The return of Tony Jaa

Back in 2003 Ong Bak burst onto our screens as an instant classic. It may not have taken the box office earnings that it deserved, but it nevertheless retained a solid fan-base, especially for the film’s star, the then unknown, Tony Jaa. Overnight he was immediately hailed the new Bruce Lee. After only starring in one film he was able to boast Jackie Chan and Jet Li as his peers, stars who have spent their whole lives in gaining such a reputation.

Simply put it was Jaa’s unbelievable gymnastics and supple body that provided an original take on the classic martial arts movie. His breathtaking stunts required slow motion replays as they were just too fast for the human eye. But with so much positive attention early on in what was supposed to be the start of a long and successful career, Jaa’s story has not exactly turned out they way he necessarily would have hoped.

Six years since his debut he has only starred in one film, 2006’s The Warrior King, which was essentially a remake of the same film, relocated to Australia with a very weak plot. But to give Jaa credit, his onscreen charisma and astonishing fighting ability was a big factor in retaining a fair amount of credibility.

So after a fairly quiet six years, it is worrying to think that after only one subsequent film Jaa has already decided to rely on his first. By cashing in on a well known franchise Jaa is guaranteed to make money. Usually such prequels contain no original actors and are distributed straight to DVD. But in this case Jaa has not only returned to star in the film but to make his screenwriting and directorial debut. So with better distribution than the its 2003 predecessor we should not write the film off just yet.

That said this is Ong Bak in name only as the film’s medieval plot bears no relation to the 2003 movie. Set in ancient Thailand young orphaned nobleman Tien (Jaa) is rescued from the evil clutches of slave-traders by guerrilla fighters who train him into a ninja warrior. Once he is a grown man, he swears violent revenge on his parent’s murderers and previous captors. In a bloodied Conan the Barbarian type opening twinned with impressive enough production values to make Mel Gibson weep this could not only be Jaa’s comeback but a new chapter to his story with the birth of his successful filmmaking career.

Although before long it soon becomes apparent that this is certainly not the case. Other than an impressive scene involving Jaa leaping across a herd of stampeding elephants, there is not much in this 80’s cliché ridden plot to hold our attention or interest for at least half of the film’s duration. It is not until two thirds of the way through that the fighting actually begins. But even then this poor excuse for a storyline is forgotten amidst the endless hoards of men charging at Jaa which soon becomes tiresome. Obviously every martial arts action film suffers the difficulty of integrating its fighting scenes with a coherent enough plot but what Ong Bak managed with ease is all too apparent here.

Even Jaa’s fighting itself seems to have lost some of its original punch as well as its charm. Despite the fact there is a lot more swordplay incorporated into the dust ups, Jaa has favoured a grittier approach with countless amounts of men having their throats explicitly sliced open. That’s not to say the choreography is without skill or the odd breathtaking moment, but the mouth watering stunts which were frequent throughout Ong Bak are only seen in glimpses this time around. There are even moments where the atmosphere turns too dark as we see women beaten half to death and children captured in their hoards just to make the antagonists appear more evil than we previously thought.

As the film progresses we are often bombarded with major sentimental plot revelations. But as the story is designed to unravel like a shocking puzzle, its tiresome predictability detracts away from the main focus of the film which is primarily the bare knuckle warfare. With too much time spent on parts of the story that simply do not need to be focused on this extensively there only function is to fuel Tien’s revenge which was plausible enough to begin with anyway.

Essentially the first half of Ong Bak 2 is pointless, this clichéd back-story does not enhance our experience of the combating but bores us in its build up. We do not need to see how this man grew up or just how evil the bad guys really are. In the end what should be the major showdown mixed with a hint of betrayal is boring. Having not featured in a decent film since 2003 it may not be that long before the name Tony Jaa is only synonymous with die hard martial arts fans.