Brave by Thanapon Maliwan and Afdlin Shauki (2007)
25 June 2008Balls to the wall Thai action, reminiscent of the best of 1980’s and 1990’s Hong Kong action, just non stop from start to finish, and well worth checking out. Sure the story isn’t too deep, and their isn’t a huge amount of character build up, and Michael B. is not as skilled as Tony Jaa, but that doesn’t matter, because this movie delivers with some constant and fun as hell action and is well worth checking out. The only problem is that the dvd I picked up is not anamorphic (though the box says it is) and the subtitles are so low that I had to leave it centered on my TV so I could read the subtitles, but it was still worth seeing. The film has a fun blend of comedy and action, and the action is worth seeing the whole film for. I hope a better English release of this film comes out.
The stuntman Pairote “Michael B.” Boongerd plays Bee, who in the opening we see taking directions from someone on a phone, to go into a skyscraper, and break in, fighting everyone on his way (even the beautiful receptionists know martial arts). Bee calls in a huge bunch of orders, pizza and the like, to cover his escape. Eventually he gets into the office and grabs the executive Lita (Supaksorn Chaimongkol) who is married to the owner and copies all the bank records onto a rubber USB flash drive he is wearing as a wrist band,and then manages to escape. It is a setup, he is doing it to save his step brother (Malaysian comedian Afdlin Shauki), who is tied to some explosives down by the docks. He leaves the USB drive, which the bad guys crush, and just manages to escape with his step brother. We learn that the brothers wife was killed by some gangsters and Bee took revenger, and ended up in Prison, but it seems that they are not done with him, and Kovit (Sahaschai Chumrum) now wants revenge for his revenge.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….
We see Lita with her husband, who after losing the records from his bank kills himself/
The step brothers end up getting taken to Kovit’s headquarters, where they are tied up, but they see that Kovit has Lita, and they vow to save her.
What they don’t know is that Lita was working with Kovit, and brought him the deal to get the records to begin with. INitally he had run out of money for her family, and had to work as a prostitute for her husband, and she married him and vowed revenge on him, and that she would see him die, which she did. Now though Kovit is going to rape her.
Bee and his brother manage to escape, and the two fight their way through all the bad guys, kicking ass and getting their asses kicked, until they finally get to Kovit. Kovit takes the fat older brother and has a gun to his head, so Bee gives up the gun he got, and we think it is over until Lita shoots and kills Kovit.
Then we are in Lita’s house, and the guys are thanking her for not pressing charges, when she gives them tea. and they begin to collapse, she has betrayed them, but they smelled it in the tea, and realized it. She is going to shoot them, but doesn’t as the brother convinces Bee to forgive her.
The film ends with the Brother with a new family and children in Malaysia, with Bee, and they go to a temple, and Lita is now a monk at the monastery with her head shaved.
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Ridiculous fun in the vein of 1980’s an d1990’s Hong Kong action, where the story matter less than action, and what fun action this is. Really a must see even with the obviously bootlegged transfer I saw.
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