Recommended Martial arts/ Action movies

[Phil Redmond]

"Hero", with Jet Li. Donnie Yuen and Li have a great sword play scene near the begginning.

"Musa", a Korean epic film.

"Equilibrium" A Sci-Fi flick with "chi gun". Must see

"Bichunmoo" Korean

Ernie mentioned a Thai flick that he said was good. Hopefully he'll post the name.

[Gangsterfist]

Riki-oh

Buchimoo is awesome, I really recomend that one.

Master of the Flying Guillotine

Storm Riders (if you like the dragon ball z type kung fu movies)

Shaolin Soccer - I thought it was hilarious.

Any Kurosawa film - Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, Sanjuro, Ran, Samurai Trilogy, Throne of Blood - all good classics.

Zatoichi: The blind Swordsman - great series of movies.

I guess I could go on and on and on about this, but I will refrain myself here.

One last thing I forgot, the movie Wing Chun starring Michelle Yoeh.

[Phil Redmond]

Gangsterfist, You'd love Equilibrium if you're in to Sci-Fi. It's Matrix-like and there are some great gunfight scenes including a chi gun fight at the end. I think EQ is going to become a cult classic. Christian Bale is the star.

[Nick Forrer]

In terms of CMA

Jet li:

Tai chi master
Fist of legend

Jackie Chan:

Wheels on meals
Drunken master 2
Who am I
Armour of God 1 and 2
Police story 1 and 2

Also

Iron monkey

Prodigal son (wing chun)
Warriors 2 (wing chun)

In terms of boxing

Raging Bull beats Rocky every time.

In terms of gun play

The killer
Hard boiled 1 and 2

And finally
Any film by 'Beat' takeshi
especially

Hana Bi
Sonatine
Violent cop
Brother

[Gangsterfist]

Cool, thanks Phil. I have some friends who manage a video store not too far from where I live. I will call to see if they have it, and if they don't they will probably order it for me.

Tai Chi II is really good too. That guy (I am horrible with chinese actor names) who plays the main character does an awesome job.

I saw this really awesome japanese action flick a few years back and I cannot remember the name. Its about 4 business men who cross paths with some x gangster (or perhaps gangster) guys. It turns out to be a thriller action movie. It starts off in a bar and the x gangster guys beat the crap out of one of the business men. Later on they see one of the gangster guys and get revenge, but they accidently kill him. This turns into a chain of events where they all try to kill each other. I can't remember what its called but it was awesome. Maybe someone can help me out here? The end action scene was in a parking garage....anyone know what movie this is. Sorry I am so bad with the details but I rented once when I was in denver and never saw it again. That was like 3 or 4 years ago.

[Phil Redmond]

Here's a link to the Equilibrium trailer
http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/equilibrium.html

Nick Forrer,
The Donnie Yuen Iron Monkey is OK, but I personally prefer the original Iron Monkey with the "real" fighter Chan Kwan Tai.

Mad Monkey Kung Fu is one I forgot.

[Nick Forrer]

Hi Phil

I just like the bit where he chops noodles into the wok from 6 feet away:p

kinda like the bit in prodigal son where sammo demonstrates his calligraphy(?) skills.

regards

[Ernie]

the movie is called ong bak it's off the hook as far as thai fighting goes .
as far as movies go gentleman i got over 500 old school shaw brother type flicks , some dude let me have a access to his server and he was a serious collecter , so i figured fo free why not ,
so if you have any questions about a movie just let me know, i probably got it ,
modern movies to get all that stuff for free , just to give an example , last samuri got it , lord of the rings 3 got it , and so on

[Ernie]

here is the site to get ong back , but you need to use a program like emule to download it , there are tons of martial movies hear just go to the main page http://www.acfmovies.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=14798

[yuanfen]

Gangsterfist- I dont think that the Samurai Trilogy was a Kurosawa film though Mifune played Musashi.

Michelle Yeoh looked great but her wing chun movie wasa bomb IMO.
-------
In boxing- Anthony Quinn in Requiem for a Heavyweight was superb. Good acting- a few fights.

