When I was very small and TV was making its first entrance into my life, the national network aired Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. I was left gaping through the movie. It was a movie that made kids all over the world enroll themselves in martial arts schools. It made teenagers go Hoo-Ah on their friends on every street. And it made grown-ups stand straight, talk curtly, smile coyly and gym regularly. Enter the Dragon was a revolution.
I saw Ong Bak with the title "Ong Bak: Enter the NEW Dragon".
Needless to say, my instant reaction was, "what a load of cheesy cr@p". And then the credits ran. The camera swooped down over the tree. The tree sequence began. And I was hooked line, sinker and everything attached. If any movie comes close to deserving the title "Enter the NEW Dragon", it is this.
The story didn't matter. It was good enough to string all the action together. The acting didn't matter either. What Tony Jaa lacked in silent charisma, he made up for in jaw-dropping graceful action sequences. What the script lacked was made up for by an able director employing a commendable and refreshing use of the camera in an action movie without special effects (though the repeated shots tend to get a bit tedious at times).
The film is a celebration of Muay Thai. The fight sequences are pure magic. And there are enough fight sequences. This movie is sex for the old school martial-arts-street-fighting-movie fan.
And though this will never be the revolution that Enter the Dragon was, it may make you gape just like you did that first time you saw Lee throw a punch.
I saw Ong Bak with the title "Ong Bak: Enter the NEW Dragon".
Needless to say, my instant reaction was, "what a load of cheesy cr@p". And then the credits ran. The camera swooped down over the tree. The tree sequence began. And I was hooked line, sinker and everything attached. If any movie comes close to deserving the title "Enter the NEW Dragon", it is this.
The story didn't matter. It was good enough to string all the action together. The acting didn't matter either. What Tony Jaa lacked in silent charisma, he made up for in jaw-dropping graceful action sequences. What the script lacked was made up for by an able director employing a commendable and refreshing use of the camera in an action movie without special effects (though the repeated shots tend to get a bit tedious at times).
The film is a celebration of Muay Thai. The fight sequences are pure magic. And there are enough fight sequences. This movie is sex for the old school martial-arts-street-fighting-movie fan.
And though this will never be the revolution that Enter the Dragon was, it may make you gape just like you did that first time you saw Lee throw a punch.
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