...What do you mean who's Tony Jaa?
Well at one point Tony Jaa had the martial arts film world at his feet. Exploding onto the scene with "Ong Bak", his dynamic mainstream debut, Tony displayed his Muay Thai skills masterfully, leaving any viewer back in 2003 open-mouthed in disbelief. We'll actually be covering "Ong Bak" eventually within the blog but needless to say, the stunts and action on display had people raving.
Hailed as the new king of the martial arts genre, Jaa was a breath of fresh air in the stale scene. Jackie Chan and Jet Li were now getting older, at least well into their 40's at this point and couldn't explode onto the screen as they had. Both had been poached by Hollywood and although earlier forays displayed them still at their best, by 2003 Jackie was content making comedies and Jet Li's reliance on wire work was beginning to get old very fast.
Jaa was poised to take the crown and struck while the iron was hot, quickly making follow up "Warrior King". Or at least that's what it's known as in the UK. Its original title was "Tom-Yum-Goong" which translates into 'Hot and sour prawn soup'. As hilarious as it would be for a film to be called that, I don't think it would have got the attention of the action junkies. In the US it's better known as "The Protector".
But sadly it all went a bit too much too fast for Tony. Opting to direct the next two "Ong Bak" sequels (although in reality, they're prequels) himself, he instead presented two overblown attempts at historical epics. Some good action aside, the movies were complete slogs to power through and the sheen had gone, the UK distributor quickly going cold on Tony and he slid down the card. By the time he mounted a comeback, the chaps from "The Raid" were the new talking point in the martial arts world and Tony was yesterday's news.
But let's catch him at his peak today with:
WARRIOR KING (2005 dir. Prachya Pinkaew)
Why I bought/Why I liked it:
I, much like anyone who had the benefit of watching "Ong Bak" quickly became a fan of Tony Jaa. With the action sequences still fresh in mind and repeated viewings under our belts, my father and I were eagerly awaiting the next film of Mr Jaa's.
Finally available in Blockbusters (lighters please!), we watched and were blown away once again, even citing the action sequences to be superior to that of "Ong Bak"'s. Now reviewing it again remains to be seen which was the better film but needless to say, it made a strong first impression.
If you've seen "Ong Bak", you've seen the plot of "Warrior King". Just replace 'man needs to get back idol of worship from bad guys' to 'man needs to get back elephants from bad guys'. The plot is weak but as any GOOD martial arts film is, it SHOULD be. We just need a guy kicking some ass for the majority of the film and Tony Jaa does, Game Of Death style.
Yup, just like a video game, Tony needs to make his way through various henchmen and boss battles before confronting the top boss and getting back his darned elephants. That's it and it's glorious to watch unfurl.
Of course, myself being one of these action junkies, it got picked up pretty quickly after that initial home release.
If I think it'll stay in the collection:
Are you kidding? Good old 'leave your brain at the door and watch the violence unfold' films are the whole reason I love films in the first place. It's perfect escapism and I think its place in the collection is comfortable.
The review:
As expected, the action is phenomenal. When rolling it REALLY gets underway which I think feasibly is about 18 minutes in. Before that you sort of get some exposition, a little taste of Thai culture and some shots of some lovely elephants including a delightful baby one which had me melting in my chair.
So to further the plot, the elephants get stolen which leads Tony's Kham to Sydney. Here we discover that they're potentially food for an exotic restaurant which also acts as a criminal front for drugs and illegal prostitution. All exotic tastes are catered here: scorpions, turtles, porcupines, bats...
Kham eventually fights his way through more bad guys you could count. There's an awesome sequence with EXTREME sports fighters, invoking memories of the old EXTREME sports phase of the early noughties. Tony Hawk! Mat Hoffman! Dave Mirra! Phil 'The Power' Taylor! Peter Ebdon!
He then faces Eddy Gordo en route to the big showdown with former WWE 'Wrestler' Nathan Jones. What needs to be mentioned here besides my gushing of the action sequences is that Pinkaew really knows how to frame said action sequences too. The foley artists are on point with every strike and snap booming out of the speakers and the camera guys are great at following the action so that we can see what's going on. No mean feat as one sequence has Tony Jaa going so fast, numerous cameraman had to jump in to keep up.
So that's the good out of the way, how about the bad? Well, "Warrior King" honestly boasts some of the worst caucasian actors I may have ever seen this side of Ashton Kutcher and Taylor Kitsch. Seriously, this is their native language and yet the delivery is so wooden it may as well be pornography for beavers. It makes the cast of 'Baywatch' seem like a touring Shakespearean group.
Presumably, they just pulled people off the street as there's no way Australian extras or actors could be this bad. Not from a country that gave us Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, Margot Robbie and Stefan Dennis.
Some of the shots are annoying as all hell too, there's this annoying effect where the outer edges of the shot are blurred which occurs way too much. The action does indeed slow when Tony isn't kicking people either including a dodgy CGI scene that really takes the viewer out of the film. There's also a bit where Tony needs to act but then apparently forgets he's having the crap getting kicked out of him so he no-sells everything like he's Road Warrior Hawk or something.
And then there's the main bad person. Oooh, I'd forgotten about this. So the subplot is an evil trans-woman who wants to take over the criminal empire from her father so has him killed and any other potential candidates to take over, killed also. It's obvious she's the most suitable person for the job but because she's trans this eliminates her from the position and therefore lots of transphobic slurs come out of the woodwork. Ah, good old 2005.
These negatives aside, "Warrior King" should be watched for one reason and that's the action sequences, they're so good it makes up for all the above mentioned bad.
Should it stay or should it go?
It's easy to digest martial arts fare. You get that, a high-speed longboat chase and a Double Dragon type sequence in a restaurant. It stays in. Perhaps those rose-tinted glasses became clearer when re-watching and those highlighted all the negative points I mentioned but it's still a fun enough film to garner a re-watch a few more years down the line. That being said, the bad points did knock the rating down a bit so I'm giving it a 7.5 out of 10 instead of my estimated 8.
It does give me an opportunity to post this for the last time though:
Matt Major.
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