Tom-Yum-Goong

This article is about the 2005 Thai action film. For the Thai food dish, see Tom yum.
Tom-Yum-Goong (Thai: ต้มยำกุ้ง; IPA: [tɑmjɑmkuŋ], distributed as Warrior King in the UK, as The Protector in the US) is a 2005 Thai martial arts film starring Tony Jaa. The movie was directed by Prachya Pinkaew, who also directed Jaa's prior breakout film Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior. As with Ong-Bak, the fights were choreographed by Jaa and his mentor, Panna Rittikrai. In the United States, it is being endorsed by Quentin Tarantino as "Quentin Tarantino Presents The Protector".

Tom-Yum-Goong

The English-language Thai movie poster.
Directed by Prachya Pinkaew
Produced by Somsak Techaratanaprasert,
Prachya Pinkaew,
Sukanya Vongsthapat
Written by Prachya Pinkaew,
Kongdej Jaturanrasamee,
Napalee,
Piyaros Thongdee,
Joe Wannapin
Starring Tony Jaa,
Nathan Jones,
Petchtai Wongkamlao,
Bongkoj Khongmalai,
Xing Jing
Cinematography Nattawut Kittikhun
Distributed by Sahamongkol Film International
The Weinstein Company
Release date(s) 11 August 2005
Running time 110 minutes
Country Thailand
Language Thai,
English
Budget 300 million baht




Cast
Tony Jaa as Kham, the last of a family line of guards who once watched over the King of Thailand's war elephants. He grows up forming close relations to his elephant, Por Yai and his calf, Korn. When they are stolen, Kham journeys to Sydney, Australia to get them back.
Sotorn Rungruaeng as Kham's father. Kham's father taught him about the fighting styles of the Jaturangkabart, the royal guardians of the Thai war elephants. It has been Kham's father's dream that his elephant Por Yai would be selected as one of the Royal Thai elephants. However, during a fake inspection staged by a local member of parliament, his elephants are stolen, and he is wounded by a gunshot.
Petchtai Wongkamlao as Sergeant Mark, a Thai-Australian policeman who patrols an area of Sydney populated by Asians. He is so popular there that the locals often do him favors like giving him free mangoes and haircuts.
Bongkoj Khongmalai as Pla, a Thai student in Sydney who is forced into prostitution to repay the debt of her former boyfriend, the late Wittaya who used to own Tom Yum Goong Otob, a Thai restaurant.
Xing Jing as Madame Rose, a transexual member of a Chinese gang in Sydney, who is in conflict with the leader, her Uncle Mr. Sim. It should be noted that the actress who plays Rose is a transexual herself.
Damian De Montemas as Inspector Vincent, a corrupt policeman in Sydney who collaborates with Madame Rose.
David Asavanond as Officer Rick, Sergeant Mark's new partner.
Nathan Jones as T.K., a giant wrestler who proves to be more than a match for Kham.
Johnny Nguyen as Johnny, a Vietnamese gangster in Sydney who is a subordinate of Madame Rose. He is responsible for her drug deals and the running of the Tom Yum Goong Otob.
Lateef Crowder as a Capoeira fighter who fight Kham in the Buddhist monastery.
John Foo as a Wushu fighter who is Kham's second opponent in the monastery.


Kham (Tony Jaa) is the last in a family line of guards who have once watched over the King of Thailand's war elephants.

Plot

Kham is the last of a family line of guards who once watched over the King of Thailand's war elephants. He grows up forming close relations to his elephant, Por Yai and his calf, Kohrn. During Songkran festival, the elephants are stolen with help from Mr. Suthep, a local MP and his son who are collaborating with elephant poachers. Kham discovers that they are in the hands of Johnny, a Vietnamese gangster who runs a Thai restaurant named Tom Yum Goong Otob in Sydney, Australia.



Kham arrives in Sydney, and is stalked by the police as soon as he leaves the airport. He is eventually caught by Inspector Vincent and driven away in Mark's car. When the car stops outside Tom Yum Goong Otob, Kham sees Johnny leaving. He escapes and finds Johnny talking to Pla, a prostitute. Kham follows a minion as he jumps off a bridge. He takes that gangster out and manages to coerce another to lead him to Johnny's hideout, interupting a drug deal. Outraged, Johnny summons countless extreme sports enthusiasts, who arrive to fight Kham. Kham defeats them one by one, and finally faces a quad bike rider, whom he takes down as well.

