areaseven Posted September 11, 2006 Posted September 11, 2006 Tom Yum Goong ( ต้มยำà¸à¸¸à¹‰à¸‡ ) Baa-Ram-Ewe/Sahamongkol Film, 2005 Golden Network Asia Limited/Dragon Dynasty/The Weinstein Company, 2006 Directed by Prachya Pinkaew (Ong-Bak) Running Time: 109 minutes Rated R for graphic martial arts violence, nudity, sexual situations and strong language. Cast Tony Jaa as Kham Petchtai Wongkamlao as Mark Xing Jing as Madame Rose Bongkoj Khongmalai as Pla Nathan Jones (ex-WWE Superstar) as T.K. Johnny Nguyen as Johnny Lateef Crowder as the Capoeira fighter John Foo (a League of Shadows thug in Batman Begins) as the Wushu fighter Synopsis Kham grew up helping his father raise the King of Thailand's elephants. But when his father is killed and two of his elephants are stolen, he travels to Sydney, Australia, in an attempt to recover them. There, he discovers that the elephant smuggling incident is just part of a wave of crimes orchestrated by a Chinese Triad group bent on taking over the streets of Australia. Lowdown Hot on the heels of the international hit Ong-Bak, martial arts superstar Tony Jaa returns to the big screen with another dose of nonstop Muay Thai action. But even with a bigger budget than Ong-Bak, does Tom Yum Goong deliver? Yes and no. The downside of this film is its cookie-cutter storyline. Never mind that most martial arts films have little or no plot. Tom Yum Goong's storyline is just a minor reworking of Ong-Bak, only with different characters and settings. Petchtai Wongkamlao, who co-starred with Jaa in Ong-Bak, plays a Thai-Australian cop. However, unlike in Ong-Bak, he brings no comic relief and really doesn't do much here. "So what's good about this movie?" you ask. The martial arts action, of course. As with what you've seen in Ong-Bak, Tom Yum Goong is filled with bone-crushing, tooth-knocking punches and kicks. In contrast to the agility displayed on Ong-Bak, Jaa focuses more on ground-based grapples and throws with his new-fangled twist on Muay Thai that he calls Muaykodchasarn. He uses this technique to dislocate arms and legs from dozens of thugs and put up fights against a Capoeira fighter, a Wushu fighter and 6'11", 360-lb. behemoth Nathan Jones. Despite being a rather serious martial arts film, there is one scene worth laughing at. When Jaa arrives at Sydney International Airport, he bumps into a Jackie Chan lookalike. Tom Yum Goong may not be Tony Jaa's best work, but it's still worth the price of admission and popcorn. Martial arts buffs should not miss this one. Rating: B Links The Protector Official Site Warrior King (UK) Revenge of the Warrior (German) L'Honneur du Dragon: Tom Yum Goong (French) トム・ヤン・クン (Japanese) Reference The Internet Movie Database Quote
baronv Posted September 11, 2006 Posted September 11, 2006 Watched this movie a while back and it is also off the hook like Ong-Bak, I pass on the first half of the movie with the kindnapping and elephant-related stuff since I just wanted fights! The fights are hyped up with different venues and fighter types, big 3 I can remember are the factory fights with guys onm motorcycles and atvs, the fights in the temple with water and flames and the end fight with the 100-like villains from Kill Bill and the muscleheads. Quote
VF Strike Valk Posted September 12, 2006 Posted September 12, 2006 Dude where's my Elephant? *breaks many bones* Movie for the most part was comical...fight scenes were great! Australian gangsters don't use guns...they use martial arts! Its pretty much a check your brains in at the door type movie. I enjoyed it. Quote
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