Originally Published: 2005-02-06

One of the surprise hits at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, Prachya Pinkaew's Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, exemplifies a new breed of chopsockey actioners to come out of Asia. The lack of special effects and CGI gimmicks in favour of traditional fight sequences and tight choreography may thrust real-life martial artist Tony Jaa into the international spotlight.
Ting (Jaa) is an orphan raised by Buddhist monks and trained in Muay Thai, aka Thai foot boxing. Ting's talents are put to the test when the head of a sacred statue, Ong-Bak, is stolen by a ruthless crime boss, Khom Tuan (Sukhaaw Phongwilai). In the big city Ting befriends George (Petchthai Wongkamlao) and teenager Muay Lek (Pumwaree Yodkamol), whose older sister is tortured by Khom Tuan. The three join forces and embark on some very colourful, albeit extremely violent, battle scenes.
Though the premise is somewhat simple in terms of action movies, Ong-Bak is blessed with exceptional and very credible fight sequences that aren't overwhelmed by wires and lightning-speed edits. The film is very much reminiscent of the 1970s kung-fu movies of Bruce Lee and his followers. And though going low-tech is a risky endeavour in this age of sophisticated lensing, Ong-Bak succeeds mostly thanks to Jaa's astounding martial-arts talents and Pinkaew's uncompromising directorial hand. Not to be missed.

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