Exhausted, Kham falls asleep in an alley. Pla brings him to her apartment. In his sleep, he dreams of an epic battle involving war elephants and the Jaturangkabart, the elephant protectors. When Pla leaves, Kham wakes up to the sound of police sirens, and climbs down a pipe to make his escape.




Mark and are taken off the case and re-assigned to provide security for the Secretary-General's meeting with Mr. Sim. In that meeting, Pla acted as a hostess girl to the two men. During the meeting, Mr. Sim and the Secretary-General are murdered. The murder is instigated by Vincent, who kills Rick and puts the blame on Mark. Mark escapes, but is later captured. Pla manages to escape, taking a camera phone that contains evidence of the murder with her. She is saved from the police by Kham. Pla reveals that she used to be a waitress at Tom Yum Goong Otob. Since Johnny and his men took over the management, it has been awful for all those who work there. She reveals a secret VIP area in the back of the restaurant.

With Pla's help, Kham enters Tom Yum Goong Otob. He fights his way into the VIP area and reaches the dining hall at the top. Kham demands, "Where are my elephants?" and is met with the laughter of Johnny and his men. Johnny taunts Kham with Kohrn's bell. This enrages Kham and he fights and defeats his opponents. He enters the storage area, containing various animals ready to be butchered and eaten. Kham finds and frees Mark and Kohrn, escaping minutes before the police arrive. Meanwhile, Madame Rose is made the new leader of the Chinese gang after she murders two other possible successors.

Inspector Vincent initiates a search for Kham and Mark, who are hiding in a Buddhist monastery. Soon after their departure, the monastery is set on fire. But then Kham returns, and he defeats a fierce Capoiera fighter and a Wushu sword fighter. However, his third opponent, a giant wrestler proves way too much for Kham. When the police arrive, he flees with Mark. By morning, Kham goes on his way. Mark is discovered by several policemen and sent to deal with Inspector Vincent, whom Pla has revealed to be the murderer.



Kham arrives at a conference hall where Madame Rose is having a press conference. Kohrn runs in, scaring off everyone while Kham engages the gangsters. He later finds Kohrn in an elevator lobby, where Vincent threatens to shoot him. Mark suddenly arrives on the floor in an elevator and disarms Vincent, killing his men. He beats Vincent up while insulting him. Suddenly, Johnny enters and kills Vincent, telling Mark that he has come to settle the score before leaving.



Kham finds himself with Kohrn in a huge room, and he is shown the skeleton of Por Yai, encrusted with jewels as a gift to Madame Rose. Her men then attack Kham, and are dispatched immediately. The wrestler from the monastery is called in, along with three others. Kohrn is thrown through a glass wall, and Kham is knocked into the elephant ornament, causing two leg bones to fall off. Kham ties them around his arms and uses them as clubs to knock the wrestlers out. The two bones then splinter into two sharp fragments. Remembering something his father told him, Kham uses the splinters to sever the tendons of the wrestlers, who fall quickly. He stops Madame Rose before she can escape in a helicopter, and the two crash through the roof and land in the room. Madame Rose is knocked unconscious, while Kham's fall is cushioned by the tusks of Por Yai.

Back in the lobby, Mark is shown Pla, and forgiven by Inspector Lamond. He is given a new partner who speaks Thai. Mark is then interviewed by a reporter about Kham. Finally, a narration from Mark is heard, with scenes of Kham's childhood shown. Mark explains that Thai people treat elephants like they are their brothers, and they hate people who hurt them. Thais love peace, but dislike people who take liberties. Kham is finally reunited with Kohrn.

Production



Technical aspects
Compared to Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, which was noted for its lack of wirework and CGI, this movie uses CGI in several scenes, from the obvious (helicopter scene, and an entirely computer-animated dream sequence), to the subtle (a glass window shattering in the four-minute steadicam shot that follows Jaa up several flights of stairs as he dispatches thug after thug in dramatic fashion).


