Recommended For You
$19.95
Ong-Bak stars Phanom Yeerum as the earnest Ting; a martial-arts hero to the little backwater Thai village of Ong-Bak. The very first scene has him competing in a brutal variant of capture-the-flag; which involves climbing a tree naked and throwing everyone else off the branches with one’s bare hands (or feet; or whatever else is handy). Not long after; gangsters vandalize the town’s statue of Buddha; tearing off its head and hocking it on the black market. Ting is incensed; and with the support of his village elders; heads off to the big city to get it back.Ting is totally unequipped to deal with city life; and he’s no detective; either. When he hooks up with his old friend George (Mum Jok Mok); who’s now a wheeler-dealer in the city’s underbelly; George stiffs him for the seed money he received from his fellow villagers for the mission and blows it on a cage match. Ting follows him to the fight club; literally walks into the middle of a battle; and before he knows it is fighting an army of the meanest Bangkok street brawlers imaginable. (He also doesn’t understand showmanship: when the first challenger charges him; Ting puts him down with one blow to the side of the neck. Blam! End of fight.) Starring: Tony Ja, Suchoa Pongvilai, Pumwaree Yodkamol, Petchai Wongkamlao. 107 min. English dubbed. English subtitled.
