'' (องค์บาก) (
2003 ) is a
Thai Action Film . It was directed by
Prachya Pinkaew , featured stunt choreography by
Panna Rittikrai and starred
Tony Jaa . ''Ong-Bak'' proved to be Jaa's breakout film, with the actor hailed internationally as the next major
Martial-arts star.
The scene opens in a peaceful, rural village in
Northeastern Thailand . A group of men, covered in mud, are standing by an immense
Bodhi tree, looking up to the top where a flag flaps in the gentle breeze. With a great yell, they all run towards the tree and begin to climb, knocking others away. Men fall to the ground with a thud, bouncing off branches as they go. One climber comes out on top. This is Ting, the village's best athlete and fighter. He grabs the flag, ties it around his neck and descends, deftly avoiding the other climbers.
Ting is established as a reverent, respectful young man, and is annointed as such by the village's monk, in a ceremony at the community's humble little temple that night. Though extremely skilled in
Muay Thai , as he demonstrates for his "Uncle Mao" (indeed, it is literally "Uncle Drunk" in
Thai ), he has made a vow that he will not use it to harm another person for any personal monetary gain.
It is a poor village. All it has is an ancient
Buddha image, named . During the night, Ting's drunken Uncle Mao stumbles into the temple to discover something bad going on. He awakes the next morning to find the Buddha statue's head missing. The villagers all despair of the bad luck that will befall them if the Buddha's head is not returned. Ting speaks up and says he will recover it at all costs.
The villagers all chip in, giving up treasured
Baht and hoarded trinkets to pay for Ting's way to
Bangkok , where he is to meet his ne'er-do-well cousin Humlae and get help in tracking down the men who stole Ong-Bak's head.
In the city, we find that Humlae has dyed his hair blond and renamed himself George, since his village name, "Humlae", also means "Dirty Balls". He and his friend, Muay Lek, are street-bike racing hustlers who have fallen in with a bad crowd of
Yaba dealers.
Humlae is at first reluctant to help Ting, but when he sees the small fortune in coins that Ting has collected from his village, Humlae takes an immediate interest. And, when Ting is in the bathroom, Humlae grabs the sack and heads for a bar on
Khaosan Road where an illegal boxing match is going on. Ting tracks Humlae down, but instead of getting his money back, he ends up fighting and being named the new champion after one kick waylays the old champ.
) is ready for a another showdown.]]
This makes Ting an enemy of Komtuan, a gray-haired, wheelchair-bound crimelord who needs an
Electrolarynx to speak. He's been watching the fight from his private room, and losing money because Ting keeps beating his fighters.
Meanwhile, back in Ting's village, there is bad luck indeed. The ground is dusty and full of cracks and all that's left in the village well is muddy water. They need the Buddha's head back for the drought to end and good luck to return to the village.
George keeps working shady deals, with he and Muay Lek working a scam at a
Blackjack game in an illegal casino. Eventually, the scams catch up with him, and the drug dealer shows up to give George a beating. Ting ignores George's cries for help, but when the drug dealer starts smacking Muay Lek around, Ting takes care of things. But then the drug dealer's friends and the cheated casino boss show up and a footchase through the alleys ensues, with Ting showing off his acrobatic skill as he walks over crowds, jumps through a barbed-wire hoop, leaps over a rack of sharp tools and does a gymnastics move over a wok of hot oil.
That night, there is another fight at the bar. Ting is egged on by a vulgar Australian fighter. Finally, after the Australian fighter beats another Thai man and a waitress, Ting takes up the fight and beats the hulking man. He then must fight a very fast Japanese fighter, and finally another
Farang , who favors the use of such objects as chairs, tables and even a refrigerator to punch and smash his opponents with.
Muay Lek, meanwhile, has been struggling to keep her older sister Ngek from using drugs. Ngek has fallen in with a bad guy named Don. Muay Lek shows up at Don's apartment with George and Ting to find her sister overdosed. George and Ting take off and chase the boyfriend in
Tuk-tuk s, with several of Don's buddies joining in. The tuk-tuks take to an elevated expressway, and the scene climaxes with many tuk-tuks driving off the edge of an unfinished portion of the highway.