Tony Jaa and a stuntperson performing the final attack shot. This is an example of Tom Yum Goong's combination of CGI and real stuntwork.The largest example of CGI is Tony Jaa's dramatic leap from the top of a building to attack Madame Rose with a double knee attack. While the background was blue screen (as shown on the right) with the Australian backdrop added in post production, the long fall shown on screen was real as Jaa and a stuntperson pulled the scene off, landing on large mats below. Even in scenes like this with blue screen, a stunt double would be called in for the lead actor, but Jaa once again made sure he did the stunt himself.

Fighting styles

Tony Jaa incorporates a new style of muay Thai into this movie (มวยคชสาร, "muaykodchasarn", roughly translated as "Elephant Boxing"), emphasizing grappling moves. "I wanted to show the art of the elephant combined with muay Thai," Tony told the Associated Press in an interview, adding that the moves imitate how an elephant would defend itself, with the arms acting as the trunk.



Stuntwork
Many aspiring stuntmen sent demo tapes, hoping to be cast in the film. An American stunt actor was cast but didn't properly take the impact and was injured on the first take. "He kicked me, I used my arm to block his kick, and he fell down hard," Tony told the Associated Press.

However, no one was hospitalized in the making of the film, with injuries limited to "bumps and bruises, muscle tears, a little something like that. Nothing major," Tony said.[1]

The fights include duels with:





Wushu martial artist (Jon Foo).
A Vietnamese triad captain (portrayed by Spider-man stunt double Johnny Nguyen).
A capoeira fighter (Lateef Crowder of the ZeroGravity stunt team).
A 6' 10", extraordinarily strong bodyguard (former WWE wrestler Nathan Jones – Brad Pitt's first opponent in the movie Troy)
A whip-wielding triad boss (world renowned ballerina Jing Xing).



Alternate versions
International sales rights (outside Asia) were purchased by TF1, which made suggestions for re-editing to director Prachya Pinkaew, who then made some cuts that slightly reduce the film's running time from its original 110 minutes.

The UK title is Warrior King, and the theatrical release was on July 28, 2006. In France and Belgium, the title is L'Honneur du dragon, and in the Netherlands and other European it is Honour of the Dragon. In Cambodia, the film is called Neak Prodal Junboth.

Subtitle issues
As with Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior English-language subtitled DVDs of Tom-Yum-Goong were not made available when the movie was distributed for home video in Asia. One of the pirated versions of the movie had subtitles that refer to the main character as "Jin" despite it saying "Kham" on the back of the box. Also, the subtitles for the spoken English did not match what was being said. Counterfeit editions of the DVD also marketed the film as "Ong Bak 2", which was the Thai working title of the film but has been re-applied to the sequel to Ong-Bak, Ong-Bak 2.

US release as The Protector
The Weinstein Company purchased the US distribution rights for Tom-Yum-Goong and retitled it The Protector (also the name of a 1985 Jackie Chan film). The film was released theatrically in the US on September 8, 2006. It was released in January 2007 on DVD on The Weinstein Company's Dragon Dynasty label in a two-disc set that includes both the US edit and the original Thai version of the film.[2]

For the US theatrical cut, the film's length was reduced by at least 25 minutes, going so far as to trim down some of the fight scenes, even though it was given an "R" rating restricting audiences to people aged 17 and over. Out of all cuts outside of Thailand, it is the shortest cut of the film, even more so than the European cuts. It also features a new score by RZA. Some parts of the missing footage (including cuts to the "bone breaker" fight and Madame Rose envisioning herself in a red dress as queen) appeared in the US trailer and US TV Spots.

Also, The Protector is partially subtitled and partially dubbed, with all of Jaa's dialogue subtitled. Several changes were made to the plot through editing and subtitles that did not match the spoken Thai and Chinese dialogue.

Changes that were made to the US theatrical release include:

The historical role of the Thai warriors is given in more detail in the opening prologue
Scenes of TV reporters given tour of Sydney by Sgt. Mark are removed.
Scenes of Sgt. Mark handling robbery and releasing the would-be assassin are removed.
Kham's father, rather than being injured, died by the gunshot.
Tony Jaa's lines now include "You killed my father!"
Madame Rose loses face and is denied a "security" contract over bad turtle soup instead of the Chinese business leader's refusal to deal because of bad terms.
Madame Rose's transsexuality is never mentioned.
The ending has been trimmed to imply that Madame Rose is dead rather than just injured after her fall through the roof.
Johnny does not return to kill Vincent after Vincent was apprehended by Mark.
Exposition is given to further explain the cutting of tendons to defeat the bruisers at the end.
The ending epilogue given by Sgt. Mark in the US version is significantly different and nobler than the Thai version, which is whimsical and comic relief in tone and is much less concerned with resolution.

