Recently we watched another movie by Tony Jaa of Ong Bak fame. This one is called The Protector and it released in America in 2006 but I am only just now seeing it. The Protector cutely debuted as Tom-Yum-Goong in Thailand (named after the sweet and sour soup).
In this martial arts classic Tony is chasing an evil crime syndicate who have stolen his elephants. Yes, his elephants. Oh well, they also killed his father but that is definitely played as the lesser concern. It's a pretty classic kicking and punching movie but it does explore some interesting themes. I really enjoyed the scenes from the main character's childhood featuring a beautiful little Thai boy interacting with elephants amidst some amazing backdrops. I also thought it was very interesting to learn later that one of the main reasons Jaa made the film is because his family raised elephants when he was growing up and he wanted to do something to raise awareness for the plight of Thai elephants being abused and mistreated. He actually used to practice some of his early martial arts training with elephants just like his character in this movie. Very cool, Tony!
One thing I can promise you though: You will spend the next week tip-toeing into rooms, sneaking up on your partner and screaming "Give me back my elephants!" Extra points if you can scream it in Thai.
--Rosemary
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6 comments:
we found this movie so completely unlikely we just laughed through most of it. Honestly - could you really smuggle a baby elephant into Australia? Not a chance! We still bought a copy however! He's a pretty amazing muay thai artist though - Even if much of it is not very useful apart from show. I assume you have seen Ong Bak? We found it better than Tom Yum Goong personally.
Lol, Kerrie! Smuggling the elephants was the least of their problems if we are going to start holding martial arts films to a "probability scale". ;-) We also prefered Ong Bak to The Protector, but so did everyone apparently, as it did much better at the box office.
I have to confess I have a hard time getting into these martial arts movies. I thought they might be a good way to practice my Thai, but I haven't really been able to work "punch" "ughh" and "ouch" into my already limited conversations.
I DO like elephants though, so maybe I'll give this one a try. Thanks for the review!
Also not to go unnoticed is that Ong Bak 2 is currently in wide release in the US! I assume wide release because it was even briefly in our little town. We'll review it once we've had the chance to watch it.
-Brian
We had heard that Ong Bak 2 was on the cards but I hadn't seen anything about it actually happening. Will have to go looking for it. Thanks for the tip!
Jessica - you'd be surprised how much Thai you can pick up from these movies although granted 'teep' is probably not a word most people use a lot (since we train Muay Thai we tend to use it however!!)
Rosemary I can't stop laughing.
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