This film starts just as the last film ends with Tien (Tony Jaa) having been captured by Lord Rajasena (Sarunyu Wongkrajang). Tien is beaten, and almost manages to escape, but is overpowered by superior numbers and his elbows and knees snap and he is held as a trophy. Some rebels try to free him, but fail when Bhuti Sangka (Dan Chupong) comes and kills them. Lord Rajasena tries to hire him, but Bhuti refuses and says he will come to him begging to remove the curse that is driving him crazy. Rajasena orders Tien to be killed, but one of the kings men arrives and pardons him and takes his broken body to be healed at Kana Khone village. Rajasena of course sends out assassins to kill Tien, but he is losing it and even kills some of his closest advisors.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

The assassins arrive and slaughter the kings men and his people and others, but just manage to kill the villains. Master Bua (Nirutti Sirijanya) sets out to revive Tien, making a a buddha statue of him to help save him from the sins of his past life. The woman who has loved Tien since they were children, Pim (Primrata Det-Udom) helps, but when he wakes up he is crippled and rejects her.

Tien with the help of Master Bua starts to work on himself to fix his broken body, and slowly manages it, also learning dance from Pim, which is a healing art, and he starts to see something beyond revenge.

Rajasena visits Bhuti to remove the curse, but Bhuti kills him and becomes king (what the fuck, so the big villain is just dead by another villain?!?!??!?!?!?), though Bhuti is cursed by the severed head of Rajasena before he dies.

Tien returns from his training a new man, but finds the village destroyed and Pim taken.

He goes to the capital to confront Bhuti bent on revenge, and seeing Bhuti kill Pim, so Tien slaughters all in his way, but Bhuti kills him with a spear. And Tien realizes that being the spirit of vengeance was wrong, and time rewinds and he goes in with good intentions and Bhuti’s dark spell is broken and the people released, and Bhuti loses his evil powers.

The two fight, with Tien in the lead this time, and finally Bhuti is impaled on an elephant tusk and killed.

Tien and Pim return to the village and pray before the Buddha statue.

••••

What the fuck? I mean come on! This movie is a stinker, and I hope Tony Jaa gets his head together. He has gone and taken the vows at a buddhist temple and is currently a monk. Maybe he can get his head together and come back a better man. I would love to see Jackie Chan direct him!

Nicholas Cage is a hitman named Joe, who lives by 3 rules, which keeps him out of contact of not only anyone alive, but his clients, and keeps him a rich man, and at the top of his game. In Europe he makes a kill, and has decided to take a 4 part job in Bangkok, and then retire. He overdoses his local fixer with heroin, severing any ties with him, and disappears to Bangkok, where he is going to work for the local ganglord Surat (Nirattisai Kajareuk), but he works to keep his identity always secret. Quickly he spots a local pickpocket named Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm), who decides to make his local fixer, the one who will pick up his assignments and keep a layer between him and Surat. Kong goes to get Sarat’s assignments from a beautiful hostess named Aom (Panward Hemmanee) who works at an upscale club. He takes a liking to her right away, and wants to prove himself, buying her jewelry and the like.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Joe’s first kill, against a guy in a car, goes slightly badly when a kid sees him, and the kid keeps following, and to avoid hitting the kid, Joe ends up hurting his arm, hitting it on some rebar. He goes to a local pharmacy, and that is where he meets the deaf and dumb Fon (Charlie Yeung Choi Lei), who though she can’t speak manages to give him stuff that really helps his arm, and he is quickly smitten by the sweet girl.

Surat decides to have his men follow Kong, but Kong realizes it, and calls Joe, and Joe sends the case back with a phone, and calls Surat, and as Surat looks at his wife and sees a laser site on her head, he tells him that if he sees his men again, that his wife will pay the price.

Joe kills his second assignment, a man Kong called a very bad man, who takes young women from the country and sells them for sex. He drowns him in a pool with a body guard and naked girl on the side completely oblivious.

Joe starts seeing Fon as much as he can, meeting her grandmother and becoming a fixture in her life.

Kong had gotten heroin from Surat to kill Kong when he was done, but instead he takes him on as a student, and begins to train him in the art of being the perfect assassin. Showing him how to always be aware of his surroundings, and even giving him a brand new motorcycle.

Kong goes with Joe for the third kill at the floating market, which starts to go bad, and a huge chase ensues. Joe ends up chasing his target who is in a boat on a motorcycle, but manages to take him out.

Joe and Fon go to a temple, and on the way out they are mugged, but Joe quickly kills the two attackers, and Fon sees it. In horror she runs away never wanting to see Joe again.

