Martial Arts films 'Bak' to basics (Ong Bak (DVD))

Name: Ailran

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Product:	Ong Bak (DVD)
Date:	02.10.05 (267 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Full on martial arts by a skilled performer

Disadvantages: May be a bit violent for some and story very lightweight.

Thai films are not a big draw here, or in the Western world at all as far as I can tell. ‘Tears of The Black Tiger’, a psychedelic cowboy musical, was the first one to ever get a UK cinema release, though it was closely followed by the magnificent true sports story/comedy ‘Iron Ladies’, and both of these were released over here only 3-4 years ago.

‘Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior’ is being sold as the first Thai martial arts film to go worldwide and offers viewers a return to real martial arts fighting, as opposed to the ‘wire-fu’ (wire attached fighting) of the recent imports of ‘Crouching Tiger’, ‘Hero’ & ‘House of Flying Daggers’.
In fact the ads proudly proclaim that there isn’t any stunt doubles in the movie, every piece of action is real and that there is no CGI, what you see on screen is what the actors actually did in front of the camera.

Tony Jaa is a Muay Thai champion, better known as Thai boxing over here, and it shows. His acting is not that great but his fluidity, his economy of movement and his fighting ability makes all the claims of no artificial enhancements to the filming all the more believable, after all the cynics amongst us are always dubious about such claims are we not? Unfortunately his acting skills do make the non-action scenes he is in pretty awful but the director seems to realise this and keeps him out of a lot of what could laughably be called the ‘plot’ development scenes!


The festival of Ong-Bak is a once every 24 years celebration performed in the small village of Nong Pradu, Thailand. It is a ceremony completed by the villagers to guarantee the success of the village in the future and the time for the next festival is fast approaching when a minor gangster called Don steals the head of their Ong-Bak statue, a religious artefact not unlike a statue of Buddha.
Ting, soon to be ordained as a priest and a student of Muay Thai, volunteers to go to Bangkok and retrieve the head before the festival.

Arriving in Bangkok Ting finds George, a small time criminal (very, very, small time) and a fellow Nong Pradu villager, and his girlfriend, Muay Lek. He tries to enlist their help but instead finds himself embroiled in their own petty squabbles with some other gangsters.

Ting gets caught up in a ‘fight club’, due to George of course, and does find time to start investigating the missing head in amongst his other adventures.

That is pretty much the basics of the plot; there isn’t much to it because the plot isn’t what this is all about. Ong-Bak is all about the martial arts and the fighting!

Ong-Bak is a very old style martial arts film. It is brutal in its depiction of the fighting and certainly deserves its 18 certificate, but it also takes a lot from the films of Jackie Chan. The larger, bumbling comedic friend and the crazy, stylised chases, especially the foot one, are right out of Chan’s storybook. In fact Ong-Bak is very much a combination of the violence martial arts of Bruce Lee and the comedy, stunt filled skills of Jackie Chan.

The first big showing of Jaa’s martial prowess in combat is a superb fast and brutal confrontation in a ‘fight club’. He is tricked into fighting the reigning club champion and the filming of this fight is stunning, you will have to see it to believe it!
Every single fight in Ong-Bak is violent and can even make you cringe with the brutality of it. You can actually see the recipients of the kicks, punches et al bracing themselves for getting struck, and doing I tin such a way that I am almost certain that they were actually getting hit. Not a shard as it looked I’m sure but they certainly did seem to be connecting. If they weren’t then the camera work, editing and stunt choreography is the best I have ever seen! There has not been a movie with such realistic violence for a long, long time, and while the movie overall may not be that great it is nice to see a film maker/studio not pander to a bigger audience and film or cut scenes to get a lower certificate, something that American films seem to do far too often.

Getting away from the violence there is still a lot to like in this film. The foot chase through the streets of Bangkok, with Ting and George being hounded by a large gang of criminals could easily be inserted into an early Chan movie. Ting using everything he knows to leap over, slide under or dive through whatever obstacle gets in his way. This includes rolls of barbwire, tables, vehicles and even, in an extraordinary stunt, across the heads and shoulders of his pursuers! This is superbly shot and even includes some great slow motion replays or different angle repeats of a stunt. This is highly original and leaves you with your mouth open in amazement at some of it. If the stunts are real as they declare, and the y do look it, then Jaa is incredibly agile!
The other major chase is a comic vehicle dash around the streets of Bangkok in their peculiar ‘Tuk tuks’, a kind of motorised version of a horse carriage. They seem to be a kind of taxi and a chase involving them is like watching a chase with milk floats! The seriousness of the danger ting and George are in offset by the ludicrous vehicles they are in.

There are a few problems with the subtitles, they seem very simplistic and this is very noticeable. Not annoyingly so but enough that you wonder whether the actual meaning of what was said had been translated badly.

The second thing I noticed was that there is a very obvious stunt double at one stage for George, as he is a well-known Thai comedian maybe this isn’t too surprising but it does make you wonder about the makers announcement about stunt doubles. Were there any doubles for Jaa and the others? I still don’t think so but up until that moment I was certain there wasn’t!

Overall Ong-Bak is only really for big martial arts fans or very big Chan fans. It is not a film for the faint hearted and will probably not appeal to many filmgoers outside the 18-30 range. Personally I enjoyed it for what it was a showcase for the skills and acrobatics of Tony Jaa and a showcase for how much more realistic a film can look if it avoids the use of CGI.


Certificate: 18
Running Time: 105 minutes

Director: Prachya Pinkaew

Main cast (not that I have heard of any of them before!)

Tony Jaa (Panum Yeerum) – Ting
Mum Jokemok (Petchthai Wongkamtao) – George
Pumwaree Yodkamoi – Muay Lek
Suchoa Pongvilai - Komtuan

Summary: Martial arts as they should be and some tremendous stunts