Prachya Pinkaew, 2003
8.0
i'm giving this film an 8 for posterity's sake. forget the story, forget the horrible marketing ploy mentioning Bruce Lee, ignore the horrible dub, and hopefully you won't be caught with an audience of teenage boys weened on american 'kung fu' flicks. apparently, Luc Besson re-cut the film for european and western audiences. this is almost always a horrible idea (they also re-did the whole score; which i actually don't mind as much because it was good (even throwing in some Timbaland-sounding beats during the taxi sequence)). i haven't seen the original so i can't point to any of the new edits, some of it does have a Besson feel, mostly because of the soundtrack, but it would be outstanding if we could, just once, get an asian flick in its original form. please. how hard would that be? just leave the film as it is and let audiences see it that way. we're not stupid. dumbing it down for certain audiences does keep us stupid, though, because, for example, most north american folks don't know that what a real Jackie Chan flick is. they think it's just him trading quips with a funny sidekick and making fun of his accent. well, it's not. most of these guys are imported, thrown in the Hollywood/Miramax machine and polished into an american sitcom script. i got a shitload of reality handed to me tonight. mostly it was because of the horrible dub, though. guys were laughing and scoffing through most of the non-action sequences. you gotta get into the culture, man. forgive me for complaining but i got to. anyway. with that out of the way i was able to enjoy the magnificient, modest, and surprisingly ferocious talents of one Panom Yeerum (aka Tony Jaa). i think Twitch said it best when he said the film felt like a highlight reel. it does. but the good kind. sit back and enjoy the Tony Jaa show. the man even co-choreographed the picture. as i said, forget the story and the dub and enjoy the action. i'm not an original in singing the man's praise but that's all i've got to give. i gotta mention Pumwaree Yodkamol's natural and charming performance as Muaylek. imdb says this is her only film. it's an outrage. i almost fell in love tonight. twice. Jaa's working on his second film right now, Tom yum goong, with his Ong-bak director. it's been two years since their first outing. hopefully they've learned from their debut. that one looks very promising. let him work on his craft a few more years before casting him as a villain in a Hollywood picture and ruining him for western audiences like you did with Jet Li and like you whored Jackie Chan. the american movie machine is way too into itself and way too monstruously big for these guys. tone it down a notch or two, you could learn a thing or two from these guys. thank you.
Posted by Anonymous | 11:47 PM