Reception
Box office
Tom-Yum-Goong opened in Thailand on August 11, 2005, and grossed US$1,609,720 in its first weekend and was No. 1 at the Thai box office (normally dominated by Hollywood imports) for two weeks in a row.[3] It ended its Thai run with US$4,417,800, blockbuster business by Thai standards.[4]

The Weinstein Company released Tom-Yum-Goong in North America in a heavily-edited version entitled The Protector, which was the first release by their Dragon Dynasty label. It was also given the "Quentin Tarantino Presents" brand, which had proven lucrative in the past for films like Hero and Hostel. It opened in 1,541 cinemas on September 8, 2006 and ranked No. 4 in its opening weekend, grossing $5,034,180 ($3,226 per screen). It ended its run with $12,044,087.[5] In the US, it ranks 67th among martial arts films and 14th among foreign films.

The film's total worldwide box office gross is $25,715,096 USD. It is the most successful Thai film released in the US.[6]

References
^ Pearson, Ryan. September 5, 2006. "Breaking down the beatdown", Associated Press (retrieved January 4, 2007).
^ Tom Yum Goong DVD comparison, Premier Asia vs Dragon Dynasty (retrieved January 11, 2007).
^ 2005 Thailand Box Office Index, Box Office Mojo, retrieved January 4, 2006.
^ Thailand Box Office September 1–4, 2005, Box Office Mojo, retrieved January 4, 2006.
^ Weekend Box Office, September 8-10, 2006, Box Office Mojo, retrieved January 4, 2007.
^ The Protector, Box Office Mojo, retrieved January 4, 2007.

from wikipedia

links
Tom-Yum-Goong at the Internet Movie Database
Tom-Yum-Goong at Rotten Tomatoes
Tom-Yum-Goong at All Movie Guide
United Kingdom Official site
Rare extended version of the bone-breaker fight (even longer than the version in the Thai cut)
Tom Yum Goong review at cityonfire.com
about Thailand

Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior

Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (Thai: องค์บาก; IPA: [ɔːŋbaːk]) is a 2003 Thai action film. It was directed by Prachya Pinkaew, featured stunt choreography by Panna Rittikrai and starred Tony Jaa. Ong-Bak proved to be Jaa's breakout film, with the actor hailed internationally as the next major martial-arts star. Jaa went on to star in Tom-Yum-Goong (called The Protector in the US and Warrior King in the UK) and is directing a sequel to Ong-Bak, Ong-Bak 2.

Ong-Bak is an unabashed "Hey, look at what I can do!" action movie[1][2]starring the main character's martial abilities.[3] Its onrush of chase scenes, hand-to-hand combat and acrobatics, [4] sometimes shown multiple times from different angles,[3]drew notice for its quality, inventive moves [4]and lack of CGI and wire-fu.[5]

Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior


The Thai movie poster.
Directed by Prachya Pinkaew
Produced by Somsak Techaratanaprasert
Prachya Pinkaew
Written by Prachya Pinkaew
Panna Ritikrai
Suphachai Sittiaumponpan
Starring Tony Jaa
Petchtai Wongkamlao
Pumwaree Yodkamol
Cinematography Nattawut Kittikhun
Editing by Thanat Sunsin,
Thanapat Taweesuk
Distributed by Sahamongkol Film International
Release date(s) January 21, 2003
Running time 105 min.
Country Thailand



Plot synopsis
The scene opens in Ban Nong Pradoo, a peaceful rural village in northeastern Thailand. A group of villagers, covered in white mud, are standing by an immense Bodhi tree, looking up to the top where a flag flaps in the gentle breeze. With a great yell, they all run toward the tree and begin to climb, knocking others away. Men fall to the ground with a thud, bouncing off branches as they go. One climber comes out on top. It is Ting, the village's best athlete and fighter. He grabs the flag, ties it around his neck and descends, deftly avoiding the other climbers.