There is Kirk Douglas in the oldie- Champion
Errol Flynn in Gentleman Jim

Some brutal scenes with Brando- On the Waterfront
--------------------------
The original Billy Jack movie was action packed(Hapkido)

Coonery as Bond in Dr No- that stimulated one of Bruce Lees
movies
------------------------------------------------------
Spencer Tracy asa one armed karate chop guy in Bad Day at Black Rock was pretty good.
--------------------------------
Here and there in the multi segmented MAHABHARATA series on Indian TV---there are some good fight scenes--- wrestling and fighting with clubs, archery, some pitched battles.
The series is often available for rental in Indian grocery
or video stores. India is the largest producer of movies in the world but generally when they do have fight scenes here and there- its very poor choreography. But some of the dance choeography is good.

[wentwest]

Yuanfen is right. Samurai Trilogy was not by Kurosawa. I just saw all three within the last month, and I am sorry to say that I can't recall the director (or directors).

Sword of Doom is one of my favorites. If you haven't seen it, I think it's one of the best Samurai films of all time. Beautiful cinematography along with great actors and a good story. Mifune has a good cameo scene in it too.

[wentwest]

Under siege has a wicked knife fighting scene between Tommy Lee Jones and Seagal that is definitely an FMA style. I think it looks pretty much like Pekiti-Tirsia Arnis. Anone else with FMA knowledge know what style it is?

[JAFO]

My favorite Jackie Chan movie was one of his earlier ones, before he got into comedy. "Snake and Crane Arts of the Shaolin" I saw it in Taiwan when it was first released in 1978 - Mandarin soundtrack, English/Chinese subtitles.

He had a couple opening sets that were the best I've seen before, since and after for that - Spear, Sword and Tonfa, Double Swords, and a three man set.

He had another one prior to that that I also saw over there - "Shaolin Wooden Men" - also a great flick, although I don't remember much about it.

Geez, now you guys got me wanting to go out and rent it again (if I can find it).

[Nick Forrer]

Reply to EC

The guy you mention is dutch. I have seen him perform kata at a tournament. The name escapes me at the moment. You can see him in the Jackie Chan doc. 'my stunts'. There are parts in the fight scene where they use a double because he kept using 'real' kicks rather then the kind of 'film' kicks they wanted.

[Phil Redmond]

Sammo Hung does some WC in the last fight scene of "Gambling Ghost. And I'll have to agree with Jackie Chan's,
"8 Steps of The Snake and Crane (aka) Snake and Crane Arts of Shaolin. The fist fight scene near the water edge was one of the best I've seen him do.

[Frank Exchange]

"Ong Bak", the Thai movie discussed earlier is really excellent.

Its as good as the Korean "Musa", but in a totally different way.

Still great filmatography, the juxtaposition between the westernized decadence of Bangkok and the abject poverty of the countryside is not rammed in your face, but is still obvious.

And lest you think I'm getting too arty, those flying knees, elbows and headbutts! Brutal. A good half of it is fighting. And as a long term viewer of HK movies, the hero does acrobatic stuff without wires that blew me away. Thought I had seen everything.

Try it. You might like it. If you feel like being a pirate, the acfmovies site posted by ernie earlier has it.

[Gangsterfist]

I just picked up some new kung fu dvds today.

I got a sammo movie called, moon warriors - its pretty sweet.

and I got Tsui hark's - Vampire Hunters which is cool. It reminded me of evil dead on how the vampires looked.

[Ernie]

e.c. you need to be useing emule or a progem like it , with emule running you then click on the link and it appears in emule

http://www.emule-project.net/

good luck

[Ernie]

the subs suck but the quaility is dvd and the movie doesn't need sub the fights will be enough ,
let me know how things turn out

[Nick Forrer]

Hi ernie

Just watched Ong Bak

Wow what a film-amazing- he pulls off some great moves.

This guy puts jackie, jet and even St Bruce to shame

All I can say to everyone else is watch it asap.

I got good subs so the plot was easier to follow.

