ONG-BAK concludes BAMcinématek series honoring the last ten years of Magnolia Pictures
ONG-BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR (Prachya Pinkaew, 2003)
BAMcinématek
BAM Rose Cinemas
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
Wednesday, August 31, 4:30 & 9:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
www.ongbakmovie.com
When this film first came out, there was a huge push under way to make Tony Jaa the next martial arts action hero, following in the footsteps of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li. It’s going to take a much better vehicle than this silly, repetitive, unimaginative film for the Thai warrior to make a name for himself. Jaa stars as Ting, a young country villager who has learned the contemplative ways of Muay Thai from his master, Pra Cru (Woranard Tantipidok), a Buddhist who once killed a man during a rope fight. When bad boy Don (Wannakit Siriput) steals the head of Ong Bak, the town’s deity, Ting heads to the big city of Bangkok to get it back, hoping he won’t have to use his massive physical skills. There the quiet fish out of water meets George (Thai comic Petchthai Wongkamlao), a former villager who has changed his name and hangs out with minor-league gangsters and gamblers in his quest to make lots of dough. In order for Ting to get close to those who have Ong Bak, George brings him to a fight-club-like dungeon where Ting must either battle ridiculously overwrought cartoon-like characters or return to his village with just his tail between his legs. Ong-Bak has a good heart and means well, which makes it more difficult to point out how intrinsically inane it is, amateurish, barely at the level of the worst of Jackie Chan, sort of a Karate Kid 7 meets Gymkata 3 by way of Don “the Dragon” Wilson’s Bloodfist XII. There was a lot of hoopla back in 2003 surrounding Jaa because all of his stunts in the film are genuine — there are no wires, CG special effects, or trick camera angles. While that does make for some fun individual scenes, it does not hold up in a lame story that lasts a very long hundred minutes. Director Prachya Pinkaew did a lot better with his 2008 martial arts movie, Chocolate, starring the awesome Yanin “Jeeja” Vismistananda. Ong-Bak is screening August 31 at 4:30 & 9:30 at BAM, concluding the “10 Years of Magnolia Pictures” series, which also included Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson, Tanya Hamilton’s Night Catches Us, James Gray’s Two Lovers, and other cool flicks from the great indie house.