Ting is established as a reverent, respectful young man, and is anointed as such by the village's monk, in a ceremony at the community's humble little temple that night. Though extremely skilled in muay Thai, as he demonstrates for his "Uncle Mao" (indeed, it is literally "Uncle Drunk" in Thai), he has made a vow that he will not use it to harm another person for any personal monetary gain.

It is a poor village. All it has is an ancient Buddha image, named Ong-Bak. During the night, Ting's drunken Uncle Mao stumbles into the temple to discover something bad going on. He awakes the next morning to find the Buddha statue's head missing. The villagers all despair of the bad luck that will befall them if the Buddha's head is not returned. Ting speaks up and says he will recover it at all costs.

The villagers all chip in, giving up treasured baht and hoarded trinkets to pay for Ting's way to Bangkok, where he is to meet his ne'er-do-well cousin Humlae and get help in tracking down the men who stole Ong-Bak's head.

In the city, we find that Humlae has dyed his hair blond and renamed himself George, since his village name, "Humlae", also means "Dirty Balls". He and his friend, Muay Lek, are street-bike racing hustlers who have fallen in with a bad crowd of yaba dealers.

Humlae is at first reluctant to help Ting, but when he sees the small fortune in coins that Ting has collected from his village, Humlae takes an immediate interest. And, when Ting is in the bathroom, Humlae grabs the sack and heads for a bar on Khaosan Road where an illegal boxing match is going on. Ting tracks Humlae down, but instead of getting his money back, he ends up fighting and being named the new champion after one high knee smash waylays the old champ.

This makes Ting an enemy of Komtuan, a gray-haired, wheelchair-bound crimelord who needs an electrolarynx to speak. He's been watching the fight from his private room, and losing money because Ting keeps beating his fighters.

Meanwhile, back in Ting's village, there is bad luck indeed. The ground is dusty and full of cracks and all that's left in the village well is muddy water. They need the Buddha's head back for the drought to end and good luck to return to the village.

George keeps working shady deals, with he and Muay Lek working a scam at a baccarat game in an illegal casino. Eventually, the scams catch up with him, and the drug dealer shows up to give George a beating. Ting ignores George's cries for help, but when the drug dealer starts smacking Muay Lek around, Ting takes care of things. But then the drug dealer's friends and the cheated casino boss show up and a footchase through the alleys ensues, with Ting showing off his acrobatic skill as he walks over crowds, jumps through a barbed-wire hoop, leaps over a rack of sharp tools, cartwheels through a narrow space between two panes of glass, and does a gymnastics move over a wok of hot oil.

That night, there is another fight at the bar. Ting is egged on by Big Bear, a vulgar Australian fighter. Finally, after Big Bear beats another Thai man and assaults a waitress, Ting takes up the fight and easily beats the hulking man. He then must fight Toshiro, a very fast Japanese fighter, and finally Mad Dog, another farang, who favors the use of such objects as chairs, tables and even a refrigerator to punch and smash his opponents with.

Muay Lek, meanwhile, has been struggling to keep her older sister Ngek from using drugs. Ngek has fallen in with a small time crook named Don. Muay Lek shows up at Don's apartment with George and Ting to find her sister overdosed. George and Ting take off and chase the boyfriend in tuk-tuks, with several of Don's buddies joining in. The tuk-tuks take to an elevated expressway, and the scene climaxes with many tuk-tuks driving off the edge of an unfinished portion of the highway.

Ting follows the bad guys and ends up at the port and in the Chao Phraya River, where he discovers a cache of stolen Buddha images. This leads back to the gangster Komtuan, who makes Ting fight one of his bodyguards who has been treating himself with drugs, making him full of rage and impervious to pain.

Eventually, Ting and George are taken to the gangster's hideout in the mountains, where the head of a giant Buddha image is being chiseled away. There is a final showdown, ending in the Buddha head falling on Komtuan. George rolls away before the giant Buddha head hits him, but dies as a result of injuries inflicted upon him by being beaten by a sledgehammer while trying to protect Ong-Bak's head from its blows.

