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MOVIE REVIEW | 'ONG-BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR'
A Hero Whose W.M.D.'s Are Knees and Elbows
By A. O. SCOTT
movies2.nytimes.com/2005/02/...1ong.html
Ting (Tony Jaa) is a simple country boy who happens to have been well trained in Muay Thai, a martial art also known as Nine Body Weapons - though the principal weapons seem to be elbows and knees. Upon completing his apprenticeship, Ting promises his teacher that he will never use his deadly skills, a pledge that holds for about the first 10 minutes of "Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior," a lively, bone-crunching action movie from Thailand.
After a drug dealer named Don steals the head of the village Buddha (a crime that recalls Bart's desecration of the statue of Jebediah Springfield in a classic episode of "The Simpsons"), Ting sets off for Bangkok to bring it back. Once there, he runs into George (Petchthai Wongkamlao), a fellow villager who has succumbed to the dissolution of the big city, dying his hair blond and scratching out a living as a gambler and petty grifter. George may be dishonest, but he has a good heart, evident in his protective, big-brotherly relationship with a tomboyish street urchin named Muay (Pumwaree Yodkamol).
With George and Muay as sidekicks - forgive the pun - Ting confronts various bad guys and their minions in a series of hand-to-hand (and elbow-to-head and foot-to-neck) set pieces that are the picture's real reason for being. The director, Prachya Pinkaew, is an eager choreographer of mayhem and a connoisseur of the venerable traditions of martial-arts filmmaking. He is something of a purist, filming his fight sequences without the aid of wires, computer-generated imagery or digital tweaking. (And sometimes, unfortunately, without very much light.) Often, Mr. Pinkaew seems so proud of a particular leap or blow that he will show it three or four times in instant replay, like a Super Bowl broadcast producer savoring a touchdown pass.
And fans of this genre will find much to appreciate in "Ong-Bak," a symphony of flying limbs, breaking bones and elaborately staged chases and confrontations. An early broken-field pursuit on foot through the crowded alleys of Bangkok has a slapstick kineticism that honors both the early work of Jackie Chan and the even earlier silent two-reelers that Mack Sennett used to make. A later chase involving three-wheeled, brightly colored, low-horsepower taxicabs reminded me of the tippy, rickety old cars that used to spin across the cobblestones and disgorge Keystone Kops.
Not all of the action is so innocent or imaginative. There are some bloody fights in an underground boxing club, in one of which Ting must fend off a demented, refrigerator-throwing Australian. But Ting is one tough Buddhist, and the assorted lowlifes of the Bangkok underworld are no match for him. Mr. Jaa, blessed with astonishing muscle definition and a stoical, sensitive face, clearly has the potential to be an international action movie star, and "Ong-Bak" feels like the start of a scrappy, potent franchise.
"Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has violence and profanity.
source:
movies2.nytimes.com/2005/02/...1ong.html
A Hero Whose W.M.D.'s Are Knees and Elbows
By A. O. SCOTT
movies2.nytimes.com/2005/02/...1ong.html
Ting (Tony Jaa) is a simple country boy who happens to have been well trained in Muay Thai, a martial art also known as Nine Body Weapons - though the principal weapons seem to be elbows and knees. Upon completing his apprenticeship, Ting promises his teacher that he will never use his deadly skills, a pledge that holds for about the first 10 minutes of "Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior," a lively, bone-crunching action movie from Thailand.
After a drug dealer named Don steals the head of the village Buddha (a crime that recalls Bart's desecration of the statue of Jebediah Springfield in a classic episode of "The Simpsons"), Ting sets off for Bangkok to bring it back. Once there, he runs into George (Petchthai Wongkamlao), a fellow villager who has succumbed to the dissolution of the big city, dying his hair blond and scratching out a living as a gambler and petty grifter. George may be dishonest, but he has a good heart, evident in his protective, big-brotherly relationship with a tomboyish street urchin named Muay (Pumwaree Yodkamol).
With George and Muay as sidekicks - forgive the pun - Ting confronts various bad guys and their minions in a series of hand-to-hand (and elbow-to-head and foot-to-neck) set pieces that are the picture's real reason for being. The director, Prachya Pinkaew, is an eager choreographer of mayhem and a connoisseur of the venerable traditions of martial-arts filmmaking. He is something of a purist, filming his fight sequences without the aid of wires, computer-generated imagery or digital tweaking. (And sometimes, unfortunately, without very much light.) Often, Mr. Pinkaew seems so proud of a particular leap or blow that he will show it three or four times in instant replay, like a Super Bowl broadcast producer savoring a touchdown pass.
And fans of this genre will find much to appreciate in "Ong-Bak," a symphony of flying limbs, breaking bones and elaborately staged chases and confrontations. An early broken-field pursuit on foot through the crowded alleys of Bangkok has a slapstick kineticism that honors both the early work of Jackie Chan and the even earlier silent two-reelers that Mack Sennett used to make. A later chase involving three-wheeled, brightly colored, low-horsepower taxicabs reminded me of the tippy, rickety old cars that used to spin across the cobblestones and disgorge Keystone Kops.
Not all of the action is so innocent or imaginative. There are some bloody fights in an underground boxing club, in one of which Ting must fend off a demented, refrigerator-throwing Australian. But Ting is one tough Buddhist, and the assorted lowlifes of the Bangkok underworld are no match for him. Mr. Jaa, blessed with astonishing muscle definition and a stoical, sensitive face, clearly has the potential to be an international action movie star, and "Ong-Bak" feels like the start of a scrappy, potent franchise.
"Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior" is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). It has violence and profanity.
source:
movies2.nytimes.com/2005/02/...1ong.html
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