This Girl Is Bad-Ass (Jukkalan)

New from Jeeja Yanin.

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JUKKALAN With Jija Yanin Gets Appropriate English Title...
by Al Young, May 13, 2011 1:40 PM

Action, Asia, Comedy, Martial Arts
Ho ho, this is pure marketing gold.

Usually, we don't devote an entire post just for the sake of reporting the English title of a foreign film but this is just too fun to pass up. At the Cannes Film Festival, Sahamongkolfilm International was out promoting their films line-up and among them is Jukkalan, an action comedy with leading action star Jija Yanin (aka Jeeja Yanin) and Mum Jokmok (aka Petchai Wongkhamlao). The company has come up with a clever name for the international version which is being prepared for delivery in July and after hearing about it, I gotta say they really hit the nail on the head. Can you guess what it is? Alright, let me tell you. The English title is...waaiitt for itttt....waaiitt for itttt....This Girl Is Bad-Ass. How cool is that, eh?

To help illustrate why this title is appropriate, I have embedded two fight workshop video below, courtesy of Jeeja Yanin's News facebook. The resolution ain't so great but it gives us an idea how Yanin is able to kick some ass with a bike.

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Thai trailer: จั๊กกะแหล๋น (Official Tr.)

This Girl Is BAD-ASS!! Trailer 2011 [Jeeja Yanin]

This was released in Thailand in April apparently.

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See our This Girl is Bad Ass winners thread

This film includes:
- Some nice shots of Thailand and a few funny plot twists
- Midgets
- Foot fetishism
- A clown that dressed badly, even for Thailand
- Funny fight feints
- Elephant fights (this is only funny after you see it)

It's absurdly silly fights but amusing action. It starts a little slow - too much wire work - but then picks up speed later once they abandon their story arcs and focus on the fights. Jeeja is looking plain, not made up, and schoolgirl-ish, almost a bad Meg Ryan impersonation. She doesn't really carry the dramatic side well but she does kick ass and that's all that matters. It's never clear what the illegal stuff she's mule-ing is exactly - gotta assume drugs but it could be anything. I caught myself laughing several times, mostly a fight moves that were intentionally choreographed to be funny, but also at some of the general comedy of the film. Thai comedy is absurd, a little like Stephen Chow's mou lei tai, but not quite that over the top. No sword fights, but plenty of bike fu (although not nearly on the level of Project A). Gun play, a good bike shop fight and it ends in a lumberyard warehouse fight. Warehouse fights are always my favs.
NOTE: I watched it without sound, as is my habit as I live in a small house and I don't want to keep the family up. Sometimes, the Thai language can be super annoying sounding, so that might spoil it with sound.

I got this a while back and, to be honest, wasn't impressed. I seem to be in the minority, but I really couldn't find much to like about it at all. Even the fights weren't all that. I really was expecting so much better...

Did you watch it with sound?

Yes, I did. At least one of the villains had such an annoying voice, it was akin to fingernails on a chalkboard to me. It was the effeminate one(s). I know he or they were supposed to be funny, but it seemed like they thought the overdone voice(s) and mannerisms alone would make them funny.

That's one of the reasons I turn the volume off sometimes. There's just something about Thai that can be very grating. It can be a very musical language too, but it can amplify that nasal whine and I just can't take that. Plus with the sound off, I get a better sense of the choreography. Sometimes sound effects mask crappy choreography.

Actually, these are just intellectualizations. I tend to watch my ultravi after my family has gone to bed and if there's subtitles, I keep it super quiet.