It seems that martial arts actor/director Tony Jaa is out to try and rectify all that is wrong with action cinema in the West, and with Ong Bak: The Beginning he has produced something that is not so much a movie, more a showcase of his prodigious fighting talents.
Although this is supposed to be a prequel of kinds to the 2003 hit, there are few tenuous links. OB: TB is set a couple of centuries before the original or something, and Tony Jaa plays the son of a nobleman who sees his parents and tribe murdered by an evil warlord. The plot is really just a distraction from the action, a loose framework through which various fights can be strung together. One of the most glaring examples of the inconsistencies of the world of the film comes right at the end. There is no suggestion until the last five minutes that any kind of supernatural or magic characters exist. Then a crow-bloke turns up and Jaa has to fight him on top of an elephant. Cool? Yes. Nonsensical? Most definitely.
Like all good martial arts movies the camera takes a step back and allows us to experience the true skill and brutality of the fighters objectively. The careful choreography and fluid fighting style is allowed to shine through, starkly contrasting the jerky handi-cam action set pieces so prevalent in films like The Bourne Identity et al. Jaa uses his head, elbows, knees and hands elegantly and innovatively, and for someone who knows nothing about martial arts the whole fighting experience is excellent, at times jaw-dropping. Though there are many, many fights, each one has a new and interesting twist so the formula avoids overkill. It is the fact that we are allowed to see real physical impact between the fighters that makes most of the action so powerful. Heads, arms and torsos take serious punishment, and Jaa at one point seems to come incredibly close to impaling himself on a fence during an epic fall.
Jaa spends virtually the whole film fighting enemies from all sides. As a kid his character fights a crocodile, then he trains to be a bandit king, then before he can take his throne he has to go off and rescue his childhood love interest from someone or other. There is also one of the best elephant taming scenes I have ever seen (although I cannot recall another film in which a character makes a whole herd of elephants kneel before them). In all OB: TB is a ridiculous ride that knows its audience. Dialogue and plot are kept to a minimum in order to bring about the next fight scene as quickly as possible. I can imagine that some will view this film in the same way that I viewed Halloween 2 or Couples Retreat; as generic and boring. However, OB: TB is an example of a physical actor at the top of his game, and in terms of violent spectacle is hard to top.
