Broken Sword Hero is based off of real historical war hero in Thailand’s history. The film tells the story of his early adult life as he learned, and become an expert of, traditional Thai boxing, or what the West refers to as Muay Thai. I have seen a lot of martial arts films over the years, but never one that focused so purely on Thai boxing, and that alone made Broken Sword Hero worth watching.
You may wonder then what the connection to a broken sword would be seeing as boxing does not involve swordplay. During the latter part of the film, to further progress his boxing skills and footwork, Thongdee (played by Buakaw Banchamek) learns sword-fighting from an old drunken master. History says that Thongdee became a general, and during battle, would continue to fight despite his sword being broken, exemplifying many noble traits such as bravey, dedication, and fighting skill.
Broken Sword Hero was directed by Bin Bunluerit and co-stars Phutharit Prombandal, neither of which I have heard before but I am not in tune with the Thai movie scene, with Ong Bak and Tony Jaa probably being the last films from the country I have seen. Production quality is very high with Broken Sword Hero. It’s a great story, and it’s well told. I liked that the movie took its time as it showed us a chapter in the life of the legendary Thongdee. The runtime is just over two hours, and could have easily been a lot more, as the film ends just as Thongdee begins his ascent into the formal military. Most of the film sees him walking from town to town, looking for the next Thai boxing master that he can learn from. Unfortunately, he leaves behind him a trail of trouble, as someone from his youth has risen to power and is determined to defeat and embarrass Thongdee, going as far as to raze villages and kill to try and find and get to him. Expect some tightly choreographed fight scenes of Thongdee doing battle one on one with other skilled boxers, and a handful of scenes whereby he’s putting his skills to fluid, multi-encounter use. As a fan of Asian cinema (martial arts films especially), I enjoyed watching Broken Sword Hero as it struck a good balance between telling an interesting historical tale but also including some convincing and powerful action scenes featuring a style of martial art that I’m typically not exposed to.
On Blu-ray, the film looks and sounds great. The included audio tracks are a Thai DTS-HD 5.1 and Stereo, with subtitle support in English, which is of course how I watched the film. Audio was great, and I noticed no image quality problems at all, which is exactly what you would expect from a modern film. As far as extra features, there really aren’t any, just a trailer for the movie and a handful of other trailers/previews for other Well Go USA releases. Overall, if you’re a fan of the genre or of Thai boxing, Broken Sword Hero is a must-watch.
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