Tom yum goong (2005)

Director:

Prachya Pinkaew

Writers:

Napalee (written by) &
Piyaros Thongdee (written by) ...

Release Date:

8 September 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Plot:

A young fighter named Kham must go to Australia to retrieve his stolen elephant. With the help of a Thai-born Australian detective, Kham must take on all comers, including a gang led by an evil woman and her two deadly bodyguards.

Plot Keywords:

Whipping | Bone | Slap In The Face | Stab | Traditional Dance

Cast

Tony Jaa	...	Kham
Petchtai Wongkamlao	...	Mark
Bongkoj Khongmalai	...	Pla
Xing Jing	...	Madame Rose
Nathan Jones	...	T.K. (as Nathan B. Jones)
Johnny Nguyen	...	Johnny (as Johnny Tri Nguyen)
Lateef Crowder	...	Capoeira Fighter
Jon Foo	...	Wushu Fighter (as Jonathan Patrick Foo)
Damian de Montemas	...	Vincent
David Asavanond	...	Officer Rick (as David Chatchavan Asavanod)
Sotorn Rungruaeng	...	Kham's Father
Amonphan Gongtragan	...	Goong
Nutdanai Kong	...	Kham (9 years old)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Dean Alexandrou	...	Bodyguard
Tony Chu	...	Thug
Don Ferguson	...	Body Guard
Ann Hu	...	Madame Rose (voice)
John Ladalski	...	Fighter
John Lamond Jr.	...	Chief Inspector Lamond
Ric Lawes	...	Australian Secretary General
Andrew Lawton	...	Officer Rick (voice: English version)
Erik Markus Schuetz	...	Johnny's Bodyguard
Heinz Ollesch	...	Big Guy
Daniel O'Neill
Wannakit Sirioput	...	Mark's replacement partner
Ron Smoorenburg	...	Kham's opponent
Brice Stratford	...	Thug
David Ussawanon
Eddie Vee	...	Kham (voice: English version)
Pumwaree Yodkamol	...	Girl on the street

Also Known As:

Honour of the Dragon (Europe: English title)
Ong Bak 2 (Thailand: Thai title) (working title)
The Protector (USA)
Warrior King (UK)

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive strong violence and some sexual content.

Runtime:

108 min | USA:81 min | Germany:90 min

Country:

Thailand

Language:

Thai | English | Mandarin | Vietnamese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Ireland:18 | Australia:MA | Spain:13 | Malaysia:U (cut) | Germany:16 | Malaysia:18SG | New Zealand:R16 | USA:R | South Africa:13V | UK:18 | Portugal:M/16 | Netherlands:16 | Hong Kong:IIB | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Singapore:NC-16 | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | France:U | Taiwan:R-12 | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

Australia

Company:

Sahamongkolfilm Co.

Trivia:

As with Tony Jaa previous films, no wires or stunt doubles were used during filming.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the bone-breaking scene, Kham forces one of his foes into the splits by pushing the guy's leg up towards his body while upright. However, when the foe in question does his initial kick he does it with his right leg, then there's a cut and it's his left leg that Kham forces upwards.

Quotes:

Kham: Where the hell is my elephant?

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2006-09-09)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Baby

Where's my elephant!?!

The makers of 2003's Ong-Bak are back with bang, a crash, a couple of elephants and many, many cracks. In fact, every other word spoken appears to be "Argh!". Muay Thay expert-extraordinaire Tony Jaa returns to lead us once again, as his sacred elephants are poached from Thailand and sent to, of all places, Australia. As our hero Kham, he must travel there himself to basically kick the living snot out of anyone who steps in his way. And that's about it.

The maker of this film, Prachya Pinkaew, is either a really shoddy storyteller, or has clocked on to the fact that no one goes to see martial arts films for the plot. Warrior King has an almost identical structure to his first film Ong Bak: a good 25 minutes or so of religious Thai imagery, villagers roaming around with animals before someone comes along and messes everything up. Petchtai Wongkamlao essentially reprises the comedy role he played in the previous release, although this time he hogs all the comic moments, as the wafer-thin script offers little in compensation for its action scenes. All the English-spoken acting is terrible. With that said I'm assuming most of the foreign language acting is terrible too, but for obvious reasons the Australian acting stood out more. The script is full of age old Hollywood clichés such as cops being taken off the case, only to go vigilante, gold-hearted prostitutes and a whole host of colourful looking gangsters (former WWE reject Nathan Jones makes a hilarious cameo) that wouldn't look out of place in a straight-to-video Steven Seagal flick.

And yet despite the glaring faults with a film as silly as this, none of the criticisms truly matter for one simple reason: Tony Jaa is absolutely amazing. Watching our protagonist fly kick the hell out of everyone before performing all sorts of acrobatic stunts will have your jaw on the floor. The man can obviously smash through thin plot points as fast as he can human bones. The film isn't badly shot either. Apart from getting a nice sense of Thai culture and a splendid view of Sidney, Warrior King is expertly choreographed. There is one remarkable sequence in which our protagonist battles his way through four stories of the same building absolutely smashing the hell out of anything thing that moves, which seems to go on forever, taken all in one single steady-cam shot. It would make David Lean jealous.

Granted if you've seen Ong Bak watching Muay Thay for a second time won't have the same head-crushing impact. Whilst Warrior King boasts plenty of superbly choreographed action sequences, it doesn't peak as well as the much more pure Ong Bak managed to. The movie does, however, generate a sense of darkness amidst the stalking threat of campy buffoonery. So it's an impressive sophomore effort, obviously catering more towards an ever increasingly cognizant western audience.