Film Reviews

ONG-BAK

There are two types of martial arts films, the first, stylised almost superhuman-like utilising wires, stunt-doubles and visual effects, the second simply bypasses this and does it for real.

Such is the world of ‘Ong-Bak’.

The style here is ‘Muay Thai’ a powerful, and often brutal martial art from Thailand that has rarely graced British cinema screens due to the BBFC’s reluctance to pass films that show actual physical contact and realistic fighting, but that is essentially what Muay Thai films and ‘Ong-Bak’ in particular are all about.

The story itself is fairly routine and B-grade drama. We are introduced to lone martial-arts-master Ting (Panom Yeerum - now using the more-western friendly Tony Jaa) practising his skills in a tiny northern village naming the moves as he does so (including the Tai-Chi staple ‘Reach for the sky’ whilst warned that his skills should never be used in anger. That is until the village’s sacred Buddha head is stolen thus jeopardising their prosperity. The reluctant hero Ting volunteers to retrieve it from the gang-ridden backstreets of Bangkok where he enters a dark world of fight clubs (which make Brad Pitt’s effort look like a playground spat) and corrupt drug dealing businessmen.

‘Ong-Bak’ may not have the visual beauty of ‘Hero’ or ‘Daggers’ or the serenity of ‘Zatoichi’ but the sheer power of the fight scenes make this film a master class. Everything you see is real, whether it be a one-on-one contests in front of a goading bet-frenzy crowd or the street battles with a gang of knife wielding hoods, Muay Thai films and the actors involved pride themselves on the sheer reality of their work. But it is Jaa’s dexterity and incredible skill that shine, leaping over cars, racing across assailant’s heads or diving almost impossibly through coils of razor-wire it stunningly shows the practical applications of the form work introduced at the start.

If you only ever see one grindhouse martial arts film in your life it will probably be ‘Enter The Dragon’, if you see a second it has to be ‘Ong-Bak’, it simply is the greatest film of its genre. Bruce Lee who?

Thailand 2003 105 mins.

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