After the rather dark and overly serious Ong Bak 2 (sorry, Ong Bak: The Beginning for UK readers), the proper sequel is on the horizon – slated for release in Asia in April 2010.
As previously mentioned, Ong Bak: The Beginning is now available on DVD and Blu-ray in the UK.
This impressive debut by the Pang brothers is a heady mix of dazzling imagery and a violent tale of love, betrayal and redemption… (more…)
How terrible does this look? The Pang Brothers get to remake their classic original success – with Nicholas Cage in the lead? Oh, and is it just me, or have they remade John Woo’s The Killer by accident?
Let’s hope their sequel to The Storm Riders, Storm Warriors, delivers…
Bangkok Dangerous gets released in the US on 5 September after being ‘tried out’ in Europe for a bit.
You couldn’t make it up! The bizarre true story of the man who became Thailand’s most famous kick-boxer to pay for an operation to become a woman… (more…)
As the UK gears up for the release of Chocolate, Showbox / Cine-Asia have released a new clip where the filmmakers pay affectionate tribute to the icehouse scene in Bruce Lee’s The Big Boss. The film will make its official London theatrical debut on 24th October, before being launched on DVD and Blu-Ray on 3rd November.
At last! After the increasing interest in Thai action film Chocolate, starring martial arts star in the making JeeJa Yanin, is on limited release in London today at the ICA Cinema, ahead of the DVD and Blu-ray release on Monday 3 November. You can see details of the screenings and book here.
The UK release for Ong-Bak director Prachya Pinkaew’s latest have finally been officially announced. Following a couple of festival engagements during the next few weeks, the film will make its official London theatrical debut on 24th October, before being launched on DVD and Blu-Ray on 3rd November.
Chocolate introduces the latest female Muay Thai sensation, JeeJa Yanin, and is a non-stop martial arts action extravaganza about a young girl whose uncanny ability to mimic the combat skills of her heroes Tony Jaa, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee has made her an unlikely but awesome fighting force.
Director Prachya Pinkaew brings us a whole new female fighting sensation in the making, JeeJa Yanin, but is it another Ong-Bak or an overly earnest disappointment like Warrior King? (more…)
Wisit Sasanatieng’s long awaited follow up to Tears of the Black Tiger is a charmingly naïve and beautiful fairytale for adults – think Amelie with smoking teddy bears and zombie taxi drivers… (more…)
Yep, just a couple of weeks to go till Tony Jaa’s big comeback (at least from his near breakdown making this movie!) hits UK cinemas courtesy of Revolver Entertainment (16 October). Have the now almost legendary shooting and production problems been worth it? Well, here’s the UK trailer, see what you think…
We’ll be bringing you a full review of the film soon!
Dodgeball meets Rollerball in this violent bloodsport flick, but before you go thinking we’re back to the excesses of 80s martial arts films, think again… (more…)
Some nice ‘accidental death’ set-ups, Omen/Final Destination style, but this is one horror that won’t keep you awake at night… (more…)
Mark Duffield, director of Ghost Of Mae Nak, talks to easternKicks about how he came to be a British director on a Thai produced horror film, and what inspired him to make it… (more…)
Ong-Bak 2, recently released in Thailand, has been getting some mixed reactions both in Thailand and around the world. Wise Kwai reports on the Thai reaction to the film, while Twitch have posted quite a negative review for the film. A tortuous production that so nearly came to a premature end, it has to be said the official trailer does little for the film.
An historical drama (yes, another one!) it has little if anything to do with the original film, and though the stunts look impressive, they’re nothing on those in the original film that made us fall for Tony Jaa in the first place.
The film is out in Thailand now, opens in Hong Kong on 1 January with Singapore coming a week later – as for the rest of the world we’ll just have to wait and see…
Twitch has also posted a review of the Ghost In The Shell 2.o revamp, a completely remade version of the original film. (Why, I hear you ask…?) And Beyond Hollywood have a review of the recently release Director’s Cut version of Donnie Yen vehicle Painted Skin.
After leaving the set of Ong-Bak 2 in what appeared to be something of a meltdown, then appearing in tears on national Thai television, Tony Jaa has finally returned to complete the film. His mentor action choreographer Panna Rittikrai will be taking over direction duties from him. Read more about Tony Jaa’s return on Wise Kwai’s Thai Film Journal »
The 65th Venice International Film Festival is now well under way and runs until 6 September. New Asian films in competiton include: Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo On The Cliff, which you can see pictures of and read more about it here at Twitch; Takeshi Kitano’s Achilles and the Tortoise; and Yu Lik-wai’s Plastic City, which you can read more about on MonkeyPeaches.
Meanwhile, Wu-jing.org reports that the latest collaboration between actor/action choreographer Donnie Yen and director Wilson Yip, Ip Man, has been completed.
Martial art supremo Tony Jaa’s Ong Bak: The Beginning (aka Ong Bak 2) comes to DVD and Blu-ray today. This troubled production is much darker in tone to Jaa’s previous efforts, and despite some standout fight scenes its inconclusive ending now makes it seem like of a prologue to the upcoming release of Ong Bak 3 (to be called Ong Bak what???? in the UK?)…
…there are some great fight scenes though, particularly in the 20 minute-odd end sequence!
According to Launching Films Ong Bak 2, to be retitled Ong Bak: The Beginning (though that makes as much sense as calling it Ong Bak in the first place!) is going to be released in the UK on 16 October by Revolver Entertainment. Bizarrely, that’s the same day Park Chan-wook’s vampire flick Thirst is released by Metrodome, which won the Jury prize at Cannes and stars the brilliant Song Kang-ho (who also appeared in Chan-wook’s JSA, Sympathy For Mr Vengeance and Lady Vengeance). Hmmm, someone thought that through, didn’t they?
Studio Ghibli’s latest, however, Ponyo On The Cliff, directed by the Oscar-winning Hayao Miyazaki, however, still doesn’t have a UK release date, even though Walt Disney are releasing it in the US on 14 August…
A full blown strike to the cranium of Hollywood, Tony Jaa steps up as the successor to Bruce Lee’s crown in a real old school knockabout kung fu movie that doesn’t rely on CGI or wirework… (more…)
The Pang Brothers reunite with the star of The Eye for another imaginative horror… (more…)
Unsettling and genuinely scary, the Pang brothers follow-up to Bangkok Dangerous is no pale Sixth Sense imitation… (more…)
The Pang Brothers do it again with a worthy scary follow-up to their acclaimed horror The Eye, starring the Gorgeous Shu Qi… (more…)
The curse of seeing dead people? The curse of the sequels more like!… (more…)
Solid horror anthology with three very different takes on life after death from three different Asian countries and directors… (more…)
Director Prachya Pinkaew and stars Tony Jaa and Phetthai Wongkhamlao reunite for what is effectively a slicker remake of Ong-Bak, but a lot less fun… (more…)
