Action-feature Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior promises a truckload of Thai kickboxing mightiness. Completed in 2003, it opened July 24 in Japan (under the title Mach) and is apparently slated for North American release this November. In this whup-tasstic preview, a hero with flaming feet stomps opponents in all directions. Lots of aerial fight choreography without wires. Forget what I said before about that Bollywood guy — stuntman-turned-actor Phanom Yeerum, aka Tony Jaa, is my future husband.
BoingBoing reader JohnD says, “Its low budget, virtually no action for the first half, then it gets as intense and exciting as you could want it too, despite the rudimentary story,” and reader Garrett Gee says, “Fight sequences were great, it made me want to train again.”
Link to Quicktime trailer, and Link to the movie website. Link to the company that holds the copyright. Link to IMDB details, Link to alternate French site.
(via Warren, thanks for the update Tanner, and thanks very much to Joi Ito for the kind translation assist! )
Update: BoingBoing reader mediamelt says, “You seriously need to check out the trailer for
Born to Fight, the latest from the director and fight choreographer of Ong Bak. Some seriously insane stunts here. Watch for the truck scene, I hope that stuntman got a huge bonus! BTW: Ong Bak‘s plot is so-so, but the stunts are nothing short of revolutionary. You can purchase a region-free DVD of the film here (same place I got my copy).”
Update 2: Reader Jon Silpayamanant says, “There is another French site that you might be interested in as it has a download section where you can get “The Making of Ong-Bak”: Link. The reason, as I mention in my blog post, that France had already been distributing the film for several months is because of Luc Besson. There’s a little blurb about how the Thai director, Prachya Pinkaew, left a little message to Besson in Ong-Bak in the French site.”