Thanks again ernie

Next stop Musa!!

Regards

Nick

[Ernie]

no problem nick , i got so many great movies , don't know which one i should pass on next ,
hey hit me back on that email

[yuanfen]

gangsterfist sez:
Tai Chi II is really good too. That guy (I am horrible with chinese actor names) who plays the main character does an awesome job.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Justs saw bits and pieces of it... some nice flying/kicking scenes

[Gangsterfist]

Yeah I saw it on cable last week (stupid digital cable has western movies on demand channel but not kung fu!!!!!). The main character does a great job, and for once it wasn't all movie magic modified kung fu. I actually was recognizing some of the tai chi moves he was doing from the tai chi forms. I only know the first short form however...

[CFT]

Just saw this on Saturday night. Stars Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro.

Some very brutal and very realistic looking (to my untutored eye) knife fighting (Kali) scenes.

[Phil Redmond]

Mark Dacascus is sometimes over looked in MA movies. He's pretty good in "Only The Strong", "Crying Freeman", and a few more. BTW, he does his own stunts.

[chris]

gangsterfist wrote:
Tai Chi II is really good too. That guy (I am horrible with chinese actor names) who plays the main character does an awesome job.


The actor's name is Jacky Wu.

I think the Sam the Iron Bridge Trilogy (White Lotus Cult, Same the Iron Bridge and One Armed Hero) is pretty good.

[Gangsterfist]

Anyone know any movie that uses mostly wing chun in the fighting?

I just rented Underworld this weekend. If you can get past the hollywood cheesyness of it, its allright. Vampires Vs. Werewolves is always kinda cool.

[Phil Redmond]

Ernie, I sent the link to the Ong Bak movie to a few friends. A couple of guy wrote me back to sau they had seen it and that it had the BEST martial arts sequences they had ever seen. I tried to find it online and all I could find were Region 3 DVDs which aren't good for North America.

[Ernie]

i boot leg all my flix
i have it in avi and svcd format but my eng subs are real bad . and it is a very good movie .
try and download it .

[zultan]

THE STREETFIGHTER with Sonny Chiba
Shoalin Challenges Ninja with the almighty Gordon Lui
Two fine flicks indeed!

[Tom Kagan]

Hmm, all these posts and not a single Bruce Lee film recommended? Perhaps there is still hope for us. ;)

I'll break the seemingly unwritten rule twice, but not in an obvious way:

Bruce Lee, True Story (1976) - a.k.a. Bruce Lee, The Man, The Myth. starring Bruce Li. SiBak Yip Chun stands in for his his father, Yip Man.

The Last Dragon (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/lastdragon/lastdragon2.wav) (1985) starring Taimak. Bad story, bad script, bad directing, bad acting, bad hair, bad music, bad comedy, bad martial arts choreography, bad film! Oh, and it's the highest grossing American martial arts film of all time. :eek: What can I say? I liked it. If you're going to watch a cheesy, blaxploitation martial arts action/comedy flick, you might as well pick a good one.

That's it for Bruce. Here are two more films which are Shameless Plugs:

Gun of Dragon (1993) starring Mark Cheng (also in Tai Chi 2 previously mentioned). My classmate, Patrick Lung Kong (also in Black Mask as the 701 squad's Commander) gets to have our teacher killed (Moy Yat, in a cameo appearance). The Hong Kong release with subtitles is more gruesome than the re-edited American release.

Manhattan Midnight (http://www.allinone-usa.com/Manhattan_Midnight.video.ram) (2001, unreleased as of yet) starring Richard Grieco. Winner, Best Picture, Best Cinematography at the Philadelphia International Film Festival. My classmate, William Moy, worked as an extra on the film.

[Ernie]

ere are some rare gems that are very good
mad monkey kung fu
dirty ho '' not sure if it was mentioned ''
three evil masters
the hot the cool the vicious [ is a cult favorite but I like the action better in the others ]

empty cup I have access to the long version of hero but I haven't downloaded it yet to see if it's worth it

tom
dude there is no hope Bruce is the auto matic top of any list , that goes with out saying =)

[Phil Redmond]

Hey Tom,
Moy Yat did a cameo in Jet Li's Black Mask?

