Ong Bak - The Thai Warrior
The guys I am learning Kenpo with have been telling me this movie called “Ong Bak”. I have tried to get it at Blockbuster but they are constantly out of stock. I happened to see it at Best Buy this weekend and just bought it. Whoa!As for most low budget Martial Arts type films, the acting on this one was less than spectacular… almost comical really. But that’s ok because stellar acting would have detracted from the real performance in the film – the Muay Thai skills displayed by a newcomer named Tony Jaa.
Tony Jaa was doing things with knees and elbows that I simply have never seen before. This one simply had my attention from the first time he displayed his skills with some basic movements toward the beginning. In the first fight scene of the movie, I was a little stunned – enough that I had to back up the DVD and see the move again just to appreciate the physical movement of the strike, a knockout strike – with the knee – from a standing position!
Another very cool thing about this film is that, in the spirit of Jackie Chan and others prior, Tony Jaa does all of his own stunts. Further, there were no special effects or wire work in the movie. Having this knowledge ahead of time and then watching the movie just made me appreciate this guy all the more. He wasn’t doing high falls and crazy stuff like that – he was doing things that took real flexibility, coordination and balance – not to mention the skills of Muay Thai.
If you have a couple hours and are looking for something fun to watch, check this one out. I have a feeling we are going to be seeing more of Tony Jaa.
posted by Bonzai @ 8:07 PM
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