Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior/องค์บาก (2003)

9/22/2022

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior/องค์บาก (2003) - The acrobatic martial arts breakthrough

♥♥♥

+ Best $ Return of the Year: 18.3 times its cost + Best Martial Arts Movie of the Year + Best Thai Movie of the Year

Star Tony Jaa's muscular back in warm, earthy tones makes up this poster for Prachya Pinkaew's Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior

When a Thai village have the head of their protective Ong-Bak Buddha statue stolen, a young, virile man gets chosen to head out on the dangerous journey to the big city (Bangkok) to repossess the holy artifact.

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior is written by Suphachai Sittiaumponpan (Thai Theeb (2006)), with Panna Rittikrai (Black Goblins (1990)) and co-writer/co-producer/director Prachya Pinkaew (Rawng tah laep plaep (1992)) contributing story elements.

Young Ting (Tony Jaa (Monster Hunter (2020))), the brave young man in question, beats up and suffers beatings from a fantastic amount of people, and the fighting scenes take up most of the film's running time. And here are very cool and acrobatic choreography to admire.

Aside from this significant quality, Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior is overlong and, outside of its action, amateurish.

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

Cost: 1.1 mil. $

Box office: 20.2 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 18.3 times its cost)

[Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior premiered 21 January (Bangkok International Film Festival) and runs 108-105 minutes (Thai version/international version). Shooting took place in Thailand, including in Bangkok. The film opened #17 to a 1.3 mil. $ first weekend in 387 theaters in North America, its 2nd biggest market, where it grossed 4.5 mil. $ (22.3 of the total gross). The biggest market was France with 6.4 mil. $ (31.7 %), and 3rd biggest was Thailand with 2.5 mil. $ (12.4 %). The success resulted in 2 sequels; Ong-Bak 2 (2008) and Ong-Bak 3 (2010), with Jaa and Pinkaew returning. Pinkaew first returned with The Protector/Tom yum goong (2005), which was also Jaa's next movie. Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

Eagerly anticipating this week ... (14-24)

9/22/2022

Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior/องค์บาก (2003) - The acrobatic martial arts breakthrough

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

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