[Gangsterfist]

Originally posted by Phil Redmond
Ernie, I sent the link to the Ong Bak movie to a few friends. A couple of guy wrote me back to sau they had seen it and that it had the BEST martial arts sequences they had ever seen. I tried to find it online and all I could find were Region 3 DVDs which aren't good for North America.

Look for an application called dvd shrink if you have a dvd burner. It will allow to you to decrypt and change regions of DVDs. You can burn it so that its ALL REGION dvd. I just got a copy of Battle Royale. Its a cool action japanese flick. Where highschool students are thrown on a island and forced to kill each other

[Phil Redmond]

There are NTSC all region copies on ebay. My student just got his copy today. He paid $14.99 plus shipping. I'm taping it as I type. This movie is the bomb. And the subtitles are really clear. It's a must see movie.

[Gangsterfist]

Okay I will look for Ong bak, since you guys are raving about it. I just got a dvd burner yesterday (finally can use it at home and not at work). I got dvd shrink on my system and am making my dvds all no region. A friend of a friend of mine is from asia (can't remember exactly where) and he has a ton of dvds that are not U.S. region so I will be able to make all those all region. If I come across something obscure I will post it.

On a side note I rented Once upon a time in Mexico, the other night. I liked it as far as action movies go.

Also I heard somewhere that japan remade Zatoichi the blind swordsman????? Can anyone confirm this I LOVE the originals from the late 50s to mid 60s. Easily one of my fav samurai series.

[Gangsterfist]

Okay I found the trailer to the new Zatoichi film. It looks so freaking awesome I can't wait till I can see it.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/miramax/zatoichi.html

http://www.miramax.com/zatoichi/index.html

[wentwest]

GF,

That does look great! I can't wait...

[Ernie]

my mother board for my pc is crippled , as soon as i fix it i'll check my resources and see if i can get the movie , i can often get them way before they come out

[Gangsterfist]

wentwest-

If you have not seen the original series, go rent them they are so kick ass.

I want to say there is like 12 movies all together. The first ones are black and white and the rest are color.

Zatoichi the blind swordsman is probably one of my favorite samurai series of movies.

[Tom Kagan]

Originally posted by Phil Redmond
Hey Tom,
Moy Yat did a cameo in Jet Li's Black Mask?

Sorry if I phrased it wrong. The cameo is in Gun of Dragon. Patrick Lung Kong is in Black Mask as Hung Guk.


What the heck, more Shameless Plugs:


Patrick Lung Kong, Actor, Director, Writer. Currently residing in Staten Island, New York, USA. One of the original stable members of the Shaw Brothers actors. American film debut in Superfights (1996) starring Brandon Gaines.

Acting Credits (writer, director, and producer credits where noted). See if you spot any films you've viewed:
Crime of Passion in the Hotel (1958)
A Virtuous Girl from a Humble House (1958)
The Prodigal's Return (1958)
Young Rock (1959)
The Case of the Female Corpse (1959)
Beseiged (1959)
Bride from Another Town (1959)
The Fragrance of Durians (1959)
Nine Victims to a Murder (1960)
The Pursuers (1960)
Life of Life (1960)
Love Knot (Part 1) (1960)
Love Knot (Part 2) (1960)
The Greenhorn in Love (1960)
A Night of Thrills (1960)
Murder on Black Dragon Street (1961)
Teenage Beat (1961)
Chase (1961)
999 The Mysterious Body (1962)
Phantom of the Jade Chamber (1962)
Between Love and Hatred (1963)
Track of a Chase (1964)
Two Swordswomen (1965)
Eight Murderers (1965)
Legacy (1966)
Ghost Chasers (1966)
Prince of Broadcasters (1966) - write, act, direct
Man from Interpol (1967)
Story of a Discharged Prisoner (1967) - write, act, direct
Beauty's Trap (1967)
Window (1968) - write, act
Love with a Prodigal (1968)
Window (1968) - direct
Teddy Girls (1969) - write, act, direct
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow (1970) - write, direct
My Beloved (1971) - write, direct
Pei Shih (1972) - write, direct
The Call Girls (1973) - write, direct
Hong Kong Nite Life (1973) - direct
Hiroshima 28 (1974) - write, direct
Lina (1976) - direct
Laugh In (1976) - direct
Mitra (1977) - write, direct
The Fairy, the Ghost and Ah Chung (1979) - act, direct
Love Massacre (1981) - act, produce
Don't Kill Me, Brother (1981)
Once Upon a Mirage (1982)
Shanghai Blues (1984)
Guns Of Dragon (1993)
Superfights (1996)
Black Mask (1996)
Once Upon a Time in China and America (1997)
Skyline Cruisers (2000)
The Wesley's Mysterious Story (2002)



