ONG-BAK THE THAI WARRIOR
DVD Review by David Blackwell
DETAILS: 105 minutes, rap music video, behind-the-scenes stunt footage, trailers, live
Tony Jaa performance, and promo video
STUDIO: FOX/ EUROPACORP/ and others
RELEASE DATE: 8-30-2005
ONG-BAK is a knock-down impressive martial arts movie. Who cares if the plot is good or not because
the action sequences are fantastic (including the Taxi chase). Toony Jaa plays Ting (a religious monk) who must
venture to Bangkok to retrive the stolen head of the Buddha Ong-Bak in the village of Pardue. He ends up fighting
many crazy fighter guys and Thai mafia scum in his efforts to get the head back. You don't need to know anymore
than that because you will be paying more attention to what Tony Jaa does in every martial arts scene. He
uses no wires and no stunt doubles. I do wonder why Thai Mafia bosses are so creepy (this one is in a wheelchair
with a electro synth voice device).
VIDEO: 1.85:1 (Anamorphic Widescreen)
Image detail is OK, but many of the scenes do have lots of grain. Then some of the colors appear
washed out.
AUDIO: Thai 5.1 Dolby Digital, English 2.0 Dolby Surround
Subtitles: Spanish, English Captions
Choose the Thai track over teh English track. It is disappointing we get a captions track instead of
a true English subtitles track.
SPECIAL FEATURES: The assortment here is OK, but the only good ones are the six trailers
for ONG-BAK (two English, two French, and two Thai) and the B Roll fooatge from three action sequences (good behind-the-scenes
stuff). Other extras are the 8 Movements of Muay Thai, a Rap Music Video with Tony Jaa and a Making of the music
video, a Promo Video, and live performance with Tony Jaa and stuntmen in front of a French audience.
I have read the Hong Kong release of ONG-BAK features tons of extras not on this DVD like deleted scenes (and
an alternate ending) interviews with some of the fighters in ONG-BAK, and a behind-the-scenes documentary on the film.
FINAL ANALYSIS: Rent ONG-BAK for the impressive action sequences. if you want extras, hop that
FOX release a better edition with the additional extras that are in the Hong Kong release (and the uncut version of the film
instead of the edited version released here).
this DVD Review is (c)8-28-2005 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.
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