Tony Jaa is back with his latest bone-crunching Thai epic ‘The Protector,’ known to worldwide audiences as ‘Tom Yum Goong’ with a packed 2-disc “ultimate edition” DVD release which includes the 83-minute U.S. cut (as I like to say… it’s been Weinsteined) and graciously the uncut original 108-minute version.
Making his way onto the martial-arts landscape like a breath of fresh air (along with a elbow crunch) in 2003’s “Ong-Bak,” he fast became THE most talked about martial-arts star in many years with the requisite Bruce Lee comparisons coming fast and furious. His mantra ‘no stunt doubles, no wires, no CGI’ was the perfect snare in this post-Matrix world where CGI and wire-work was the name of the game in the contemporary action field. Combine the gritty realism of his fight sequences with the aw-shucks small Thai-town boy demeanor of his characters (and his real-life persona as well, judged by the interviews), and you really have a star you can rally behind as he leaves a mass of broken bones in his wake.
Now, speaking of his two films so far, if you’re looking for an intricate plot and character development…heck, even a coherent plot, then look elsewhere because you will not find it here. The plots are just thinly veiled excuses to hang a bunch of extraordinary action set-pieces on and it works. I mean, really, when have the great martial-arts films of yore had a strong narrative? It’s good vs. evil, people, with just enough story development to get you to the next action sequence. Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, look at their best and this is what you’re gonna find. That being said, even us hardened martial-arts fans can let out a possible collective groan of recognition at the plot of “The Protector.”
Let’s see, in “Ong-Bak” we find Tony Jaa as Ting, a spiritual, small Thai-town boy who finds himself in the big city to track down the stolen head of his villages’ temple Buddha. Once there, he runs into a goofy hustler played for comic relief by Petchtai Wongkamlao. In “The Protector” we find Tony Jaa as Kham, a spiritual, small Thai-town boy who finds himself in the big city to track down his family’s stolen elephants. Once there, he runs into a goofy cop played for comic relief by Petchtai Wongkamlao. Hmmm, could have at least tried guys…but no matter, it’s the action people are paying for and it’s the action people will get.
Reteaming with Ong-Bak director Prachya Pinkaew, it’s clear this film received a bigger budget with more elaborate stunts and a cleaner look overall with a beautifully photographed opening sequence where we see Tony Jaa’s Kham become one with the natural beauty of Thailand and pachyderms. It doesn’t take long before Tony Jaa gets himself into mischief however and we find ourselves with our first teaser action scene followed by a rather goofy and sloppily-edited boat chase sequence. If you’ve seen Ong-Bak, then you’re already familiar with the bone-crunching realism of a Muay-Thai fight sequence but it seems they listened to the complaints concerning the fast edits and lengthened the shots of the film with less cuts. It is a method that makes the pain that much more visceral. Think of the long tracking shot in ‘Oldboy’ where Dae-su Oh makes his way through a hallway of baddies with a hammer. Nothing quite like that here but long shots is where the pain is felt and the camera work and editing is much more confident this time around.
Once Kham arrives in Sydney (on a side note, could it really be that easy to smuggle freaking elephants past Thai and Australian customs? Midnight Express this ain’t.), the action sequences expectedly become longer and more brutal. Oh, and that’s a Jackie Chan stunt double in the airport, not the real thing, a subtle nod to his hero I’m guessing and another nod to his hero comes in the guise of the next action sequence that is very Jackie Chan-like in it’s pace and choreography. He finds himself up against fluorescent tube-wielding rollerbladers, BMX and foul-wheeler bandits and some foot-soldiers just for good measure. A lot of running, jumping, stopping, punching, hopping and acrobatics make up this sequence and it’s fun but nothing we haven’t seen better from Jackie Chan and it also seems to hurt from some wacky camera angles and steadicam operator that can’t quite always keep up.
Luckily, after a small dollops of plot, we find ourselves at the coup-de-grace of filmed action sequences where Kham makes his way up the stairs of a three-story building dispatching of bad guys in a variety of ways in one long almost four-minute steadicam shot. Nary a vase or rail makes it out alive as Kham cracks heads, elbows and knees, shoves baddies through screens and windows or picks them up and tosses them over the rail where they land 2 stories below. It is a magnificently choreographed sequence that had to take weeks of planning. All of the buzz over the shots in “Children of Men” be damned, this is the tracking shot of the year right here folks.
Rarely coming up for air, the film now plunges us into action sequence after action sequence as he takes on fighters that are using the Brazilian Capoeira fighting style, Wushu style and just the pure hulking menace of Nathan Jones (who was also in Jet Li’s ‘Fearless’), all expertly-choreographed.
Reaching the climax, Kham engages battle in a sequence almost absurd in scope, as bad guy after bad guy gets trotted out to have various bones broken. What is almost a symphony of bone-crunching, Jaa breaks and twists for what seems like forever, with the sound-effects being particularly wince-inducing. Nathan Jones pops back in for the climax as well as the whip-wielding head villainess played by transsexual ballerina, Jin Xing! Whew, does Kham ever has his hands full!
On Disc 1, we have the U.S. Theatrical Version which runs at 83 minutes with extensive cuts (mostly character and story development) and a soundtrack by RZA that I was not a fan of. The whole hip-hop/martial-arts amalgam is quickly growing tiring for me but each to their own. Special features on disc 1 include a commentary by Asian film expert Bey Logan, a brief ‘Tony Jaa Martial Arts Demonstration,’ a Deleted Fight Scene, a fifteen-minute Making-of featurette entitled “No Wires Attached: Making The Protector” (I suggest waiting for the 55-minute documentary “Making Tom Yum Goong” on disc 2), a short ‘Making Tony Jaa’ featurette which includes a lot of back-slapping, an animated cell phone video “8 Limbs,” a director’s guided tour to the stair-action sequence, a soundtrack promo and the trailer. The U.S. Theatrical version includes the original 5.1 audio Dolby Digital and DTS along with a dubbed version.
On Disc 2, we have the uncut international version which runs 25 minutes longer with the original 5.1 Dolby Digital as our only option here (no DTS). The international version is the obvious preference here but if you’re strapped for time, the U.S. cut is certainly serviceable and not quite the chop-shop job that Miramax performed on “Shaolin Soccer.”
Special features on Disc 2 include the extensive 55-minute “Making Tom Yum Goong” documentary that covers every aspect of the film’s production. It is a very good watch and much better than the flimsy making-of on disc 1. We also have some intriguing “Short films from the Take On Tony Jaa Contest.” Uh, they lost. Both cuts of the film are presented in widescreen and are enhanced for widescreen televisions.
So yes, the narrative leaves something to be desired but the film delivers all the bone-crunching mayhem where it counts and is a positively must-see for all martial-arts genre fans. Just imagine what Tony Jaa could do with a decent script…the mind boggles.
The Protector (Tom Yum Goong) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, this version of the DVD is not available at AmazonUK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
JaaFanJan 14th, 2007 - 22:26:47
Yeah, Ong-Bak and Tom Yum have some of the greatest martial-arts scenes ever but the stories and dialogue are very silly...a very 80s goofiness to them. Hopefully for Ong-Bak 2, they'll try to change it up a bit with a good story.
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