The head of the Ong-Bak Buddha statue is restored in the temple of Ting's village. Ting, now ordained as a monk with shaven head and white robes, arrives into the village in a procession on an elephant's back while the villagers celebrate his ordination.



Production
Background
Featuring amazing chase sequences and bouts of intense, but gracefully choreographed violence, as well as Tony Jaa's own acrobatic agility and fighting prowess, Ong-Bak became most notable for eschewing CGI and wires in favour of physical stunts for its outrageous action sequences (however, a crane was used to lift a tuk-tuk during one sequence). Indeed, much of the film's international advertising boasted of the fact, with a tagline stating: "No stunt doubles, no computer images, no strings attached."

The film introduced international audiences to a traditional form of muay Thai (or Muay Boran, an ancient muay Thai style), a kickboxing style that is known for violent strikes with fist, feet, shins, elbows and knees. The fights were choreographed by Panna Rittikrai, who is also Tony Jaa's mentor and a veteran director of B-movie action films that all feature realistic stunt work.

Jaa was trained in Muay Thai since childhood, he wanted to bring Muay Thai to mainstream so he decided to make this movie. Jaa and Panna struggled to raise money to produce a demo reel to drum up interest for the making the film. Their first reel was made on expired film stock, so they had to raise more money and start over.




Stunts
During the foot chase through the alleys, there is writing on a shop house door that reads "Hi Spielberg, let do it together." This refers to Tony Jaa's desire to someday work with Steven Spielberg.[6]
During the tuk-tuk chase, when a tuk-tuk falls off the elevated highway and hits a building, the following message is written on a pillar on the left side of the screen: "Luc Besson, we are waiting for you." The French producer-director's company, EuropaCorp, would go on to purchase the international selling rights to Ong-Bak outside Asia.
One of Tony Jaa's favorite scenes is at the gas station. With his trousers on fire, Ting kicked one of the villains in the face. The flames spread upwards very fast and burned Tony's eyebrows, eyelashes and nose. He then had to do a couple of more takes to make sure it was right.



Alternate versions

After Ong-Bak became a hit in Thailand, sales rights for outside Asia were purchased by Luc Besson's EuropaCorp, which in turn re-edited the film.

Most of the subplot involving Muay Lek's sister, Ngek, was removed.

The French company also rescored the soundtrack with some hip-hop sounds, replacing the Thai rock score, and it's this version that has been made available in the United States.

For the United Kingdom release, the soundtrack was scored yet again, this time with an orchestral score.

The Hong Kong cut of the film's theatrical release omits a "bone breaking" sequence toward the end, where George's arm is snapped and Ting in turn snaps the leg of a bad guy. DVD releases in Hong Kong have the scene restored.


An "alternate ending" offered on the Thai DVD release has George surviving. He is seen at the end bandaged up, limping, with his leg broken, supported by his parents.



Alternate titles
In Thailand, it was simply called Ong-Bak. This name was preserved in Premier Asia's UK release.
For the release in Singapore and other territories, as well as film festivals, the movie was released as Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior.
In the United States and some other places, the movie was released as Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior.
The Hong Kong English title was Thai Fist.
In Japan, the film was released as Mahha! (the Japanese word for "Mach").
In Italy the title was Ong-Bak: Nato per Combattere, which translates Ong-Bak: Born to Fight.
In México the title was Ong-Bak: El Nuevo Dragón, which translates in to Ong-Bak: The New Dragon. in reference to Bruce Lee
The Indian release featured the title "Enter the new dragon" also in refence to Bruce Lee

Subtitle issues, DVD releases
English subtitles were absent from early DVD releases of Ong-Bak. The Thai release omitted the subtitles, as did the versions released in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea.

For a time, the only legal home-video version of Ong-Bak with English subtitles was a Hong Kong VCD, but the translations were generally pretty poor.

With the UK and US DVD releases, Ong Bak became officially available with English subtitles, but those are versions that have been re-edited. There's an Australian-issued DVD that's a two-disc package featuring both the original Thai cut and Luc Besson's version.



Box office
On February 11, 2005, the film was released in North America at 387 theatres under the title Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior. In its opening weekend, it grossed US $1,334,869 ($3,449 per screen), on its way to a total of US $4,563,167.

