| Overall Grade: |
A |
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| Story: |
B |
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| Acting: |
B |
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| Direction: |
B |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Incredible!
by SM (movies profile)
Jul 12, 2008
60
of
72 people found this review helpful
Watched it yesterday after coming across the hypes on the net, and IMO, Ong-Bak is probably one of the most butt-kicking martial arts movies in a long long time.
Tony Jaa may have a long way to go as an actor but he is one incredible martial artist with fantastic acrobatic and gymnastic skills. His skills truly shined in the movie during chase and fight scenes. Tony was seen doing stuffs that shouldn't be humanly possible naturally jumping over/sliding under moving cars, climbing the wall, jumping through barbwires, etc. This guy is extremely agile and flexible.
Tony also beautifully portrayed the ancient arts of Muay Thai on the silver screen, including moves that you would never see in the ring because they would be considered too dangerous and illegal. You see, Muay Thai is a deadly art that was developed for the sole purpose, to instantly kill or cripple your opponents back in the old days when there were constant warrings between Thailand/Siam and its neighbors. The Muay Thai we see in the Thai boxing rings these days is a much tone-downed version of the original form to make it acceptable as a sports. As a Muay Thai fan, I was excited to see some of the forbidden attacks that Tony Jaa used in the movie. There is a corresponding name to each of these attacks documened in the Muay Thai bible, so Jaa did not himself develop these moves...in case you were wondering.
Don't expect a lot of story of out Ong-bak as it was meant to display Muay Thai. Everything sans actions was pretty generic but, boy, what incredible actions it got. The fightings were brutal yet beautiful to watch at the same time, very tough to recreate since Muay Thai isn't usually very photogenic unlike Taichi or other styles where practitioner's movements seem very fluid and eye-pleasing. Now back to the movie, the choreography I thought was excellent. Each body contact will make you cringe and almost feel the pain. The elbow to the head moves, in particular, were down right nasty. Of course, all of these were stunts and scripted (hey, it's a movie alright) but there is no denying that the entertainment value is absolutely high, especially for action fans.
If you haven't seen real Muay Thai or don't know what it is, this is your best chance to experience an agressive and very offensive style of martial arts. Forget the crap where people were seen flying among trees or running on the water surface. Ong-bak is the real deal, no wire, no CGI. What you see on the screen is what Tony Jaa can do in real life. Highly recommended.
Btw, to anyone who might be wondering what Ong-Bak means...Ong means the holy one--usually refers to a royal person or Buddhist statue, Bak means scarred face. If you look closely at the the Buddhist statue that is central to the story you'll see that his right cheek has a linear scar on it...hence, the name Ong-Bak. |
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