Review: Ong Bak

The Bottom of the Bag:
A little stale, but the some new flavours keep it interesting, as does a healthy ladel of cheese.

The Thai movie Ong Bak doesn't exactly bring anything new to the martial arts genre, but it does provide a refreshing change of scenery. Like in most Kung-Fu flicks, the plot and characters of Ong Bak exist only to provide convenient excuses for dazzling displays of athletic prowess. In this case, however, the form on display is Muay Thai, a widely popular martial art that for some reason has rarely graced North American movie screens. This novelty turns what would otherwise be pretty standard fare into a worthwhile movie-going experience, and luckily the filmmakers seem perfectly aware of this fact. Rather than attempting to dress up an obviously threadbare story with false poignancy or canned sentimentality, Ong Bak's makers embrace their hackishness. The laughs are simple, but work, and a thin layer of fromage coats this bit of celluloid from start to finish.

Although subtitled 'The Thai Warrior' for an English speaking audience, Ong Bak is actually the name of a statue in the film dedicated to the local village boddhisatva. When nefarious Bangkok gangsters steal Ong Bak's head in revenge for a petty dispute, Ting (Tony Jaa), an innocent, but Muay Thai trained villager, must ensure his village's survival by traveling to the big city to retrieve their precious artifact. A pretty standard, bland setup and surprisingly, or perhaps thankfully, they don't even do much with the 'fish out of water' potential. But then, nobody making this movie is intent on serious storytelling here. The villains are cardboard, plot points are introduced and discarded for no reason other than to move the film along, and scenes are lifted straight out of other similar fight movies. I caught whiffs of old 'classics' like Bloodsport, Lionheart, and even elements of Jackie Chan slapstick, to name a few. But the film is so blatantly and unapologetically conventional that I found myself not minding. You're here to see Muay Thai and cool stunts, the film seems to say. What do you care for little details like story and character development?

This film doesn't just rip off convention, it hyperbolizes it to good effect. The main villain, who I don't think is even given a name, is a tracheotomy patient who speaks only through electronic assistance and occasionally puffs on a cigarette through his breathing hole. He exists only to place bets on his collection of full-contact fighters and exhibit hubris. Most movies of this genre cheaply space out the fights by prodding a bad plot into stumble painfully along to the next excuse for a fight. In Ong Bak, when the hero is predictably tricked into fighting for the bad guy's amusement, we're treated to three unique fight sequences, one after the other. No change in scenery or any attempt to explain why all these opponents are readily on hand, just well choreographed fighting and abundant property damage. And then there's the cheesy humour. The film sets the tones early on with the laughably overdone histrionics of the distraught villagers. Later on, when a repentant ex-villager has to act fast to save the head of Ong Bak, he doesn't just tackle the bad guy threatening to smash it with a sledge hammer. Nope. He shields it with his own body, taking not one, but three cartoonish blows. When a particularly vicious and creative fighter named 'mad-dog' enters the ring, the spectators flee screaming in terror. A major bad guy is karmically dispatched by a giant Buddha head. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.

But of course, the real point of Ong Bak is to showcase the impressive acrobatics and Muay Thai expertise of Tony Jaa. While the filmmakers have done their best with an extremely limited screenplay, it would be fair to say that this film is still largely churned out pap intended to capitalize on the recent American appetite for asian martial artists. However, so long as the movie succeeds in satisfying that craving, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Jaa himself is quite simply an amazing athlete. His style lacks the speedy, artistic movements of Kung-Fu stars such as Jacky Chan and Jet Li, and instead gives a more realistic impression of brutal effectiveness. Whereas blows in Kung-Fu flicks often seem to have exaggerated effects, it's not hard to understand why an attacker in Ong Bak is floored when Jaa drives a kneecap into his face. I found the movements of Muay Thai particularly interesting in that both the striking points and portions of the body used are different than other martial arts more typically displayed in films. This peculiarity probably would have been enough to keep my attention, but the fights in general are well choreographed, interesting throughout, and provide a range of opponents utilizing different styles of their own. One thing I can say is that Ong Bak never gives you time to be bored.

Many modern martial arts flicks tend to rely heavily on special effects for visual impact, and while this is fine within its own context, it's very gratifying to be reminded of what the human body is capable of unassisted. In back breaking feat after feat, with no stunt men or computer effects, Jaa springs through beach-ball sized loops of chicken wire, somersaults over pots of boiling oil, and suffers abuse that could easily have shattered bones in the event of any single mistake. A small criticism would be that the film has an irritating tendency to replay a shot from several different angles when Jaa executes a move the director found particularly impressive. It's a trick I've always disliked as it tends to jar me from the narrative experience, but I was willing to put up with it here to better appreciate the difficulty. Still, I'd rather they simply found a better angle that could encapsulate the effect in a single shot.

In conclusion, Ong Bak is a good bit of fun, due mostly to the abilities of Tony Jaa and the novelty of Muay Thai. Don't come expecting anything profound and it'll do just fine. Two warnings though. To filmmakers: This kind of thing only works once. The next time we see this martial art in a movie, we'll be expecting more. To the audience: Thai can be a bit harsh to the English ear. You may be tempted to skip some of the dialogue. Go ahead, you won't miss much.