Cupid's Fist
February 14, 2005
Amazingly, Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior came to the local multiplex this weekend. Where the ladies are concerned, nothin' says "be my Valentine" like a wiry Muay Thai boxer bringing a ferocious blizzard of elbows and knees to bear on subtitled thugs.
 Despite what American trailers may purport, Tony Jaa (Phanom Yeerum) sports a fairly original style - didn't see too much in the way of Jet Li or Jackie Chan in his various methods of hoodlum dispatchment. He's got a visually arresting delivery, fast and agile, and you've got to appreciate the lack of wire-work usually prevalent in such movies these days. Jaa's technique is quiet, serious, and involves a bare minimum of passive objects being wielded as weapons (brooms, ladders, chairs), as one would typically find in the enterprising hands of Mr. Jackie Chan.
This past weekend on his movie-reviewing TV show I never watch, Roger Ebert apparently compared Onk Bak to the Spongebob Squarepants movie. Sit down with the proper expectations and it'll be a damn good time. That's about right. The Ong Bak plot is thin, but readily fulfills its duty of marching the movie from one great fight/chase sequence to the next. Mission accomplished. The film was shot in a style reminiscent of older Hong Kong productions (possibly simply a result of budget constraints), complete with slow-motion replays from different angles when the action was too intense for audiences to absorb in a single pass. Which was nice.
The Chain Scale awards Ong Bak a well-earned Category Five (full set).
Jaa's next movie is Tom-Yum-Goong - in production and due out later this year. Scope the trailer. Good to see Ong Bak co-star Perttary Wongkamlao in there t'boot.
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