Movie Review - Tom Yum Goong (Tony Jaa - Ong Bak 2?)
A young fighter named Kham must go to Australia to retrieve his stolen elephant. With the help of a Thai-born Australian detective, Kham must take on all comers, including a gang led by an evil woman and her two deadly bodyguards.
Ah yes, much like the one before it, the legendary Ong Bak! Ong Bak was a low budget martial arts flick that everyone fell in love with, why? It's super brutal realistic fighting and stunt sequences, like a blend of Jackie Chan in his early days for the crazy stunts, Bruce Lee for his rawness and energy and Jet Li for his finess and fighting accuracy.
Ong Bak remains one of my favourite martial arts movies of all time, I can watch it over and over and over.
Tom Yum Goong is similar but has the feel of a much higher budget, some CG some expensive toys and explosions, Bondesque boat chase sequence and some helicopter action.
Much like Ong Bak the script and plot is something you wouldn't even wipe your ass with, but that doesn't stop it from being an awesome film!
The acting is so-so, but once again the fight sequences will blow you away.
This was my favourite, with a wu-shu style swordsman, a huge scary white guy as seen above (Nathan Jones, he's been in some Jackie Chan flicks, Fearless, Troy etc) and some guy that could do Capoeira with such style, really really amazing.
The scene was filled with water and had a perfectly lit flaming backdrop with a buddha watching over it all, really really good.
Another good one is the fight all the way up the stairs, taken in 1 shot, unbelievable filmwork really.
The first 10-15 minutes of the movie are quite slow, very arty, nicely filmed, nice shots of Thailand etc..but really you are like OMFG KICK SOME ASS PLEASE.
The subtitles are non-existent, they only show up when people say something really obvious, or they speak in Chinese or English, at which point if they are speaking English, I really don't need the bad English subtitles ok?
Not that you need them, the movie is about some dude trying to find his elephant and kicking 72 kinds of ass along the way, that's it, end of plot summary.
Petchtai Wongkamlao was funny as expected, him being one of Thailands most prolific comedians. Bongkoj Khongmalai was very very sexy *pant* as the lost girl in the wrong place.
This is a really great martial arts movie, I loved it and will watch it again shortly (the ass kicking parts anyway, perhaps not the soft focus shots of Elephants).
If you are pretentious about movies, are looking for a plot, don't enjoy action..don't watch this movie.
However if you love to see some dude demonstrate 101 ways to break someones arm, do watch this movie!
I give it a well worth it 8/10
Tags: action-movie, kickboxing, martial-arts, martial-arts-movie, Movie-Review, Movies, muay-thai, ong-bak, tony-jaaPosted in Movies | -
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11 Comments so far
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bro, when u wanna buy DVD, please contact me, i'll bring you to a new place
DVD 9(not the damn new release) is RM 6
is shop seller so you can bring back. 4th grade Porn at RM 10. Box sets, bla bla bla, and we get to eat some Steven's good food
Using
i watched 'Ong Bak' and loved it. I read about this one in the reviews and they said, it's pretty much like the last movie so i decided not to go buy the DVD and watch yet.
After reading this I might just give it a watch..
Using
watched both. I still prefer Ong Bak.
Using
'A young fighter named Kham must go to Australia to retrieve his stolen elephant.'
That explains why young Thai fighters keep trying to drag me off to Thailand!!!!
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watched this a while back, some awesome fight sequence but some of the GC added to amplified the 'wow' factor might have been better left out. still a hugely enjoyable film tho.
Using
ahaha seems like the appeal of action movies will never be lost on you men.
Using
This movie sucked for me. REAL bad acting. But fight scenes nice lar. But still prefer Ong Bak..
Using
You got to love the ancient Thai boxing sequence.
Which is true that one master once told a friend, if the opponent are too many, you have to disable them.
Using
actually if opponent too many, just run! hahah
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Terence: Ah good! I don't buy new release anyway, mm cheng!
Arth: If you liked Ong Bak, you definately need to watch this.
KY: Yeah I agree, still the boat chase and all was quite fun.
Irene: NEVER! Mix up 1 part chicks, 1 part bikes/cars, 1 part explosions, 1 part guns/fist fights is the recipe for a happy man.
kamkuey: Acting was worse in Ong Bak for me, but I like both, Ong Bak is a lot more raw, this one is polished but still the fighting and action is great.
vlad: Yah multiple opponents, break their arms/legs then they can't backstab you hehe
Kelvin: Yah that's the first thing my greatest sifu taught me...if you can run, only fight if you can't run.
Using
Too much jacky chen's style, lack of muay thai fighting which he's really good at.