Joe gets his fourth kill and it is a big wig fighting crime in Thailand, someone that Kong says is a very good man. Joe realizes he has 2 choices, to not do the job, or to get a bunch more money, do it and get out, and he decides to do it, elaborately setting up so he can get away.

Surat though is not taking chances and decides to take Joe out to leave no connection. His men rape Aom and take her, and when Kong goes to get her, they take him too.

Joe goes to do the killing, but when he sees the faces of the people adoring the man he is supposed to kill, he can’t do it, and in his hesitation, he is seen, and the military opens fire on him. Joe manages to escape and get home, but Surat’s men show up, so he blows up his house, and sets out to save Kong and Aom, but first leaving a note apologizing to Fon and saying goodbye.

Joe heads to Surat’s headquarters and starts taking down gang members in a swath, looking for Kong. He finally gets to him, and sets Kong and Aom to get out safe, while he goes for Surat, a really bad man.

Joe manages to corner Surat in his car, but the cops have shown up, and Joe has been badly shot. So he goes into the car, and sits next to Surat, putting the gun to his head, and his head next to Surat’s, and shooting and killing them both, but saving Kong and Aom.

••••

Really a good action film, with a great story of redemption. Sure Joe could not survive, but he did redeem himself a bit, and he did want to be a better person, and he did finally do some good as well.

My only real complaint int he film is seeing Fon dance, how can a deaf and dumb girl dance, she can’t hear the music!

The action is improved, and the film looks great. This did not get the best reviews, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Kong (Pawalit Mongkolpisit) is a fead and dumb assassin, and is very good at his job. He gets his jobs from a bar hostess named Aom (Patharawarin Timkul) who is the ex of his best friend Jo (Pisek Intrakanchit). Jo is the assassin who trained Kong, but can no longer shoot himself since he got a bullet through his right hand. We learn that Kong used to be taunted as a child because of his deafness, and he started working cleaning up at a gun range. He showed impressive skills, mainly because he did not flinch from the sound of the gun, and Jo and Aom saw him, and had him shoot, and Jo took him under his wing, and trained him to be an assassin. Kong goes to Hong Kong on a hit, and when he returns he has a cold, so he goes to a pharmacy, where he begins to fall for a beautiful pharmacist who helps him named Fon (Premsinee Ratanasopha).

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Kong and Fon start to see a lot of each other, and obviously get along pretty well. Kong is the happiest he has ever been.

Aom meanwhile when getting the hits from the big boss, was watched by one of his henchmen, who stalks her, and when she refuses him, he and his men rape and beat her. When Jo finds out he is furious. Jo only broke up with Aom because he feels useless now since he can no longer shoot. He promises to never leave Aom again, and goes and kills the henchmen and his men using his left hand.

The Boss figures out who did it, and gives another job to Jo, but this time betrays him, giving him a gun full of blanks, and he is killed.

Kong is out with Fon, when some muggers attack, and Kong moves into action, quickly killing the two, and scaring the hell out of Fon, who runs away from him, never wanting to see him again.

Kong and Aom find out that Jo has been killed, and Kong wants to revenge for his friend, but the Boss’s men show up and chase them, and Aom is shot and dies in Kong’s arms. He decides to go kill the Boss who killed his friends.

Kong leaves a letter for Fon telling him he is sorry, and that he won’t see her again, and she goes after him.

Kong goes to the bosses hide out, and takes out all his men, and finally gets to the boss, but the place is surrounded by cops. Fon shows up, and Kong takes his gun and puts his head next to the bosses and shoots himself and the bad guy.

••••

A sad story, and while we do finally see Kong feeling some remorse for his actions, it is not until after he has killed, and after he has seen Fon’s reaction that he feels anything, so he does not get much redemption, just revenge.

Stil as I said a really impressive low budget, first film from the Pangs.

In the 1400′s in Thailand during a period of great feudal unrest, we see Tien (who will grow up to be Tony Jaa) the son of a high official being chased by men bent on killing him, and only through the sacrifice of the warrior protecting him, does Tien escape death. Of course things are not that easy, and Tien is picked up by a slave trader, and taken to a slave market. When he pisses off the slave trader, he is thrown into a water filled pit with a crocodile. Just at that point a band of guerilla warriorsc alled Pha Beek Krut led by Cher Nung (Sorapong Chatree) attack the slave market. Cher Nung sees something in young Tien and gives him a knife, with which he able to kill the crocodile, and ends up joining Cher Nung as his new protege, being groomed to replace the leader.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Tien trains hard, and becomes one of the best that the Pha Beek Krut have to offer. He learns all forms of martial arts, and takes a series of tests to prove himself their master, of which he of course comes out on top, as the best warrior he could ever be.