Hiroshima 28 is probably one of the best non-action dramas to come out of Hong Kong.

[Phil Redmond]

"Once Upon A Time In China and America" starring Jet Li and co-starring TWC Sifu Joe Sayah as the villian.

[Phil Redmond]

ong bak thai film
Have you heard about the ong bak thai film?

If you are an action movie fan, if you love watching martial arts movies.. I mean the real thing and not hollywood fake stuff, ong bak is THE movie to watch.

The plot of this movie is simple. There's not much of a story.. just a villager sent to recover the stolen head of the village's buddha statue. The name of their buddha is Ong Bak. Hence the name of the film.

As for the plot details, the movie script appears to be written to conveniently showcase the star, Tony Ja's stunt work and martial arts moves.

Sounds lame?

Not when you watch the movie.

This movie puts Hollywood's action movies and martial arts displays to shame. Tony Ja's martial arts is as much a joy to watch as Jet Li's.

In other words, that fighter is simply amazing.

If you look into Tony Ja's background, it all makes sense. That man is a stuntman. In this movie, besides acting in the lead role and doing his own stunts, Tony Ja is also the action director.

When the pretty boy stars of movies find the stunts too difficult or dangerous to do, or simply do not have the skill or agility or physical abilities to do a tough dangerous stunt, the real men, the stuntmen are called upon to do the job.

For most of the big budget hollywood movies, when the character jumps and runs over 6 other men, there are wires involved. When there are explosions, they are often computer generated. Where dangerous scenes are involved, the person doing them is not the actor who plays the actual role.

Ong Bak is not a big budget hollywood film. The scenes you see are real. The stunts you see are really done by the star himself. With that knowledge, in some scenes, where he fought with his clothes set on fire, my jaw dropped. That guy must be crazy. There were many such dangerous scenes involved. He did those scenes without wires or special effects. Watch out for the chase on feet where he jumps through a loop of barbed wire and over countless obstacle. All done without the help of wires or special effects.

That man can run on the shoulders of 6 stuntmen without any wire work involved.

To prove that the stunts were for real, we are often shown instant replays of the most dangerous stunts. Replays where fans of real action scenes watch with relish.

Stunts aside, the martial arts scenes were fantastic. Tony Ja was schooled at the Maha Sarakham Physical Education College in martial arts. He has won medal in competition involving krabi krabong, a form of Thai martial arts.

His martial arts prowess is displayed throughout this film. Impressive backflips, acrobatic stunts, fights where he utilizes his bare hands and legs, using poles and knives. Even a scene when he ran up a wall.

Watch the fighting scenes where he takes on one opponent after another. Tony Ja is another action movie legend in the making.

[Gangsterfist]

Can someone post me a link of where to find a copy of Ong Bak. I tried looking for it online and could not find it for sale. I would prefer it to be all region DVD is possible. Or if I could find a download link that would be nice.

I watched the bride with white hair, the other day. Its a Ronnie Yu film, and it was pretty cool for the most part.

[WCis4me]

Hi Gangsterfist,

We got our copy from ebay, it is the all region, you might want to take a look there.

If I find another link to it I will post it ASAP for you.

