'ONG BAK II'- A LAME BUCK

This review is about the sequel to the Tony Jaa starring 'Ong Bak 1'. Before I get into the meat let me briefly encapsulate the first one in a few lines.

'Ong Bak 1' was, during its time, arguably the super martial art flick that gave a complex to the other pow fests. Path breaking in its superb stunt choreography it altogether bypassed the wire-fu that Hong Kong movies, a-la- 'crouching tiger...' had made virtually the mainstay of martial arts flicks. The action was superb and tony Jaa's skill beyond belief. Seriously, the pain threshold of the Thais seem to be almost Hashish induced! The plot was a little silly- a simple village man goes to the big bad city in search of a stolen religious artifact, and after much butt kicking and eye gouging he reclaims it.

Yet, despite the weak story link, the movie was an undeniable adrenaline roller coaster ride. To be fair to the cinematographer the scenes were also no Hollywood's poor country cousin quality. So quite deservedly the world sat up and took notice of Tony Jaa's butt kicking skills, and in between painful grimaces the audience quickly proclaimed the arrival of the new Bruce Lee. Way too soon, in my opinion...

THE SEQUEL:
The sequel strangely enough, instead of carrying on from the original, goes back in time! Confounds me but my opinions are hardly the issue here.

The plot is rather sketchy, but in short it's set in the pre-19th century Thailand. The protagonist is a prince whose parents were brutally killed by a rival war lord. After doing the rounds of a slave market he finally ends up in the esteemed company of some ancient day super warriors. The story takes off from there and the predicatble revenge motive soon takes center stage.

My views about the movie... Not even half as good as the first. I know that this will create a huge furor among the die hard dishum, dishum fans, but really way too much going on!

My complaints are three fold;
1. The plot becomes even more debatable than in the first. While I agree that plots have never been the strong point of action movies, there has to be a logical chain of events to allow people to follow it. Just stringing together a series of explosive scenes hardly makes a movie. This movie suffers from this symptom, and how!
2. Tony Jaa is admittedly a great fighter, but he is a through and through Muay Thai stylist. The acrobatic styles he uses in the first movie are from a distinctive branch of Muay Thai known as Muay Boran. He is excellent at it. But for some God forsaken reason in this movie he sets out to be the ancient world MMA fighter. Learn all skills while excelling at none. He tries Kung Fu, Kali, Escrima, Juijutsu, African wrestling... now com'on what the hell! I mean WHAT THE HELL!!!
I'm going to spend some time on this one since I'm passionate about the arts. The art of fighting is much like dance- there is a rhythm, a feel and a passion to it. Just because a person is good at cha cha he cannot expect to be suddenly good at the Fox trot. You need finesse and a fluidity to be convincing. Without it no matter how good you are at another dance you end up as nothing more than a rank amateur in another.

Tony jaa has committed the classic mistake- put too many stuffs into a pretty box, finally making it explode in embarrassing fashion. While he is a master at his art he fails miserably at portraying a convincing all-specialist and weapons master. He should have stuck to his game. But, I guess the man's trying to find his element... Really, some of the fight scenes are quite embarrassing.
3. Finally the directors of the movie ( Tony Jaa was also a co-director) have got it all wrong. They've tried to make the stunts carry the entire weight of the movie; kinda like the horse riding the man in my opinion. All stunts and no substance.

So have I given up on Tony Jaa? Not at all. He is after all just starring in his second major release, and we all know how experience teaches. I mean if you watch some of Jackie Chan's earlier movies, you'd all but die due to disbelief and pure indignation! I say give him another movie to express the sum of all his experiences. And if he's learned anything form his failures we're in for a helluva time:-)

If he has not learned anything, he deserves to be buried among the forgotten one hit wonders, that are far more common than bankable superstars.