Here we learn the back story of his father being a great lord for the king, who was against the wars, and was betrayed. He sent his son to safety to learn dancing from a master. Here he met a young girl who he grows very close too. Tien senaks away to find his father, and saw him and his mother killed by a masked warrior who was working for Lord Rajasena (Sarunyoo Wongkrachang). Tien is saved by one of his father’s men, as we saw in the open.

Tien goes for revenge, first against the slave traders, and then Lord Rajasena. He sees the girl he loved as a child dancing for the lord, and tries to kill him, but is stopped and fails because of the Lord’s hidden armor. Tien flees back to the Pha Beek Krut camp.

Tien fights through endless warriors, before Lord Rajasena shows up, with the masked warrior who killed his parents, who turns out to be Tien’s adopted father, Cher Nung.

Cher Nung and Tien fight, and Cher Nung allows his adopted son to kill him to avenge his father’s murder, though Tien does not want to do it.

Tien is then surrounded by more warriors, and eventually taken, and ordered to be killed, but a voice over makes it sound like he might get away (and I am sure find the girl again in Ong Bak 3 I am sure).

•••

Worth it to see Jaa in action once again. He is so amazing to watch. I would love to see him do something with Jackie Chan, where Chan can play a mentor, and direct, and Jaa can do the action, because Jaa cannot act as well as Jackie, but his martial arts may surpass him.

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.

•••••

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.

A Japanese Yakuza in Thailand named Masahi (Hiroshi Abe) falls for a high level Thai gangster named Zin (Ammara Sirpong). The Thai boss No. 8 (Pongpat Wachirabunjong) doesn’t like it though and forces the couple to break up, with Masahi returning to Japan and Zin retiring and raising their child on her own. She learns that their child Zen is autistic, and will require special care. Zen is emotionally and mentally stunted, but physically she is a genius, able to memorize complex physical maneuvers, and martial arts, and having lighting fast reflexes, so she memorizes the martial arts she watches, like those of Tony Jaa (and obviously Bruce Lee since she makes his sounds when she fights). Zen grows (Yanin Vismitiandana) and her childhood friend Moom (Taphon Phopwandee) realizes it, and uses her skills as a street performer to make money, though it gets them in trouble when roughians come after them and Zen must fight. Zin meanwhile is very sick, having cancer, and they need money to pay for her hospital bills. Moom finds a book which shows people that owe money to Zin and he goes with Zen to go and collect the money, thinking it is from friends and not from gangsters.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Of course the gangsters get rough, and at first they lave, but Zen returns at night and kicks some ass and gets the money, and the friends continue to go collect the money, but their acts get No 8 pissed off, and he sends out his transvestite right hand Priscilla (Sirmongkol Iamthuam)) to kidnap Zin and Moom. This draws Mishima back from Japan. And huge fights ensue.

It ends up that Zin is killed, but Zen manages to take out the bad guys, and ends up leaving with her father who will take care of her now.

••••

The story is simple enough, but the film is about the action, and the action is absolutely top notch, with long set pieces including one on the side of a club, with people being knocked from high up and falling to the ground. And Yanin “Jeeja” Vismitananda is cute as can be, and a bad ass little Taekwondo phenomenon, which makes her incredibly cute tow watch. Any Michelle Yeoh fans will be quite pleased. Sure her acting needs to come up a notch, but then playing an autistic doesn’t lend to too much intense acting, so hopefully she will improve as she goes on, but her action is fantastic, and as fun as can be.

Kenji (Tadanobu Asano) is a lonely Japanese librarian living in Thailand, with a mysterious past, and dreams of suicide. His brother (Yutaka Matsushige) is a low level Yakuza, who made the mistake of sleeping with his bosses daughter. Kenji leaves a strange and lonely life, organizing his books, and leading a sterile existence. One day Kenji sees a beautiful Thai girl in a schoolgirl outfit named Nid (Laila Boonyasak), but he does talk to her in time, and she is gone. Kenji’s brother come to his place to hang out with his drinking buddy (Riki Takeuchi), but the buddy is there to kill him, and does kill the brother, but Kenji then kills him and then cleans up and leaves his place. He goes out to commit suicide on a bridge and that is just when Nid drives by with her sister Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak) and kicks Nid out because she slept with Nid’s boyfriend, but Nid sees Kenji and pauses in the rose and is hit and killed by a car.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER…

Kenji doesn’t want to go home, so he asks Noi if he go home with her, and she lets him. The place is a wreck. She doesn’t care and is moving to Japan on Monday, but he starts to clean, and strangely sees Nid in Noi often, but they continue to talk in broken English, and slowly he comes out of his shell, and she starts to heal from the wound of her sister dieing. Her sicko boyfriend doesn’t stop calling though, and eventually comes over and starts beeting Noi, but Kenji comes out and stops him and kicks him out.