Sequel
After Ong-Bak became a huge worldwide hit, Jaa's name was attached to many projects. He went on to act in a small role in the Petchtai Wongkamlao vehicle, The Bodyguard (co-directed by Panna Rittikrai), and then starred in the much-anticipated Tom-Yum-Goong in 2005. In March 2006, it was announced that filming for Ong Bak 2 would start that fall and be released sometime in 2008, with Jaa as director.

References
Yusof, Zack (November 21, 2003). "Selling a Thai style", The Star (Malaysia). (Retrieved from Google cache on March 28, 2006)
Franklin, Erika (May 2005). "Alive and Kicking: Tony Jaa interviewed", Firecracker Media.
^ "The slender story line of good vs. evil is an excuse for many terrific fight scenes." Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior review, Film-Forward.com
^ "Anyone looking for story or character should check out now. -- the only reason to see it is for the action. In that arena, on a scale from 1 to 10, it’s a 20." George Wu, Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior review, Culturevulture.net
^ a b "You're pinned back in your chair, worried that Tony Jaa, a human hurricane of fists and flying feet, will jump out and kick you in the face." Phil Villarreal, Jaa's fists and feet take flight in 'Warrior'. Arizona Daily Star
^ a b "Certainly, they create a few moves that have never been done before. ...the appeal here is the action, and once they get past all the narrative setups, the stunts are relentless." Andrew Sun, Ong-Bak review, The Hollywood Reporter
^ "Counteracting recent exposure to the numbing effects of computer-generated and wire-supported tricks... ...the artifice-free antidote to such F/X enervation..." Lisa Schwarzbaum, Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior review, Entertainment Weekly
^ Duong, Sehn. August 16, 2006. Tony Jaa Says No to "Rush Hour 3," "Yes! Yes!" to Indy 4, and Reveals "Ong Bak 2" Tidbits, Rotten Tomatoes (retrieved August 24, 2006)

from From Wikipedia

The Next Action Hero

The Next Action Hero
Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005
By RICHARD CORLISS

Bunch of villains chases the hero through back streets clogged with human traffic. Nothing new there. But watch the way Thailand's Tony Jaa uses his daredevil energy and grace to obliterate action-movie clichés in the pummeling, exhilarating Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior. With a spring in his sneakers, he vaults over a pyramid of tires, a flotilla of cars and a class of children while being pursued by a gang of thugs. He dives through a ring of barbed wire, glides under moving vehicles. He jogs up pedestrians' backs and tiptoes on their heads. In this thrilling 5 1/2-min. scene, Jaa defies gravity, death, logic and all those out-of-breath bad guys.

Action-movie stars have become geriatric lately. Arnold is Governor, Sly is about to become a reality-show host, Jean-Claude Van Damme toils in direct-to-video. Jackie Chan is almost a creaky 50, and Jet Li doesn't work much anymore. The genre needs another hero, and Jaa (Thai name: Phanom Yeerum) is the fellow to fill the void. He's young--28--and good-looking, with a quiet élan to match his athletic skill. He's also a throwback to kung-fu film's early days, when stars and stunt men alike took a licking and kept on kicking. Ong-Bak has no crouching, no hiding, no wires, no pixel-perfected stunts. Like Chan's early epics, it convinces you that the mayhem is real, that the star is enduring the pain for your pleasure.

"Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee are my masters--they're the inspiration for my work," says Jaa, speaking through an interpreter. "Bruce Lee was a heavy fighter who threw hard punches. Jackie moves very fast and uses a lot of comedy, and Jet Li is very fluid. I've tried to combine all of their styles and added some things of my own."

With its primitive action premise (a sacred MacGuffin has been stolen; you go get it back), Ong-Bak needs the things Jaa can add. And there are plenty. As Ting, a country-boy studying to be a monk who has been taught Muay Thai martial arts and goes to Bangkok to retrieve a missing Buddha head, Jaa battles a series of Asian and Caucasian bruisers with fists, feet, elbows, head--he uses them all in his full-body barrage--with a sleek intensity and jaw-swiveling impact unique in movie martial arts. He also knows how to take a fall. In one match, he gets on the wrong end of a killer kick and executes a triple twist before hitting the canvas, as if Greg Louganis were doing a gold-medal dive from a curb into a puddle. And stick around for Jaa's higher, higher, pants-on-fire stunt, in which he twirls and kicks while swathed in flames.


