WARRIOR OF 'ONG-BAK' GETS A JUMP ON THE COMPETITION.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic IF THE STORIES are true - and only a scene or two in ``Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior'' made me question their authenticity - Tony Jaa Panom Yeerum (Thai: พนม ยีรัมย์; Khmer: ចាភ្ំ យីរុាំ is not human. The stories are that Jaa performed his amazing string of acrobatic stunts in this otherwise-dreadful crime drama without benefit of the usual assists (invisible flying wires, spinnable harnesses, CGI CGI in full Common Gateway Interface. Specification by which a Web server passes data between itself and an application program. Typically, a Web user will make a request of the Web server, which in turn passes the request to a CGI application program. , etc.) found in Asian martial-arts movies. Nope. This Thai superman can jump over your head, and do three or four somersaults in midair, from a standing position, all powered only by his own muscular agility. He's pretty convincing at this throughout ``Ong- Bak.'' Convinced me he was born on Jupiter, anyway. Besides making the likes of Jackie Chan Jackie Chan SBS, (born April 7, 1954), also known as Sing Lung in Cantonese (Traditional Chinese: 成龍; Simplified Chinese: 成龙 and Buster Keaton look arthritic, Jaa is also as fierce a fighter as Bruce Lee was in his prime. A veteran stuntman stunt·man n. A man who substitutes for a performer in scenes requiring physical daring or involving physical risk. stuntman n → especialista m stuntman with a kung fu background, he trained in the Thai boxing discipline Muay Thai especially for this movie. It's a brutal, bruising way to fight - and well-suited to director Prachya Pinkaew's bloody, graphic approach to martial-arts mayhem. While the various Chinese cinemas tend to aestheticize aes·thet·i·cize also es·thet·i·cize tr.v. aes·thet·i·cized, aes·thet·i·ciz·ing, aes·thet·i·ciz·es To depict in an idealized or artistic manner: and balleticize action, and the Japanese often take their movie bloodbaths to extremes that become fantastical, this particular Thai variation takes a gritty, sadomasochistic sa·do·mas·o·chism n. The combination of sadism and masochism, in particular the deriving of pleasure, especially sexual gratification, from inflicting or submitting to physical or emotional abuse. approach that is extremely unpleasant to watch - or would be, if Jaa could not fly. The story is, well, that story. Jaa's Ting is a country bumpkin who goes to big, bad Bangkok to retrieve the stolen head of his village's Buddha. There he encounters a corrupted former neighbor, George (Thai TV personality Petchthai Wongkamlao), who acts as both enemy and ally, depending on what's in it for him at any given moment. There are also a few street damsels in need of distress reduction, a cancerous crime lord who smokes through his tracheotomy tracheotomy (trākēŏt`əmē), surgical incision into the trachea, or windpipe. The operation is performed when the windpipe has become blocked, e.g., by the presence of some foreign object or by swelling of the larynx. hole and several big, bruising Western tourists who are stupid enough to challenge Ting to bar fights. The movie's strong points are its clever chase sequences, in which Jaa outruns (or levitates over) gangs of murderous baddies through obstacle courses of everyday Bangkok commerce and street traffic. They're like running sociocultural so·ci·o·cul·tur·al adj. Of or involving both social and cultural factors. so  ci·o·cul travelogues - guided by a guy from Jupiter, so you never have to worry about getting bored. Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com ONG-BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR - Three stars (R: violence, nudity, drug use, language. In Thai with English subtitles.) Starring: Tony Jaa, Petchthai Wongkamlao, Pumwaree Yodkamol. Director: Prachya Pinkaew. Running time: 1 hr. 45 min. Playing: Selected theaters. In a nutshell: Brutal martial-arts thriller is elevated by star Tony Jaa's unbelievable aerial athleticism. |
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