ONG-BANK / ONG-BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR (2003)
Cast: Tony Jaa, Petchtai Wongkamlao
Direction: Prachya Pinkaew
Screenplay: Prachya Pinkaew and Panna Rittikrai
Tony Jaa, Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior
Fans of the martial-arts genre will likely enjoy Prachya Pinkaew's Ong-bak / Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior, the tale of a young man lost in the city jungle while hunting for ruthless art smugglers. That said, Ong-Bak will probably fail to win many converts to the genre.
The story follows a determined country bumpkin (Tony Jaa) as he pursues the nefarious villains who have stolen the head of his Thai village's Buddha statue. When not in hot pursuit of the thieves — or being pursued by them — our hero spends his time honing his fighting skills at some Bangkok dive or other.
Ong-Bak's chief problem lies in Pinkaew and Panna Rittikrai's screenplay, which happens to be a pile of hoary clichés — e.g., country people = kindness, courage, honest labor, love, tree-climbing; city people = dishonesty, cowardice, easy money, sex, club-fighting. And all this in a movie that aims to be as slick as your average (big-city made) music video and as violent as your average free-for-all brawl.
Compounding matters, Ong-bak drags quite a bit (a mortal sin for a mindless action flick), its humor is puerile (unless you find it hilarious to watch people being hit in the head, stomach, crotch, and other body parts), and most of the performers just go along for the ride. Ah, the film could also be accused of being racist: most of the men our pure-as-holy-water Asian hero tears to pieces in fight clubs are sleazy, cheating Caucasians.
On the positive side, Tony Jaa is not only an outstanding athlete-cum-fighter — he reportedly performed his own stunts without the help of wires or digital enhancements — but he is also what is often referred to as "star material." Now, all Jaa needs is a decent vehicle that will allow him to display both his astonishing athletic skills and his considerable charisma.
Reviewed at the AFI FEST.