An ancient artifact which brings prosperity to a small Thai village is stolen and a young, fearless Tony Jaa is dispatched to bring it back before everyone in the community falls to ruination.

CRITIQUE

The deal here is simple: I enjoyed Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior back in February of 2005 and I enjoyed it again watching it on Blu-ray for this review. That said, I have nothing new to say about it and really don’t feel the energy to spend a lot of time on this film. With that being the case I feel the need to be a tiny bit lazy and just repost bits of my previous review written five years ago. Without further ado:

“There is a moment in the new Thai film Ong-bak: The Thai Warrior that simply defies all practical explanation. A delirious foot chase through the streets of Bangkok, Jaa unleashes a cavalcade martial art pyrotechnics and jovial acrobatics rivaling both Jackie Chan and Jet Li. This nearly six-minute sequence is one of the most joyously rapturous of the new year, the actor sliding under vehicles, walking pixie-like across a minefield of heads and leaping over knives, fences and even cars with unmitigated glee. In fact, when it’s all finished and Jaa and his cohorts finally make their escape, I almost stood up and cheered, rarely a sequence this delightful tickled my fancy so thoroughly.

The movie itself is the usual Asian martial arts threadbare hodgepodge. An ancient artifact which brings prosperity to a small Thai village is stolen and a young, fearless Jaa is dispatched to bring it back before everyone in the community falls to ruination. Along the way he learns to trust in his skills as both a man and a warrior, forging friendships and making sacrifices with every step. It’s silly, even more so than some of Chan’s more bizarrely asinine Hong Kong adventures (think The Heroic Trio or Armour of God), but also like them it’s so chop full of astounding stunts and lightning quick martial arts it’s practically impossible to take your eyes off of it.

Not that the directing helps. Chan, especially when directing himself, used to show an exquisite knack for both pace and timing, knowing exactly just how much of any particular stunt – and how many times to show it – to bring the audience to its feet. The same cannot be said for director Prachya Pinkaew. Ong-bak hasn’t the first clue how to pace itself, moving from fight to fight and stunt to stunt like one of this lumbering psychedelic elephants in Oliver Stone’s Alexander. Worse, while it’s nice to see some of Jaa’s spectacular feats from different angles, Pinkaew is so concerned about making sure the audience realizes everything the actor is doing is for real he simply can’t stop showing them all again and again and again. In fact, about the sixth time I had to watch Jaa exploding across a room unleashing a cavalcade of kicks and punches I’d just about had my fill.

But only just, for Jaa is the real thing. Granted, he doesn’t have either Chan’s easy-going charisma or Li steely-eyed determination, but he definitely has both their gifts for movement. More so, like Bruce Lee Jaa not only knows how to deliver a punch he can also take a fall, crashing through tables, chairs and floors like a ping-pong smacking the backside of a paddle. Also like Lee, Jaa knows when to turn up the heat, Ong-bak starting like a silly, laugh-laden serial adventure before slowly building into a dramatically brutal tale of redemption and retribution. By the time I walked out of the theater I felt every bit as bruised and battered as the main character, each punch and kick smacking me almost as hard as Jaa’s opponents did him.

In the end, it’s easy to see why everyone from Quentin Tarantino to Luc Besson to the RZA to even Jackie Chan himself is suddenly looking at Jaa in awe. Not only could he be a genre-busting superstar, with the right direction this seemingly unassuming actor could easily find himself an icon sitting beside his own self-described idols Chan, Li and Lee as a martial arts legend. For that reason alone Ong-bak is worth watching, and even if the movie itself is less than inspiring, the actor at its center certainly is.”

THE VIDEO

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior is presented in 1080p 1.85:1 Widescreen. A decent transfer and nothing more, I kind of wish Fox would have done a better job master this one for high definition.

THE AUDIO

Available audio includes English and Thai 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with optional English SDH, English and Spanish subtitles.

THE EXTRAS

The extras on this disc are unbelievably underwhelming. There are two featurettes on Muay Thai, one featuring a live performance from Tony Jaa, a couple of music videos with Wu-Tang veteran RZA and some behind-the-scenes footage that would have been better left behind the scenes. In short, there is nothing here worth crowing about, even that performance from Jaa.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As an introduction to Tony Jaa Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior is an absolute must for action fans. That said, this Blu-ray is more worthy of a rental than it is a buy, the lack of special features and the so-so transfer making it hard to warrant spending your hard-earned dollars to pick up.