I've been watching a lot of Kung Fu movies lately - mainly because I'm getting really sick of Hollywood formula films. Foreign films in general don't often have the same formula (though they use the same plot devices) so they're refreshing. Kung Fu has been my thing lately simply because it's awesome to watch.

Then a friend of mine recommended a film from Thailand called Ong-Bak which features Tony Jaa doing Muay Thai instead of Kung Fu. I was completely blown away.

The film is about Ting, a young man from a very poor village who is studying Muay Thai and hoping to become a monk. The head of a statue sacred to the village is stolen, and there is a drought in the region as a result. Ting volunteers to retrieve the head, and travels to Bangkok in pursuit of the thief.

I had no idea that the Thai film scene had this calibre of talent in it. Technically speaking, I liked the movie a lot. The composition, the pacing, the lighting, everything was very top-rate. One thing I didn't like so much was how often they showed the same action from multiple camera angles. I can take it once or twice, but Ong-Bak does it many times during the movie. Sometimes it works, other times it just looks like they were trying to justify having the extra cameras around.

One sequence is brilliant, however. Ting and his friend are sneaking through the bush to the mouth of a cave where the bad guys are hiding the statue head. You get a shot of them sneaking, then they cut to a shot of some hired goons milling around near the cave mouth with guns. You're expecting a cut back to more sneaking, but they just stay on the goons for a bit. Then Jaa runs in with a yell and kicks the crap out of the guards. The great thing about it is how bad the sound is; there isn't a mic within twenty feet of the action, but it works since the camera angle is so wide. Then the camera man, who was shooting hand-held for the whole scene (without doing the NYPD Blue shaky-cam crap), tries unsuccessfully to run after Jaa as he sprints to the cave. The whole scene has a very campy, low-tech, almost high school movie feel to it, but it really works.

The plot is very simplistic and serves mostly as a way to get Jaa into situations where he has to beat people up. This is the same with most hero-centric action movies, but the nice thing about Ong-Bak is that it doesn't try to pretend it has a great plot. It moves fairly smoothly from scene to scene. There were only a few times that I got a bit lost, but it is a translated movie, and I get the feeling that there are things that are lost in the english version.

Kung Fu is stunning to watch on screen. It's beautiful and deadly, and a lot of fun to watch. Muay Thai is completely different. It's more direct, more intense, and uses a completely different set of movements. Kung Fu is dazzling with its speed, but Muay Thai is, if anything, faster. Jaa also does a lot of gymnastic looking flips and jumps that remind one of some Jackie Chan movies. They claim not to have used any cables, CGI or stunt doubles in this movie, though there are a couple of scenes where you're really wondering if they're being honest about that. Either way, it's an incredible style to watch, and I can't wait to see a Tony Jaa versus Donnie Yen fight!

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