Housekibako
30 March 2007
I bought a couple of films on DVD recently. I got Ong-Bak for £5 and Road to Perdition for £3, both from HMV. I bought Ong-Bak for a couple of reasons. One, I've been meaning to watch this film for a while but never got around to buying it until now and two, I saw Tony Jaa's more recent film, The Warrior King, and liked it a lot. Unfortunately for me the disc I bought appeared to be faulty. It would play normally until the 45th minute when it would inexplicably freeze up and refuse to do anything. The only way to sort it out was to eject the disc and reload it. I took it back today and got a new copy. Hopefully this one won't do the same thing. Whilst I was in the store I took a look at some of the other DVDs on sale. I saw the second season of House for £12! I was severely tempted to get it but I decided to wait a little more. I want to see if I can get the first season for the same price. I also Road to Perdition for £3 which I thought was a bargain so I bought it. It's one of those films that you wouldn't consider buying when it's full price. However, when it's this cheap there really no reason not to buy it.
I watched the whole of Ong-Bak last night despite the faulty disc. I had to skip a chapter or two in order to make it to the end of the film. You could see that the budget of this film wasn't quite as big as The Warrior King but since Ong-Bak was its predecessor it's not that surprising. The fight scenes aren't quite as numerous or as brutal (his enemies don't end up with broken limbs after every fight). In fact the overall feel of the film wasn't that dissimilar to that of a Jackie Chan production, especially the scene where he's running away from a group of thugs.
The plot is fairly straight forward as with most martial arts films. Tony Jaa's character, Ting, has been sent to retrieve the decapitated head of a Buddha statue from Bangkok. This leads him to be caught up in a world of a major gang boss. Unhappy that Ting is costing him millions of Baht he sets out to make him pay. Unfortunately for him Ting has unending determination to succeed in his mission and thwarts him every step of the way.
I liked this film. Probably not as much as TWK but it's still good. Even though the fights aren't as explosive or numerous they do have something new for Tony Jaa fans. A good demonstration of Muay Thai from an expert. The special features are also pretty good. Lots of extra footage and interviews with the film's stars. I'd give the whole thing an 8/10.
Posted byHocchan at 6:02 pm
