09-13-2006, 11:20 AM
This is an early Tony Jaa movie, touted as his on screen debut, that has just been rereleased to the U.S. market via BCI. It's marketing to call this a Jaa film. Jaa appears in one fight scene, albeit the centerpiece of the film. Here's a clip of that fight - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v97a18vI1T8. This is really a Panna Rittikrai film. Jaa is a protege of Panna. Panna, as I've mentioned before in the Born To Fight review, is the key. He's a veteran of some 3 dozen low budget Thai action flicks, so I'm told, and the svengali behind Jaa. And now I understand two of his formulas.
Ong Bak = boy has buddha. boy loses buddha. boy kicks a lot of ass to regain buddha
Tom Yum Goong = boy has elephant. boy loses elephant. boy kicks a lot of ass to regain elephant.
Born to Fight = Students with martial skills visit a village. Bad guys kick a lot of ass and kill lots of people. Students bond with villagers to kick bad guys' asses.
Spirited Killer = Students with martial skills visit a village. Bad guys kick a lot of ass and kill lots of people. Students bond with villagers to kick bad guys' asses.
SK is pretty old school. Many of the fights look like they came straight out of a Shaw Bros flick, complete with over-exposed scenes, weird camera work, goofy comedy and lots of spitting up blood to show that yes, after having your ass kicked for several minutes by a kung fu master, you have finally died. It's a very uneven film. The fights are descent and copius - best when they stop imitating Shaw Bros and slip into Muay Thai or Krabi Krabong, but that only happens in a few scenes. This is not a film you watch for plot or acting or anything beyond fight scenes. No stunts unless you count falling down hillsides after getting your ass kicked. I wouldn't recommend it as a DOOM film because frankly, it's not that outstanding. BTF is much more amusing for DOOM. SK is only interesting as a historical look at Jaa and Panna. Oh, and the dubbed version is hysterical. They give all the students slacker voices and dialog, which actually works well for this film.
The Special features DVD is pretty amateur, but there are lots of scenes from other low budget Thai flicks and those are quite amusing. There's a long Muay Thai demo, which is scene after scene of ripped Thai fighters kicking each other's asses at scenic temples. There's also a jiggly amatuer hand-held documentation of a Jaa appearence with RZA in NY. It's amusing, but just barely.
Ong Bak = boy has buddha. boy loses buddha. boy kicks a lot of ass to regain buddha
Tom Yum Goong = boy has elephant. boy loses elephant. boy kicks a lot of ass to regain elephant.
Born to Fight = Students with martial skills visit a village. Bad guys kick a lot of ass and kill lots of people. Students bond with villagers to kick bad guys' asses.
Spirited Killer = Students with martial skills visit a village. Bad guys kick a lot of ass and kill lots of people. Students bond with villagers to kick bad guys' asses.
SK is pretty old school. Many of the fights look like they came straight out of a Shaw Bros flick, complete with over-exposed scenes, weird camera work, goofy comedy and lots of spitting up blood to show that yes, after having your ass kicked for several minutes by a kung fu master, you have finally died. It's a very uneven film. The fights are descent and copius - best when they stop imitating Shaw Bros and slip into Muay Thai or Krabi Krabong, but that only happens in a few scenes. This is not a film you watch for plot or acting or anything beyond fight scenes. No stunts unless you count falling down hillsides after getting your ass kicked. I wouldn't recommend it as a DOOM film because frankly, it's not that outstanding. BTF is much more amusing for DOOM. SK is only interesting as a historical look at Jaa and Panna. Oh, and the dubbed version is hysterical. They give all the students slacker voices and dialog, which actually works well for this film.
The Special features DVD is pretty amateur, but there are lots of scenes from other low budget Thai flicks and those are quite amusing. There's a long Muay Thai demo, which is scene after scene of ripped Thai fighters kicking each other's asses at scenic temples. There's also a jiggly amatuer hand-held documentation of a Jaa appearence with RZA in NY. It's amusing, but just barely.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse