Ong-Bak

Herald rating: * * * *

Quite how many fight scenes there are in Ong-Bak is hard to recall. They tend to blur into one after a while.

But it's the blur that makes this Muay Thai - or Thai kickboxing - martial arts action flick such a blast. You want to be able to rewind almost every scene where stuntman-turned-frontman Tony Jaa lets loose. That's whether he's taking on ugly Australian brawlers in a Bangkok fight club, or escaping from a pursuing mob by jumping over and under cross-town traffic.

Jaa doesn't use wires to leap tall tuk-tuks in a single bound, dance across the heads and shoulders of evil henchmen, or drive his elbows and knees into the craniums of his opponents. It's all his own work. And married with a considerable screen charisma, which brings to mind a young Bruce Lee, it's obvious that a new chop-socky star is born.

It helps that, for all its endless fight and chase scenes, Ong-Bak feels exotic and fresh due to its sometimes hilariously self-conscious Thai-ness.

From the story's village beginnings to its Bangkok streets, it pokes gentle fun at Thailand - hence the medium-speed tuk-tuk chase. But it remains fiercely proud of where it comes from and of Muay Thai ("nine body weapons") itself.

And Jaa's demonstration of the code makes Western kick-boxing and K1 exponents look like sumo wrestlers by comparison.

The story that frames all that action is ropy and takes a while to find its feet after its hilariously violent prologue, in which Jaa's character, Ting, wins the annual village game of up-a-tree bullrush.

With the line "the fate of the village lies in your hands" ringing in his head, Ting must travel to the city to recover the head of his community's Buddha, which has been stolen by a gang dealing in Thai antiquities.

In town, he enlists the help of a cousin (Wongkamlao), a gambler and petty crook, who has his own troubles with the gang.

Soon enough it's Ting vs unlucky henchmen and hopeless Aussies alike.

Yes, some of the fisticuffs do go on a bit. But its otherwise thrilling fights make you worry for the safety and long-term health of the participants. And how long has it been since an action movie has done that?


CAST: Tony Jaa, Petchthai Wongkamlao, Pumwaree Yodkamol
DIRECTOR: Prachya Pinkaew
RATING: R16 (violence, drug use)
RUNNING TIME: 101 mins
SCREENING: Rialto