Dynamite Warrior Passable B-Level Entertainment

Cinematic tradition has long linked the American West to the Far East. Akira Kurosawa, meet Sergio Leone. Takashi Shimura, meet Yul Brenner. Bruce Lee, meet the L.A. Lakers. Everyone, I assume, is well-acquainted with QuentinTarantino. A recent DVD release continues this tradition - with a huge twist - though you'll have to look hard to find it. Dynamite Warrior, out of the fledgling Thai karate film industry, was recently released on DVD. A small film, poorly dubbed, impenetrably acted, and very hard to follow, Dynamite Warrior also happens to be pretty entertaining, going to show that sometimes it pays to look past the smash hits on your local video rental place's new release wall.

The premise is interesting enough. As Dynamite Warrior starts, a solemn narrator informs us that near the end of the 19th Century, Thailand signed the Bowring Treaty, opening the country, particularly its rice trade, to Great Britain's world market. As a result, farmer's migrate into the country's interior, blowing the cattle market wide open - yep, water buffalo drives. Here we meet Jone Bang Fai (played by Dan Chupong), a mysterious bandit who not only kicks some serious muay thai ass, but also uses fireworks as his weapon of choice. "No one knows who he is or where he comes from," a villager kindly informs us. "All I know," he continues, "is that he steals cattle from traders and gives it to poor farmers. He fights with rockets. No one has ever defeated him." When the evil Lord Wang (think an Old West land baron) signs a contract with a tractor company and plots to kill every cattle merchant in the country to corner the field-tiller market, things get interesting. Or at least familiar. We've got a masked, nameless bandit with a heart of gold and a greedy, evil aristocrat pushing modernization over tradition in a dusty, unsettled landscape. We've got a Western. With muay thai.

Then comes the twist - magic. And lots of it. I won't attempt to summarize the rest of the plot in detail, because it's more than a little absurd and I'm not sure my abilities are up to the challenge, but warring wizards are introduced and "the menstrual blood of a virgin" becomes a key plot point. Needless to say, things rapidly spiral out of hand, but the movie remains interesting. Who watches martial arts films for the plot? The fighting is solid, supported by the aggressive use of elbows and knees characteristic of muay thai, a niftytrend in the martial arts film industry. Jone Bang Fai's rocket-fighting is a bit of a let-down, never used to its full potential in hand-to-hand combat scenes, and a force-like way of fighting at longer distances used by the wizards never clicks, but Chupong and his muay thai serve. Another treat is Lord Wang's ogre-like second-hand man, perpetually armed with two huge ox-yokes and apparently fueled by a supernatural hunger that not only increases his strength but can also inspire him to cannabalism. His mostly slow-motion yoke swings pack a unique visual punch and contrast nicely with Chupong's quick, versatile, and often aerial style.

Dynamite Warrior could use a little more action, marred by a few too many "Let me explain the story of..." explicatory scenes, and the ostensible hook, the Old West in the Far East, gets lost in all the magic, but really, this movie isn't terrible. Lord Wang, if not dubbed horrifically, could probably make a decent villain, prone to sing-song taunts, and Chupong plays the hero's role well. The Seven Samurai it ain't; heck, it isn't even Shanghai Noon, but for a few dollars and an hour and a half of elbow-swinging entertainment, you could do worse than Dynamite Warrior.