Ting follows the bad guys and ends up at the port and in the
Chao Phraya River , where he discovers a cache of stolen Buddha images. This leads back to the gangster Komtuan, who makes Ting fight one of his bodyguards who has been treating himself with
Steriods , making him full of rage and impervious to pain.
Eventually, Ting and George are taken to the gangster's hideout in the mountains, where the head of a giant Buddha image is being chiseled away. There is a final showdown, ending in George being crippled, and the Buddha head falling on Komtuan, but Ong-Bak's head is recovered.
Featuring amazing chase sequences and bouts of intense, but gracefully choreographed violence, as well as Tony Jaa's own acrobatic agility and fighting prowess, ''Ong-Bak'' became most notable for eschewing
CGI and wires in favour of physical stunts for its outrageous action sequences (however, a crane was used to lift a
Tuk-tuk during one sequence). Indeed, much of the film's international advertising boasted of the fact, with a tagline stating: "No stunt doubles, no computer images, no strings attached."
The film also introduced international audiences to a traditional form of
Muay Thai (or
Muay Boran , an ancient muay Thai style), a
Kickboxing style that is known for violent strikes with fist, feet, shins, elbows and knees. The fights were choreographed by
Panna Rittikrai , who is also Tony Jaa's mentor and a veteran director of
B-movie Action Film s that all feature realistic stuntwork.
After ''Ong-Bak'' became a hit in
Thailand , sales rights for outside Asia were purchased by
Luc Besson 's EuropaCorp, which in turn re-edited the film.
Most of the subplot involving Muay Lek's sister, Ngek, was removed.
The French company also rescored the soundtrack some with
Hip-hop sounds, replacing the Thai rock score, and it's this version that has been made available in the
United States .
For the
United Kingdom release, the soundtrack was scored yet again, this time with an orchestral score.
The
Hong Kong cut of the film's theatrical release omits a "bone breaking" sequence toward the end, where George's arm is snapped and Ting in turn snaps the leg of a bad guy.
DVD releases in Hong Kong have the scene restored.
- In Thailand, it was simply called ''Ong-Bak''.
- For the release in Singapore and other territories, as well as film festivals, it's ''Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior''.
- In the United States and some other places, it's ''Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior''.
- The Hong Kong English title was ''Thai Fist''.
English subtitles were notoriously hard to find on early DVD releases of ''Ong-Bak''. The Thai release omitted the subtitles, as did the versions released in Hong Kong,
Japan and
South Korea .
For a time, the only legal home-video version of ''Ong-Bak'' with English subtitles was a Hong Kong
VCD , but the translations were generally pretty poor.
With the UK and US DVD releases, ''Ong Bak'' became officially available with English subtitles, but those are versions that have been re-edited. There's an Australian-issued DVD that's a two-disc package featuring both the original Thai cut and Luc Besson's version.
There are ''Ong-Bak'' purists who prefer the Thai cut of the film and insist that because the movie is mostly action, understanding the dialogue isn't really necessary.
After ''Ong-Bak'' became a huge worldwide hit, Tony Jaa's name was attached to many projects. He went on to act in a small role in the
Petchtai Wongkamlao vehicle, ''
The Bodyguard '' (co-directed by
Panna Rittikrai ), and then starred in the much-anticipated ''
Tom-Yum-Goong '' in
2005 . In March 2006, it was announced that filming for ''
Ong Bak 2 '' would start that fall and be released sometime in
2007 .
- During the footchase through the alleys, you can see writing on a shophouse door that reads "Hi Spielberg , let's do it together."
- During the , we are waiting for you." The French producer-director's company, EuropaCorp, would go on to purchase the international selling rights to ''Ong-Bak'' outside Asia.
- Tony Jaa trained in Muay Thai for six years to prepare for the role. However, despite this extensive training, a fair amount of the martial arts choreography is actually Taekwondo in style due to the art's impressive kicking techniques. Another ancient kickboxing style named Muay Boran was also widely used.
- Jaa and his mentor Panna Rittikrai struggled to raise money to produce a demo reel to drum up interest for the making of ''Ong-Bak''. Their first reel was made on expired film stock, so they had to raise more money and start over.
- One of Tony Jaa's favorite scenes is at the gas station. With his trousers on fire, Ting kicked one of the villains in the face. The flames spread upwards very fast and burned Tony's eyebrows, eyelashes and nose. He then had to do a couple of more takes to make sure it was right.