Until then good luck on your search, it is worth the effort. As Phil said the guy's skills are truely awesome and exciting to watch. The instant replays of key scenes imbedded into the action was way cool.

Vicky

[WCis4me]

Hi Gangsterfist,

Here are some links for you

Ong Bak for sale main page (http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dll?cgiurl=http%3A%2F%2Fcgi.ebay.com%2Fws%2 F&MfcISAPICommand=GetResult&ht=1&from=R7&ebaytag1=ebayreg&query=ong+bak&query2=ong+bak&search_option=1&exclude=&category0=&minPrice=&maxPrice=&ebaytag1code=0&st=&SortProperty=MetaEndSort)

Ong Bak all region for $16.99 US (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3382425977&category=2302)

Just what I found on a search of Ebay I have no personal connection to the site or seller/s and make no representation or warranty of them.

Hope that helps,

Vicky

[Ernie]

if you go to sharereactor.com / or shareconnector.com not sure which one i saw it at but the in the dvd section it is free to down load the movie with english subs

[Gangsterfist]

Thanks vicky and ernie I will check out both resources.


I watched the vampire effect last night. It is another ronnie yu film I believe. It has the main charcter from The Duel in it. The fight scenes are pretty cool. There is one part where he fights a vampire that is doing some monkey boxing type stuff and its really cool. The plot kinda is lame, and since it was on cable I had to watched the dubbed version. Also there is this Hong Kong actor that looks just like Will Ferrel, and I found that really funny. Overall I think it may be worth watching at least once, or at least watching the fight scenes the rest of the movie kinda blows. Oh yeah jackie chan has a camio in it and he also fights a vampire, its a pretty funny scene.

[Gangsterfist]

Okay, I just watched shaolin soccer again (what a great movie) and the head coach for the evil team is the chinese version of neil diamond. The dude looks a lot like neil diamond.

[Gangsterfist]

okay i was really bored last night after kung fu class...

So, I watched Tiger Claws III the movie. Which was kinda lame but I watched it anyway. The training scene where the new apprentice and sifu are training was kind of interesting. They had the external iron body conditioning (he was getting beat with a long pole in his abdomen area).

The main weird thing was the push hands drill they were doing. It was some sort of very external (tiger kung fu is external) form of push hands. I didn't really understand that. My tiger kung fu knwoledge is real limited, I have been exposed to a few techniques but no forms or anything like that.

Does anyone here know of tiger style kung fu having a push hands type drill? I train taiji as well now and push hands is definately not external (at least in taiji). I just found that interesting

Also, my copy of Ong Bak should be arriving in the mail this week along with the new zatoichi flick. I will post a review of the new zatoichi film when I get to finally watch it in a few days.

[[~T~]G]

Try Star Runner...its got Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Wing Chun and Hung Kuen in it

:)

[Gangsterfist]

Well, I saw ong bak last night for the first time...

IT WAS TOTALLY KICK @SS!

Phil, you were right that movie is awesome. I am sure all of you heard this before but if you haven't seen it, then go out and buy it (or rent it if ya can).

I should have my zatoichi film in today or tomorrow, and on a side note I just picked up the new ninja gaiden for xbox today as well.

I will check out star runner, thanks for the heads up on it.

[marcus_pasram]

Ong Bak is the best MA film I've seen in over a decade+ . Everytime I show a friend a few clips, they're sucked in and I wind up watching the film again. Its SICK.

Here is a review from one of the Film festivals it was shown at: source (http://pub24.ezboard.com/fgundamgatesfrm169.showMessage?topicID=767.topic)


ng-Bak Muay Thai Warrior (2003, directed by Prachya Pinkaew)

Holy sweet Jesus ****!

Ong-Bak Muay Thai Warrior kicks the living **** out of every martial arts movie made in the last ten years. Every. Single. One. This thing makes Iron Monkey look like god-****ed Gymkata. ****! A coherent review is impossible right now. I'll try, but it's probably just going to devolve into "And then he... with the... and then the guy... holy ****! With his legs on ****ing fire!!!"

