All the ads for “”Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior”” proclaim its star Tony Jaa as the next big thing, that this will be the decade of Jaa. What distinguishes this film is the fact that they don’t use wires, cgi, or anything else, all of the stunts are real.
When the head of his village icon “”Ong-Bak”” is stolen by a smalltime hood, Ting (Tony Jaa) volunteers to go to Bangkok to retrieve the stolen head. If the head isn’t returned within a week – in time for their festival the village will be destroyed by drought and other calamities. Once in Bangkok he hooks up with a former villager, Humlae/Dirty Balls/George (Perttary Wongkamlao) who agrees to help him find the people responsible for the theft, if Ting agrees to fight in an underground fight circuit.This is a standard chop-socki plot done competently by Director Prachya Pinkaew who wisely doesn’t over direct, he steps out of the way and let’s Jaa do his thing. The first 45 minutes of this film is way too talky, after awhile, I was thinking, shut up already and fight! When Jaa starts to do his magic the film takes a turn from being a boring waste of time to being an eye-boggling experience. It isn’t so much that he does a lot of original stunts, it’s the WAY he does them and the fact that he does them without wires, or any regard to his personal safety. The man is fearless, whether it’s jumping on cars, running up walls, jumping through glass windows, or jumping through small barbed wire circles, he is a marvel to watch.The flaw with this film is its low-budget, you almost never get past this basic fact, and while Director Pinkaew knows that this film is about Jaa, there are moments where he does an instant replay of the same stunt three or four times in succession that gets a little irritating by the fourth time that he uses the trick. The major drawback and the thing that ultimately damages “”Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior”” is that the film lacks a major villain or foil for Jaa to face in the climatic battle. Sure there’s a hired gun for him to face, but since this guy is some no name juice head that they introduce at the end of the film, it didn’t work as well as if they had made this guy Jaa’s main nemesis from the beginning.As a vehicle to launch a new martial arts star “”Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior”” is an amazing little film, as a movie it’s low budget and thin script severely limits it’s potential. While the film itself isn’t very good, if you are a martial arts fan it is well worth seeing just to see Jaa in action. He’ll blow your mind.[Editor’s Note – Be sure to check out our interview with Tony Jaa, Monday 2 /14/ 05]FINAL GRADE B-EclipseMagazine Reviewby Michelle AlexandriaOriginally Posted 2/11/05