Review of Ong Bak 2 (2008) by Ferrante J — 13 Nov 2009

So, Tony Jaa's latest face kickathon finally got an Australian release, and, well, it's hard to judge. really, narratively speaking, it's only half a movie. according to Wikipedia, the production ran out of money, and so released Ong bak 2 with plans to follow up in Ong Bak 3. which is why the film abruptly stops, leaving villains unfought and an elephant jacking unavenged.

So, the film. set in the 1400s, it plays out more or less like Conan would if it had been made in Thailand. orphaned by war and treachery, tien (tony jaa, eventually) is rescued from slavery by a gang of honourable bandits and prophesised to be an unmatched martial arts master. he then spends the next few years becoming said master, learning every weapon you can think of, and a few you couldn't have. he becomes leader of the bandits, but realises he cannot leave his parents unavenged.

The loss of what would have constituted the climax leaves the film very unevenly paced. the training sequences and flashbacks constitute the majority of the film's running time, rather than the half or even third it would have been otherwise. this leaves barely twenty minutes for the revenge to be enacted. as such, it'll be hard to really judge it narratively until we've seen ong bak 3. what can be judged is a very well shot film that is far more ambitious artistically than anything Jaa's done so far. of course, that's not why you're seeing it.

The fights are superb, which will surprise you if you have no idea who Tony Jaa is. dispensing with the kickboxing (muay thai boran, if you're a nerd) he's used in previous films, Jaa blends about 7 different cinematic martial arts, everything from traditional Chinese kung fu and drunken boxing to thai and japanese sword styles, right through to wrestling, silat and a little bit of jiujitsu. the result is a varied, unusual style that results in absolutely beautiful fight scenes, exactly what we've come to expect of the obviously incredibly ambitious Jaa. the highlight comes in the climax as jaa cycles through half a dozen weapons in about three minutes then tricks off an elephant. he also does the first really interesting one on one fight of his career, taking on a huge pacific/south east asian wrestler/brawler.

However, the climax is, pardon the phrasing, anticlimatic, as to say it ends abruptly really doesn't do it justice. again, it will all depend on whether the third film in the very loosely associated series delivers. however, I read the following quote: "in Ong Bak 3 Tien's legs and arms will be damaged by torture and require Jaa's character to "fight with some sort of boneless action. This is homework for Panna Rittikrai and Tony Jaa to create the action for us to see what it will look like to fight in the state of boneless condition.".

Holy hell. I can't even think how that would work, but Jaa's on the case, see you then.