Ong-bak Movie Review: No Doubles, No Strings, No CGIs

Theme and Story
Muay Thai is now seen more as a modern sport, rather than a battlefield skill. But this film exposes more on the really impressive hand-to-hand combat skills with a deep and formidable background on spiritual training. And it transforms the human body into a multifaceted weapon for close-combat fighting.

The attempt to promote the metaphor of being a god and stealing the head of a town's god (through the local crime and drug lord who keeps on using that weird voice producer) is a fine deal. He reveres himself as the god. The idea that he has the money and power to control and dictate who he wants to die and who he wants to live is given good validation by his dialogues.

The film complements a reddish colorgrading to fit the mood and feel of its action-packed visuals. The effects utilized are as simple as dynamic and moving camera shots matched with the right camera lenses and good camera angles, slow motion and fast motion effects, and the old school repeating of action shots seen on different angles (simple, low-budget editing tricks that work for its advantage). The gravity-defying stunts and the jumping and bouncing human bodies are all but real, no strings attached.

Those who are into martial arts or are interested in Muay Thai can get much things from Tony Jaa's moves. The authentic fight scenes are really worth immortalizing in those organic film strips. And this Thai film seems successful in promoting interest and curiosity to the Muay Thai, especially in a non-Thai's perspective.

Ong-bak is a breath of fresh air from the usual Hollywood "action fakes." Special effects? What special effects? Jaa's moves surely blow the audience away. With the great, impressive stunts but not so compelling story (though this one tends to get overlooked upon seeing Jaa's martial arts moves), watch it for the action. It's worth it.

The Impressive Stunts
Ong-bak is a film that amazes and defies the Hollywood cheats of stunt doubles, creating CGIs, putting strings and using harness while shooting on chroma to let the characters fly in mid air. This time, it shows the real thing... of what an expert can really do without using the movie tricks.

More than anything else, what strikes most in this movie is not the story, script, acting nor anything else, but the symphony of flying bodies, breaking bones, and elaborately staged chasing scenes. Ting (Tony Jaa) defies gravity and physics with his authentic Muay Thai moves. He leaps over cars, two intersecting bicycles, market stalls, and even on top of people's heads. He slides under a moving truck. He runs and escapes through a large coil of barbed wire. He seems to show off what he can do best. And the film seems to be a primer in techniques for hitting people with your elbows and feet through conceivably defensive stances.

Ting keeps the hype strong. All his fight scenes are jaw-dropping. They are all spectacular enough to ignore the other stuff on the film, especially the mediocre story. It puts life to a lifeless storyline and an overused plot. Things could have been really dragging, but seeing Ting outrunning gangs in strictly designed obstacle courses placed in everyday Bangkok busy streets in its dark side is quite a treat.

With those impressive camera movements supplementing the stunts (of fighting with the use of their limbs), the opening scene of the tree-climbing contest sets the pace of the movie filled. The take-off of the story happens when the ancient Buddhist statue of the hero's village, Ong-bak, is stolen. And Ting is the town's hero bound to bring back Ong-bak's head. He maintains a clear mind and heart. Not fighting for reasons of vengeance, money or personal gain, but only to retrieve the sacred statue, and later on, be a monk. The story is simple. No much complication on the storyline. In fact, it doesn't even pay the usual attention to romantic involvements in a storyline.

Only one goal is with him: to finish his mission. No girls, no much fuss about the world. Just bring back the statue using the art and combat of Muay Thai.

The Ong-bak seems to concentrate more on its physical aspect that the story doesn't get pushed towards a more brilliant route.

A big portion of the budget falls into burning cars, falling 3-wheeled Thai vehicles, destroying market stalls, elaborate chasing scenes, and making a great number of giant statue heads mostly shot underwater and in a cave. The film doesn't deal much with the post-production special effects but works mainly with the rawness of what has been captured during the principal photography. The extraordinarily striking moves of the main character lets you forgive some choppy edits.

In the cave sequence, taking it in a more realistic way, a quite mocking audience would ask how come there are no much guns used there for defense? It's a contemporary setting, where are the guns aimed to kill? It's obviously the usual fall ignored in the plot to control and contain the action through cinematic hand-to-hand combat scenes. It's a movie, anyway. As some might say, just try to forgive that part for entertainment's sake. Just enjoy watching Ting's tremendous fight scenes for escapist fun.