re:mote voices

Title: Ong-Bak
Cast: Tony Jaa, Perttary Wongkamlao, Pumwaree Yodkamol, Suchao Pongwilai, Wannakit Sirioput
Director: Prachya Pinkaew

Ting (Tony Jaa) is on the brink of becoming a monk, though having been taught the combat technique Muay Thai by his teacher he is sworn to never use the skill. However on the lead up to the Ong-Bak festival the head is cut off of the village's statue of Buddha. The village is already struggling, and if the head is not retrieved before the festival then the villagers feel they will be cursed.

Ting volunteers to go after the thieves, and he travels to Bangkok. There he hopes to find the thieves with the help of Humlae (Perttary Wongkamlao), who has moved from the village to Bangkok. However Humlae has turned his back on the village, changed his name to George and is a gambler and a conman. This leads Ting to the fight clubs, where he is forced to fight to retrieve money that George has stolen from him.

This fight brings him to the attention of the people who stole the Buddha's head. Gangsters who are heavily involved in the fighting scene, where a lot of money changes hands. So that it is isn't long before Ting has to get involved in a whole stream of fights using the techniques he swore he would not use in order to be able to return the statue's head to his village.

Ong-Bak is being promoted with the boast that it is all "real" and that there are no special effects being used here. Which is only partly true, as there are plenty of camera tricks, plastic dummies and explosions. Of course they really mean there are no effects in the fight scenes, like the wirework that has been made so popular by films like House Of Flying Daggers. Which is fine and cool, sometimes it is good to see the alternatives, though the fact that instead of really slick cinematography and choreography we have people bracing themselves, and flinching before they are hit makes the film feel a little clunky.

Tony Jaa is being sold as the new Jackie Chan in some circles, but in this context he comes across more as the new Jean Claude van Damme. Particularly with the cheesy way that the arena fight scenes are arranged, absurdly contrived to give it the feel of something like Kick Boxer or Street Fighter. Part of this is Prachya Pinkaew's fault, with his tendency to keep showing stunts again in slow motion or from different angles, something that feels excessive. One particular down side of doing this kind of thing is that in scenes with explosions or car crashes you can see that the person driving is has been replaced by a dummy, which kind of shatters the illusion! With that the film feels like a series of set pieces, particularly the tuk-tuk chase as tribute to Taxi and Luc Besson, especially given the blink and you'll miss it personal message to Besson.

Another thing, which is not the fault of the filmmakers, but more likely of the distributors is the lazy subtitling. Subtitling is a crucial feature when distributing a film around the world and lazy subtitling is just really annoying. Here there are several scenes where the subtitles provide translation for the start of a scene, only to give up after a couple of sentences.

With all of that it would be fair to say that Ong-Bak is awful - what with the retro feel to the proceedings, the dreadful acting, and all. On the other hand Ong-Bak is great. It is just one of those films where the flaws become kind of funny. And the physical abilities of Tony Jaa is undeniable, some of the stunts he performs make it clear why a showcase like this has been built around him. So go and see Ong-Bak and enjoy it for what it is, but don't let people tell you it is something different.