The spirit of Ong Bak is alive and well in the latest from Producer, director and fight choreographer Panna Rittikrai and Chocolate star Jiji Yanin…

Drunk, depressed, dumped by her band and cheated on by her boyfriend, Deu (Jija Yanin, Chocolate) narrowly misses a much worse fate – becoming the latest victim of a gang who are kidnapping women from all over the city – when a stranger called Sanim (Kazu Patrick Tang) rescues her from their clutches.

Sanim is part of an offbeat group, who with the charmingly named Pig Shit (Nui Sandang), Dog Shit (Somphong Leartvimolkasame) and Bull Shit (Boonprasert Salangam) practice Meyraiyuth – a unique martial art that puts the ‘break’ in break dancing, combining Muay Thai with drunken boxing and hip hop dancing.

With nothing left to lose Deu trains under Sanim intent on helping them bring down the Jaguar Gang, who extract their hostages pheromones in order to sell them as an aphrodisiac on the black market. (As if slavery, prostitution, rape and murder wouldn’t be bad enough?)

Deu helps the gang infiltrate their underground lair, but brings them head on with the thugs boss, a fearsome she-boss (played by award-winning bodybuilder Roongtawan Jindasing) who is more than a match for Deu and all her friends.

Jija’s follow-up to Chocolate is an equally enjoyable martial arts effort that puts the emphasis on fun and great fight sequences, as well as creating likable characters – if not so much believable situations… (well what did you expect?)

Right from the start there is some exceptional fight choregraphy by Weerapon Phumatfon and overseen by Panna Rittikrai (Ong Bak, Born To Fight, Tom Yum Goong), from a gang on jumping stilts customised with blades to the more amusing scenes with the teams drunken B Boy antics. True, this may follow the Thai kung fu film flaw of continually looking for the next big gimmick, but here the combination of styles is surprisingly fluid and believable, and held together with such acrobatic gusto to electrify the screen with it’s energy.

Unsurprisingly Raging Phoenix owes a great debt to Drunken Master (also referenced in Ong Bag: The Beginning), the collaboration between Jackie Chan and Yuen Woo-ping, and much of their work into the 1980s. Like their work the choreography can arguably be described as overly designed, full of convenient props and setups, yet is a real pleasure to watch on screen. Director Rashane Limtrakul doesn’t over rely on fast cuts that distract you from the incredible stunt work. In fact, this is a glossy, good-looking film throughout.

Oddly Chan’s hit and miss effort Armour Of God comes to mind (which I actually always rather liked!). Firstly in the lair of the Jaguar Gang, bizarrely ancient looking ruins deep below the city. However, it’s more to do with the occasional dubious and disappointing body doubling of Roongtawan – it reminds you of that sequence where Chan faces the four female bodyguards. Okay, so it’s not quite as obvious or embarrassing, but sometimes that sure ain’t no lady, even if she is a bodybuilder!

All of which makes the concluding fight a little disappointing when we were looking forward to some, ahem, girl-on girl-action? Indeed, like a lot of martial arts films it seems to run out of steam towards the end anyway; the fight scenes seem less inspired and fun, though there’s still some great choreography to be had – particularly over series of rope ladders conveniently placed over a bottomless shaft.

But even if the end doesn’t quite pull off the conclusion we were looking for, this is an impressive successor to Chocolate. For one thing, thanks to director Rashane Limtrakul’s investment in creating characters you care for, it proves that the oft-referred to ‘female Tony Jaa’ has the potential to actually be a much better actor than her male peer. It also proves that this time the producers aren’t going to get distracted with giant Buddha statues or elephants (let alone their leads egos!) and keep her on the straight and narrow (and definitely not going native in a jungle!). My only complaint: with all the other protagonists involved on the ‘good side’, this doesn’t show off Jija to the best of her abilities.

Here’s to our new martial arts star Jija Yanin – looks like it’s going to be a long and very promising career!

Raging Phoenix is released on DVD and and Blu-ray by Cine Asia on 12 March.

DVD details

Distributor: Cine Asia (UK)

Nice sharp transfer, full of solid, saturated images, and good sound. The DVD also comes with a good selection of bonus material including an extensive interview gallery and some great B-Roll footage.

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This entry was published by Andy H on Friday, April 9th, 2010 at 10:00 am and is filed under Action / Thrillers, Films, Martial arts, Reviews, Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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