The Thai Warrior
Ong Bak is the name given to a statue that is worshiped in a small Thai village that Tony Jaa’s character, Ting, lives in. A drug dealer from Bangkok has been trying to get the town to sell him the statue for sometime, but the townspeople aren’t interested.
Ong Bak means to these folks what the stone from the village in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom meant to those villagers — it’s a matter of life and death. So, when the head of Ong Bak is severed and stolen one night, the village immediately begins to fail; its people and its land begin to wither, and only restoring the head of Ong Bak will set things right.
Ting, a young and disciplined man, must get to Bangkok and track down Don (the one responsible for the theft) and return Ong Bak. During the first night of his search he encounters Humlae. Humlae was originally from Ting’s village, but had left that life behind and is instead now tied up in gambling and motorcyle racing. His sister, Muay, often teams up with him in scamming people who bet on their motorcycle races. At first, Humlae misleads Ting and only wants to take his money, but their relationship changes as the movie progresses and Humlae sees the error of his way. Can the trio work together to find Ong Bak and return it to the village?
Not if a local antiquities dealer and his legion of thugs has anything to do with it. Ong Bak is set to be sold and shipped out, but Ting is able to persistently manage to stop the dealer’s plans. Ting does this through the use of his Muay Thai skills and athleticism that constantly thwart those who oppose him. Truly, this film is best suited for those who prefer memorable fight scenes as opposed to a deep story or character development.
That said, the numerous fight scenes in Ong-Bak are a lot of fun to watch. Multiple camera angles, high flying attacks, amazing blocks and counterattacks, and plenty of bone crushing blows are all here. I’ve never seen an action film that was so focused on the beautiful and powerful methods of Muay Thai and it’s hard not to be impressed and entertained. Even though the story may be typical, the action is significantly different than other martial arts action films I’ve seen.
If you keep in mind this film is all about Tony Jaa and his martial arts prowess, you’ll have a great time.
Smashing Onto Blu-ray? Not Quite…
The Blu-ray release of Ong-Bak isn’t as impressive as a Tony Jaa elbow to the head. The video quality is so-so at best, with many scenes looking quite bad. The worst scenes are the darker ones, where grain and a general lack of ‘pop’ do the video presentation no favors. In fact, the entire film lacks a certain visual punch that left me underwhelmed. The colors are not vibrant, the images aren’t crisp — it all just looks ‘okay,’ but no better. The DTS 5.1 audio track does fine. Just FYI, this film is subtitled, no dubbed. I have no problem with that and in fact prefer to watch my Asian cinema that way, but some folks have an issue with subtitles.
As far as extra features go, I believe all of these were previously released on the DVD. All extra features are in SD. Here’s the complete list:
-Tony Jaa and Stuntmen perform for a live audience in France (2m34s, SD) – Just as the feature name states, this is a recording of Jaa and some stuntmen putting on a show for a French audience. I believe this took place at the film’s premiere. It’s worth a watch.
-Moves of Muay Thai (1m43s, SD) – Nine or so moves from Muay Thai are shown. Tony Jaa and a sparring partner perform the move while the name of the move is shown at the bottom of the screen.
-French Rap Video featuring Tony Jaa (~4m, SD) – A rap video with Tony Jaa. Tony enters a ring and the idea here is that he is fighting with his hands and feet while two rappers are fighting back with their lyrics. Yeah.
-Making of the Music Video (7m14s, SD) – The making of video for the rap music video. Tony Jaa does not speak, but the rappers do. Some behind the scenes footage is included as well.
-B Roll (~6m, SD) – This is basically a making of feature for three scenes from the film. The first is the taxi cab chase, and runs about two and a half minutes. The second is during the gas station fight scene where Tony gets his leg set on fire, this lasts about two minutes. Finally, there’s about a minute and twenty seconds of making of footage for the fight club scene.
-Promo Video with The RZA (1m, SD) – A brief promo video with rapper The RZA encouraging people to see the film in theaters.
-Trailers – A collection of trailers, including teasers trailers, from the US, France, and Thailand.
And with that, let’s get to the summary…