This was very nearly an awesome movie. So close! It claims to be somewhat of a prequel to Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior but it's really not. Set in 1451 AD, this is the story of a boy raised by a gang of thieves after his parents are killed by a power-hungry Crown Prince and his evil Chief of the Army. I'm not as up on my Thai history as I probably should be, so I have no idea if that's based on records or not. Tony Jaa wrote, produced, directed, choreographed, starred and probably did the catering in this film. Normally, you can expect the quality of the movie to decline exponentiallywhen you see someone's name more than twice in the credits. Maybe because this is foreign or maybe because it never goes more than 7 minutes without fighting, but it stays pretty good throughout.
The only thing that ruins it is the goddamned cliffhanger ending. That is the most bullshit thing people can do with sequels and it is happening more and more. Studios see a cash cow and they gotta just keep milking. It drives me nuts. Especially since I just added Ong Bak 3 to my queue (at #473). It's going to take two or three years to see it at the rate I'm going. What's that? I could just move it to the top? And what about the other 472? There has to be some order otherwise it's just chaos and oblivion!!!
/calms self
Anyway, Tony Jaa whips some serious ass in this movie. Including a fight on the back of a live elephant with a dude (chick? It's hard to tell) who acts like a vulture. It's just as surreal to watch as it is to describe.
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