Like most other martial-arts stars, Jaa has been preparing since childhood. Born to elephant trainers in the hard-luck northeast province of Surin, the boy watched kung-fu movies on outdoor screens during temple festivals. Soon he was aping his heroes and studying gymnastics as well as Muay Thai, an ancient Siamese boxing discipline that is a kind of combination of karate and kickboxing. He worked as a stunt man, doubling Robin Shou in Mortal Kombat, before director Prachya Pinkaew saw a reel of Jaa's best stunts and built Ong-Bak around him.

from :www.time.com

Hitting the Big Time

Monday, Oct. 18, 2004
By ANDREW PERRIN

When Tony Jaa's film producer met him for the first time, she thought he was "ugly" and "couldn't act." His image consultant now says Jaa is "uncool" and is urging him to get a new haircut. His English teacher despairs that two years of lessons have yielded little more than a rudimentary grasp of the language. Listen to his minders long enough, and you may start doubting the buzz that Jaa is Southeast Asia's long-overdue answer to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

Until you see Jaa in action. In a cavernous room on the third floor of a stunt training center in Bangkok, Jaa bobs on the mat like a gymnast lining up a run to the vaulting horse. At the end of the room, a crew member holds aloft a cushion that stands in for a human head. Jaa hurtles down the runway, launches himself like a missile, flips in midair and brings his right foot crashing down on the cushion. The kick sends the cushion?and the unfortunate guy holding it?flying across the room. Jaa lands on his feet and smiles.

In Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, the stunt man-turned-actor leaps across boiling oil, ballets above an array of tuk tuks and beats up anyone foolish enough to challenge him. The insane inventiveness of the stunts?done without special effects, wirework or apparent concern for Jaa's life and limb?has turned into box-office gold in Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and even France, where the film found a fan and international distributor in action auteur Luc Besson. Besson recut the film and secured a U.S. distribution deal with Magnolia Pictures. Expectations are high that Ong Bak and Jaa will break big in North America when the movie is released in February.

Jaa, whose real name is Phanom Yeeram, grew up in Thailand's rural northeast, a region most notable for its poverty and, in the early 1980s, the occasional mortar round fired across the Cambodian border by the Khmer Rouge. "Some days we'd be sitting down to dinner and the mortars would explode in the village, blowing out our windows and doors," Jaa says. He escaped these grim realities by viewing the films of Chan and Lee on outdoor screens at temple fairs. "It was powerful for me to watch," he says. "What they did was so beautiful, so heroic. I wanted to do it, too." Jaa practiced in his father's rice paddy or, when bathing the family's elephants, by somersaulting off their backs into the river. "I practiced," he says, "until I could do the move exactly as I had seen the masters do it."

At 15, Jaa sought out the Thai stunt coordinator and low-budget action director Panna Ritthikrai, who took him on as a prot駩. He went to a gymnastics college and soon found work as a stunt man in local and international films, including 1997's Mortal Kombat 2. Then he and Ritthikrai started devising their own stunts inspired by muay boran, a more elegant and traditional form of Thai boxing that resembles kung fu. Jaa traveled the countryside talking to the few remaining old masters of muay boran, rediscovering more than 100 long-abandoned moves. Ritthikrai and Jaa filmed the actor's best stunts and showed them to Bangkok director Prachya Pinkaew. The filmmaker was dazzled but had problems getting backing for a film with Jaa in the lead role. "Thai audiences are not used to seeing people from the northeast in the lead," says Sita Vosbein, managing director of Pinkaew's production house, Baa Ram Ewe. "They think people with dark skin are uneducated and ugly. They are always cast as bad guys." When the film was a hit, Jaa felt accepted at last. "I have never been so proud," he says. "I've been fighting discrimination since I was very young. For people to appreciate the beauty of the ancient art of boxing, instead of focusing on what I look like or where I come from, was what I had always dreamed."

Now Jaa is so busy filming his second movie, Tom Yum Goong, in Thailand and Australia, that he has no time to improve his wardrobe, his hairstyle or his English. "Bruce Lee couldn't speak Thai," Jaa says. "And I loved him, anyway."

from :www.time.com