Ong-Bak [2003]
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Actor: Tony Jaa
Ting, a young bumpkin from a small village in rural Thailand is the village’s Muy Thai fanatic. He’s a good kid, wants to do good, and devotes his life to Muy Thai and Buddha. He is forbidden by the Buddhist priest of his town to use his Muy Thai for his own advancement. The village is experiencing a heavy drought and everything is done to appease Buddha. It is because of that desire to please Buddha that the priest decides to reject the offer from a big mucker from Bangkok to buy a small religious icon. In retaliation of that rejection he and his thugs decide to take the head of the Buddha statue in their temple in the middle of the night. Distraught, the village decides to send the young volunteer Ting to Bangkok.
Insert 90 minutes of shitbox acting and storyline, but with the most brutal and well choreographed, non-wire martial arts action I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Grifter, go and rent this film whenever you can find it on DVD.
