Ong-Bak (2003)

 

Are you up for a classic martial arts adventure that hearkens back to the days of Bruce Lee, but crazier? Then you may have found your match in 'Ong-Bak', a whirlwind of a tale where the insane stunts and fight choreography are pretty much off the charts.

Tony Jaa, you are absolutely insane, sir. But in a good way.

As it should be with films of this kind, the story is almost absurdly thin: there is a poor farm village in Thailand that have one prized possession, which is a statue of Ong-Bak, their deity. When a sleazy prick steals the head of the statue, young and extremely gifted Muay Thai-fighter Ting (Jaa) is sent to the big city of Bangkok to try and find the head and return it. Naturally, Bangkok is quite the contrast to the countryside and Ting quickly finds himself in the dark underbelly where illegal and rather brutal fights are staged. Eventually, he will have no choice but to rely on his skills to kick the everloving snot out of his opponents. 

Simple, really: see bad guy, beat his ass. Rinse and repeat.

Fortunately, they never make this idea boring in 'Ong-Bak', as the film takes its time setting up the fights and cools down in between. In fact, it even takes a while for the first fight to actually happen, but the closer to the end, the more insane everything becomes. There is a completely absurd foot chase where Tony Jaa does some of the most impressive parkour you'll see on film, with pinpoint precision. There's also a high octane chase with tuk-tuks. 

But of course, most people come here for the fights and they are exquisite. The choreography is excellent, they are shot in a (mostly) comprehensible manner and the makers know it, as they often show the biggest blows two or three times in slow motion from different angles. And what is possibly the most impressive feature of all: all these stunts and fights are done without CG or even wirework. Especially the latter is pretty amazing when you consider some of the jumps and flips there are on screen. 

It's like a very delicate ballet, only with kicking people in the face. It's brilliant.

So if you like martial arts and want an uncomplicated story where the focus is on the beauty and grace of whooping backside, then you have to watch 'Ong-Bak' and develop nothing but respect for Tony Jaa.