Plot-wise the film is essentially a Buddhist version of Drunken Master II -- a thug (played by the Thai Adrian Zmed) steals the head of his home village's Buddha, and local orphan boy Ting sets off to Bangkok to retrieve it. Ting, having been trained at the temple in Muay Thai fighting (and given the strict admonition never to use it, of course, it being ****ing ass-brutalizingly lethal and all), proceeds to beat the holy living sweet merciful **** out of a local boss and his gang, the toughs at the illegal street fighting joint run by Zmed's boss, Zmed, the rest of the boss' hoods, and the hand-picked Burmese boxer who is Zmed's boss' enforcer in the climactic fight that just annihilates the **** out of any other climactic fight scene in any other martial arts movie ever. I'm not kidding. To me the gold standard for climactic fights scenes was the aforementioned Drunken Master II. After the hellacious way Ting and the Burmese boxer **** each other up over the course of this fight DM II looks nearly quaint in comparison. Burning coals and industrial alcohol suddenly don't quite measure up when multiple adrenaline injections directly below the heart and skull-fracturing elbows come into play.

Speaking of obsolescence, I hope Jet Li has made some wise investments. Panom Yeerum, the 25-year-old weapon of mass destruction who stars in Ong-Bak Muay Thai Warrior, is the new Bruce Lee.

Let me say that again, in case you thought I was off my head or exaggerating or something you know the one, all the legends have it. Christ-all-****ing-mighty! That sequence in the club where Ting wipes the floor with the hand-picked champs, finishing off with the punk-wannabe bad-ass who even makes the ring announcer recoil in fear and horror when he steps up... or the blow that finally takes out Zmed... this guy has it. HE HAS IT.

I can't overlook the direction here either. Prachya Pinkaew does a great job keeping the action flowing while highlighting Yeerum's jaw-dropping moves and just generally rocks that **** hard. This guy has a future too, and Luc Besson (who snatched up the distribution rights for this baby at Cannes) made a very wise investment in establishing a working relationship with Pinkaew early in his career.

Ong-Bak Muay Thai Warrior is quite possibly the best film that has ever been shown at Toronto's Midnight Madness. The only thing that could possibly be in the ballpark is Dead-Alive back in '92. Sure, the plot's thin and some of the secondary performances weak, but this isn't ****ing Mamet. I made this prediction last night, and I stand by it -- slap Yeerum's dreamboat mug on a poster and keep the ad campaign simple, building it around his fighting style and teasing folks with just how ****ing much ass gets kicked in the film, and Ong-Bak could do Blair Witch numbers. This puppy might need a little word of mouth, but a nine digit domestic box office is within reach here.

You have to see this film. This is the must-see film of the year. Every card-carrying geek who's ever plunked down their coin for a piece of dung like the Tuxedo just to catch those few moments of Jackie genius that he still doles out now and then; every one of us who stops flipping the remote when a Green Hornet rerun is on; every one of us who's ever come out of a film sparring with your buddies -- this is the one you have to see.

Anton Sirius...

[Phil Redmond]

Yup Gangsterfist,
Ong Baks fight scenes make HK kung fu flicks look weak.
I hope you saw (the star), Tony Ja's demo on the DVD menu. It shows him training with his stunt guys. He does some of the stunts from the movie plus a few more. Whenever he does some great stunt words in Thai and English flash onto the screen saying things like, no CGI, no Slings, etc. Even people who aren't in to MA movies are mesmerized by the fights. If you look on the menu and click on Easter eggs you see a fight scene where there is a wall that reads, "Spielberg, let's do it together" And another place where written on a wall is, "Luc Besson, we're waiting for you". One of those Easter eggs paid off because Luc Besson who did "The Professional" and "Femme Nikita" bought the distrubution rights for Ong Bak.

[captain]

all you wing chun guys,could have had Redjunk Fighter,the life and times of Fung Sui Ching.but,nooooooo,you had to argue over the height of your bong sau!!!

russell.

[captain]

Fung Siu Ching that should read.