean face that he shows throughout the film.
Tony Jaa plays Cam who grows up in a family that raises the King's royal elephants. At age 10 his family's 2 elephants have a baby and he grows up with the elephant and has great love for it. When the elephants are stolen and transported to Australia, we meet a transexual woman who is looking to steal them for her own evil purposes. This leads to spectacular fight after fight where Cam shows up saying "where are my elephants!". Now I would call this movie bone cracking and what I mean is Cam dislocates over 30 guys limbs in a single scene. So when he fights Nathan Jones who is about 7 foot and 350 pounds of solid muscle and has to fight 3 other guys that are also massive, I mean it when I say it is a bone cracking fight! Tony Jaa's skills are unmatched and the only downside is that his scenes are so physically laboring, we can only hope that he can keep up this incredible style he has for about 10 more years or so. There is real contact about around a hundred times both on stunts and on the good old punches and kicks. Some of the scenes are so amazing you won't be able to help but rewind right after they end like when Cam arrives at a restaurant looking for his elephants. He goes up a long staircase that winds around the whole interior. This is one of the greatest scenes ever filmed as he takes on about 50 guys one by one. He throws them off of the stairs, down the stairs, and throws them into every breakable item possible. The most amazing thing is that you will notice that the action director does not cut this 5 minute action sequence AT ALL. Not once. Could you imagine if somebody messed up just once, even in the middle of it? They would have to reshoot the whole thing. Of course they did have to shoot this scene again and again and it actually took an entire month to complete. The cinematography cannot fully be put into words of how truly great it made this scene. The intricacy of the choreography is mesmerizing. The level that the team of the directors and Tony Jaa are on is a new high. The amount of time and labor put into these scenes cannot be matched by any other action team. The fights are countless and as hard hitting as they can be but just to see actual styles like Thai boxing against capoiera was amazing. It actually was a unique Thai style called Elephant Boxing that they used in a lot of the fights. It is also amazing how Tony Jaa can can convince you he can overcome any style. 'Ong Bak' was great but this far exceeds it. Tony Jaa didn't really have any actual oppenents that could compete with him in 'Ong Bak' except for a guy on steroids. In 'Tom Yum Goong' he has a lot more challenges and more one on one fights. Just imagine 'Ong Bak' times 2, in everything. I can't even imagine how great their next project is going to be. It is a good movie but you will most likely pop it back many more times mainly to see the action. The scenes with the elephant were good(and bad) and it is a good representation of Thai culture, but this is a pure action film and easily one of the best of all time.
While Jaa's movies are somewhat similiar to Jackie Chan's with Jaa playing the Energizer bunny seemingly being able to fight for hours at a time non stop, they both have their own style. Tony Jaa's fight scenes are absolutely on another level. There is about 100 times more action going on which also seperates it from Jackie's greatest modern day films. Jackie Chan has to be very proud there is someone else out there that is worthy enough to replace him. I just bet he wished it could have happened about 5-10 years from now.
This is no doubt rightfully called the ultimate edition by Dragon Dynasty giving us both the US version and the original uncut Thai version-'Tom Yum Goong'. Just like 'Ong Bak', all of the scenes in the town of the people praying for things to get better gets cut out on The 'Protector' disc. Tony Jaa also has a very important prayer scene that gets cut out which actually explains why he shows up at a burning Buddhist temple. This movie is 110 minutes long and they needed to cut it down a little bit, but there is no reason they should have hacked and slashed it up 27 minutes like they did. When I refer to they I am of course referring to the Weinstein Company who has been ruining Asian martial arts movies for years, but now in their first 4 releases from their new company things continue to look extremely promising. You have to give them credit for at least giving us the unct version even though they did their own version('The Protector) which is cut up and has an all new soundtrack. Dragon Dynasty has 4 releases now and actually plans on bringing out a TON of new movies in the next year or two. We martial arts fans may actually get overloaded! Of course we just have to hope that things continue to get better with their releases or that they can at least stay on the same quality they have been so far. If they even come close to their first 4 releases they will be far and away the best martial arts DVD company around. Dragon Dynasty gets my thank you for releasing these movies and there are only 2 other companies where I buy their movies the day they come out without even looking at the title.
Review of the DVDs.
DISC 1-'The Protector'-after watching this in the movie theater(US version) and now after viewing it again I have to say that the movie still does not seem complete. We get absolutely no character development. I actually thought the replacement music by The RZA was pretty good. He shows serious talent in scoring a whole movie. Now after watching this uncut I would NEVER watch this version again. It doesn't even feel like an actual movie when comparing it to the real thing. They cut out most everything that helped it make sense. Cutting out all the dialogue that relates to the villian of the movie being a transexual is fine but there is still no need. If you only saw this in theaters like me you will have noticed how she doesn't look quite like a normal woman though she still does pull it off well. They even cut out brief parts of fights! So anyway, this is obviously not the version to watch.
Special features-commentary with Hong Kong film expert Bey Logan. This is of course a Thai movie but he does show he still knows his stuff and did his homework in preperation for this commentary. He rattles off a thorough list of names that he is known for doing of every actor in the movie. Many good facts are given.
The special features are truly as good as they get. Included is a deleted fight scene that would have gone towards the beginning of the movie.
A making of fittingly titled 'No Wires Attached' with Hong Kong film expert Bey Logan and Wu Tang Clan's The Rza talking about this Thai action style and the people behind it and good interviews with them also. Tony Jaa talks a lot about his experiences on the film.
'Making Tony Jaa' is a 7 minute featurette with the director(s) and star talking about Jaa loving action movies as a kid and how he became a star. They talk a lot about how they wanted his style to be unique and really standout. I never knew he was never a real martial arist and that he only learned movie techniques.
'The Director's Guided Tour: The Stairwell Scene'- 35 minutes of exactly what the title says with the director discussing the different takes of the scene and we get to watch them all! I have to say that this is the most difficult extended action sequence I have ever seen bar none. One can only imagine how much time, skill, and energy was put into it and into the entire movie as a whole. You would think once would be hard but they had to do this scene 5 times!
4 short promotional type of martial arts demos with Tony Jaa that I have never seen before.
Then there is a weird comic book type music video.
DISC 2-'Tom Yum Goong-ahhh', the way it is supposed to be. Thank you for releasing this movie in its entirety Dragon Dynasty. Having it widescreened with great sound and picture quality in it's original language and soundtrack is nice too.
Special features-'The making of Tom Yum Goong'. 56 minutes long and the greatest special feature I can imagine. It is a comfortable sit down interview with the director, action director, and star of the movie discussing all the fight scenes and important fighters and other stuff while they and we also are watching behind the scenes footage. Even with padding you can see the stuntmen hurt after the scene cuts many times. This is what a bonus feature is supposed to be. Extremely informative.
3 short films by amateur martial arts directors that obviously won some kind of contest to have their movies features on this DVD. 'F-train' is 3 minutes long and while not great, it is unique because of the fact it is on a moving subway train which would be exremely difficult to do and is illegal to shoot in the first place. 'Lasershot' is 6 minutes and is a good swordfight with some good dialogue in it. The ending will certainly leave you smiling. 'Prison Warz' is 8 minutes and by far the best. Awesome trick kicks and amazing stuff being pulled off. By far the best camera work also. A superb short film and a few people to seriously look out for.
Well that is the best special edition martial arts DVD I have ever viewed.
Summary of The Protector (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Studio: Genius Products Inc Release Date: 01/22/2008 Run time: 83 minutes Rating: RSimilar DVD Movies
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