Tom Yum Goong
September 13, 2006
After Tony Jaa's hallowed inaugural performance in Ong Bak, we were obligated to scope The Protector on opening night last Friday. It was a disappointment.
Once again we've got a peace-loving warrior with an early-80's fashion sense forced (bound by honor, whatever) to leave his humble village and retrieve a possession swiped by goons - in this case, a couple elephants. It would appear you could easily hang one action sequence after another upon this perfectly servicable storyline. Not the case. The plot is disjointed, often nonsensical, and generally distracting.
The Protector reaches US shores via the Weinstein Company, who apparently felt the need to "Americanize" the film by re-dubbing some of the Thai to English, adding a new score, and hacking out a whopping 25 minutes. I assume that expunged footage is the culprit behind an utter lack of pacing, completely illogical plot developments, and abrupt scene transitions.
The Good
Manages to fulfill promise of solid Mauy Thai action. It is to broken bones what Kill Bill was to spurting blood.
Jaa's dialogue is wisely honed down to the line "Where's my elephant?!" - which explodes out of him every five or six minutes and is a precursor to a ferocious torrent of flying knees and elbows.
Ong Bak costar Petchtai Wongkamlao triumpantly returns (as the only good cop in Austrailia).
The four minute single-take action sequence up a six-story staircase is indeed incredible.
The Bad
Film stock ranges from dark and grainy to bright and blurry.
Ong Bak costar Petchtai Wongkamlao is under-utilized.
The new score by Rza is a mixed bag.
The Ugly
The editing is unbelievably bad.
Dubbing is never, ever good.
The sheer volume of action and ass whuppery does warrant an investigation into the foreign DVD release, if only to discover how that extra 25 minutes is put to use. Otherwise, what you've got here is a pretty low-rent affair (not unlike the horrible 1985 Jackie Chan film of the same name).
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