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…
Ong-Bak is a full on return to the good old days of kung fu movies, when stars couldn’t rely on CGI and plot was there only as a way of getting from one set piece to another. Little more than a showcase for the talent of stuntman turned star Tony Jaa, that it’s had such an impact proves just how accustomed we become to the use of CGI effects.
We’re so unused to seeing such feats done for real - it seems like in Hollywood they can’t even choreograph a handstand without substituting a digitised version of the actor - that when we do we just can’t believe it!
When the head of an ancient Buddha statue called Ong-Bak is stolen village temple, Ting (Tony Jaa) is given the task of getting it back before draught and bad luck befalls the village. (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, anyone?) In the big city Ting contacts cousin Humlae (Perttary Wongkamlao), now calling himself George, to help him find the head (though initially George is far more of a hindrance than anything else). Soon Ting is pulled into an underworld of fight clubs, drug barons and gangsters, but will bring him any closer to finding Ong-Bak in time?
Director Prachya Pinkaew shows no qualms filling Ong-Bak’s simple plotline with every cliché in the book. A chase down Bangkok’s backstreets seems straight out of a 70s caper movie, where amongst the obstacles our hero faces like rows of sharp garden implements and rolls of barbed wire, there is, of course, the obligatory pane of glass. The fabulous Tuk Tuk scene manages to invert that bastion of Hollywood action movies of the 70s and 80s, the car chase, to those ridiculous three-wheeled vehicles, and gets away with it! Mounting up a toll of wrecks that would make the Blues Brothers jealous.
Pinkaew seems to be deliberately laying down the gauntlet to Hollywood, with provocative slogans like “Hi Luc Besson we are waiting for you” and “Hi Spielberg, let’s do it together” to be spotted by the eagle-eyed in graffiti. Yet rather incongruously the subtext to the story seems particularly anti the West. The gangsters rob and deface scared artefacts from innocent villages, bringing corruption in the form of drugs, gangs and prostitution to the modernised, Westernised big city of Bangkok. The film warns of the dangers of leaving behind tradition and religion in order just to make a quick buck.
Ong-Bak is such a wholehearted homage to the old kung fu movies that it’s hard not to like it. It’s well filmed, greatly helped by experienced cinematographer Nattawut Kittikhun who has worked on nearly every big movie to come out of Thailand recently, including Tears of the Black Tiger, Jan Dama and “The Wheel” segment in Three. Yet it still resonates with the innocence of that bygone era, the films of Bruce Lee or the 80s films by Jackie Chan, as well as their energy. (It’s worth remembering that Bruce Lee’s movies were themselves, well shot for the time.) Each big stunt, and there are many, is shown repeatedly from different angles, again and again.
Like Jackie Chan, lead Tony Jaa (formerly Panom Yeerum) cut his teeth in film working as a stuntman, working on films such as Mortal Kombat: Annilation. Jaa’s abilities do not pale in comparison. He has the daring of Chan, the almost balletic physicality of Yuen Biao, the looks of Jason Scott Lee, and the screen presence of Bruce Lee. And despite Chan being one of Jaa’s early inspirations, it’s unsurprisingly Bruce Lee who he would most like to follow in the footsteps of. Whether Jaa has the acting ability to pull it off remains to be seen, here director Pinkaew never stretches him too far. It’s all about the stunts, and though Jaa performs nothing as reckless as Chan in the mid-80s, it’s still a fantastic spectacle.
After watching such activity you might well leave your cinema seat wanting to dive under cars doing the splits or jump over garden impliments – but best leave it to a professional, eh?
The martial arts movie of the year, and a must for anyone sick of CGI - go see it!
(Note: the UK release features a brand new musical score created by it’s distribution company, Premier Asia/Contender Group)
DVD details
Distributor: Premier Asia (UK)
From September 19 the UK sees the release of Ong-Bak, complete with Contender's new musical score written for the theatrical distribution.
This very special DVD also includes:
The Road To Glory Making Of Featurette
The Art Of Muay Thai Documentary
From Dust To Glory Interview With Tony Jaa
Ong Bak On Tour Promo
Deleted Scenes
Alternate Ending
Visible Secret
The Bodyguard Interview With Don Ferguson
Mad Dog Interview With David Ismalone
Pearl Harbour Interview With Erik Markus Sheutz
UK Promotional Trailer
