Ong Bak 2 (2009)

Martial arts movies aren’t normally my forte, although I enjoyed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon thanks to its compelling cast, technical artistry, and the magical ages-old storyline.  So I was wary to review Ong Bak 2, particularly since I’d never seen its predecessor, 2003’s Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior.  I took on the task anyway, as it afforded me the opportunity to view my first production from Thailand.

As for not having seen the original, that wasn’t a factor at all, because Ong Bak 2–subtitled “The Beginning” on its posters–is a prequel, depicting a young man’s journey from slavery to heroic leadership in the mid-15th century.  We first meet the protagonist, Tien, as a young boy being whisked away from danger by a man on horseback.  Forced to hide alone in the wilderness, he’s discovered and put into slavery.  When he attacks one of his captors, they throw the boy into a muddy crocodile pit, and his survival skills impress Chernang (Sorapong Chatree), leader of a gang of cliff-dwelling outlaws who attack the slave drivers.  Chernang takes young Tien under his wing and introduces him to a warrior training camp reminiscent of both Spartacus and David Carradine’s TV series Kung Fu. (Much like Master Po in that show, there’s another white-haired, white-eyeballed blind master in this movie.)

Time passes, and Tien grows to become the star and co-director of the film, Tony Jaa.  He soon endures a series of tests and challenges to prove himself worthy of being a true warrior, which serves as an excuse to show off Jaa’s skills in a variety of fighting styles, both with weapons and without.  In fact, Jaa was also the fight choreographer for the film, and it’s a very appropriate title, as he’s so synchronized with his opponents in the hand-to-hand fight scenes that they look like they’re auditioning for So You Think You Can Dance.  This is weakly justified in a later flashback showing Tien forced to attend dancing school as a boy.

The rest of the film’s story follows a predictable pattern: Tien triumphs in his training, becomes the new leader, establishes his reputation with a mid-film showcase fight scene, then eventually has to confront the evil king who murdered Tien’s parents before the boy’s eyes. (In classic Monty Python style, the king is the only person in the film with good teeth and not covered in shit.)  There’s also the girl Tien flirted with at the dancing school, who’s now the lead dancer for the king; she’s featured in a boring, overlong dance scene that doesn’t add a thing to the plot.

That’s a symptom of this movie as a whole.  It starts off fairly promising, with a few compelling scenes like the action in the crocodile pit, along with a stirring heroic musical score and some good camera work — although the cinematography is often either far too golden or so dark and rainy that it’s difficult to see what’s going on. 

The longer the film goes, however, the more faults become evident.  An opening narration providing historical background sounds confusing, but ultimately proves pointless because none of it is germane to the basic revenge tale at the film’s core.  The flashbacks in the middle of the film are awkwardly sandwiched into the narrative, almost like afterthoughts, and are needlessly repetitive.  There’s a scene during the maturity-testing sequence involving Tien and a herd of elephants, ostensibly to illustrate his mastery over the animal kingdom, and all I could do was roll my eyes and laugh. 

An attempt is made to pay off this sequence later when an elephant interrupts the lengthy, martial arts climax, but it merely becomes an excuse to fight on, under, and around the massive beast.  This overlong fight scene also features a staple of the genre which never fails to make me laugh: one lone warrior is surrounded on all sides by armed fighters, but they engage him only one (occasionally and rarely, two) at a time.  While Tien dispatches the baddies with great acrobatic prowess, I couldn’t help but note the similarity between his surplus opponents swaying back and forth in the background and wrestling teammates waiting to be tagged in.

Perhaps I could’ve overlooked some of these deficiencies had there been a stronger actor in the lead role, but I found Tony Jaa more than a little lacking in the charisma department.  He can move gracefully and fight well (I’ll leave it to experts more qualified than I to judge his fighting proficiencies), but he seems to be capable of only one emotion: anger.  I never sensed any variation or shadings in his performance.  Perhaps with other, better material he can develop a compelling screen presence like Chow Yun-Fat or Jackie Chan, but he doesn’t do so here.  The only thing Ong Bak 2 has going for it is the hint of potential for future productions from Thailand, if they can graduate from their training ground someday.

If you enjoyed this review of Ong Bak 2, you may also like:

• Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li
• Bangkok Dangerous