She gives Kenji her car, and has her drive him to the airport. He gets her there and decides to go with her, but will go get his passport, and tells her to wait, but the boyfriend comes with a gun, and 3 Japanese gangsters and their is a shootout at his place. He makes it out, but then seems to be arrested by the police, and his whole back is tatooed so he is obviously a Yakuza as well.

We then see Noi in Japan, now with boy short cropped hair, and she has a visitor, and we see Kenji’s bag with his book, and she is elated, but then we see Kenji back in Thailand still at the police station.

••••

Very, very strange.

Dan Chupong plays Jone Bang Fai “The Fireball Bandit” a Robin Hood in 1890′s Siam who uses giant fireworks, and his martial arts to attack cattle traders and theives and takes their buffalo and gives them to poor villages, and never kills anyone. He is legendary, but really he is searching for the cattle thief with a dragon tattoo on his chest who killed his parents. Meanwhile an evil local nobleman Lord Waeng (Phutiphong Sriwat) is selling mechanical tractors, and since they are not selling well, he helps a convict called The Thief (Somdet Kaewleu) whose sole motivation seems to be eating, and who carries 2 huge buffalo harnesses as weapons, to go around and steal all the water buffalo so he can sell them to a slaughter house and sell his tractors. The Thief ends up fighting a cattle trader with supernatural martial arts powers and a dragon tattoo named Nai Hoi Sing (Samart Payakaroon). This gets Jone Bang Fai’s attention and he believes Sing is his parent’s killer.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

Lord Waeng gets the help of a cursed man, the Black Wizard (Panna Rittikrai) who was cursed by Sing, and tricks Jone Bang Fai into helping them. The Black Wizard has a beautiful daughter named Sao (Kanyaphak Suwankut) and if they use her virginal menstrual blood, since she has a more powerful astrological sign than Sing. Jone Bang Fai and Sao like each other right away, and she helps him prepare his missiles with her blood, and he heads off to fight Sing.

Sing is quickly hurt, and the BLack Wizard and Lord Waeng pop out, and it turns out that the Black Wizard has the same tattoo as Sing and in fact killed Jone Bang Fai’s parrents. It then turns out that Sao is not his daughter, but he in fact killed her parents, and took her specifically so she could be used to stop Sing who cursed him so he cannot go into sunlight. Now they move in with Waeng, and he plans on raping Sao who will then no longer be able to give Sing back his powers, but of course Jone Bang Fai shows up.

The Black Wizard leaves his body and jointly takes over Lord Waeng’s body to fight. SIng is given his powers back, but is too weak, so he cuts the charms in his chest out and has Sao give them to Jone Bang Fai, so he can fight him evenly, and of course they defeat the evil duo, and blow them up in a tractor, and Jone Bang Fai and Sao leave together, though Sing was killed.

••••••

An enjoyable silly wife fu film. Really a must see!!!

I was sold after seeing Ong Bak I was sold on this team of Tony Jaa and Prachya Pinkaew, and this film just cemented it more. Once again I hear complaints about the story, well it isn’t a bad story, it is just a simple story. Ong Bak was about a man going to get his stolen Buddha. In this film a man is going to find his stolen elephants. As simple as that, and a great set up for some incredible action scenes. I mean this film really has to be seen to be believed. The capoiera fight is unbelievable. This is a must see!!

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

I checked this out because it is produced by Prachya Pinkaew who directed Ong Bak, so I expected a light story and amazing action, and i wasn’t at all disapointed. Sure the story is ridiculous, and just a means to have a war of fight scenes with athletes and gymnasts and thai boxers against evil men with machine guns, and even the bad guy who used drugs to win shows up here. If you enjoyed Ong Bak or just like old school over the top action where you can’t believe anyone did these stunts then this is an absolute must see.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

I have been hearing nothing but bad things about this movie, that the story was awful, and that it only had good action. Well I am pleased to report that this is wrong. Sure it isn’t a complicated story, but the story is good enough, and better than many recent American action films. And the action is fantastic and amazing. Tony Jaa is amazing to watch, in some instances instances putting Jackie Chan to shame at his own game, and hopefully his acting ability will improve over time.