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

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+ 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.

 

Related post:

 

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

 

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.]

What do you think of Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior?

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring/Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring/봄 여름 가을 겨울 그리고 봄/Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom (2003) - Ki-duk presents the Buddhist Wheel of Life in splendid Korean nature

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A young and an older monk sail on an invisible lake on this etheric, minimalist poster for Kim Ki-duk's Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring

An aging monk in a floating house on a lake raises a young boy there. When the boy becomes a young man, he falls in love and runs away, - though nothing good comes of this.

Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is written and directed by Kim Ki-duk (Human, Space, Time and Human/Inkan, gongkan, sikan grigo inkan (2018)).
The film tells partially a real story and partially paints a metaphor for the different phases in human life: Told episodically and set up against some strikingly beautiful Korean nature.
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring has inspired photography (by Baek Dong-hyeon (My Wife Is a Gangster 3/Jopog manura 3 (2006))), and it is a respectable enterprise to be sure, - but also somewhat tedious at times, - meditative some might say, more diplomatically. I zone out some in some of its abstract, metaphorical stretches. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring may appeal stronger to Buddhists.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 9.5 mil. $
= Uncertain
[Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring premiered 14 August (Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland) and runs 103 minutes. Shooting took place in South Korea in and around the 200 year old artificial Jusanji Pond. Ki-duk has said of the film: "I intended to portray the joy, anger, sorrow and pleasure of our lives through four seasons and through the life of a monk who lives in a temple on Jusan Pond surrounded only by nature." A sequence towards the end of a boy harming animals by the lake was removed from some international versions of the film. It opened #59 to a 42k $ first weekend in 6 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #21 and in 74 theaters, grossing 2.3 mil. $ (24.2 % of the total gross). The film's listed 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 1.3 mil. $ (13.7 %) and France with 1.1 mil. $ (11.6 %), - but the list is missing South Korea and Japan, which may likely have been the film's biggest markets of all. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. It was nominated for a European Film award, among other honors. Ki-duk returned with Samaritan Girl/Samaria (2004). Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring is certified fresh at 94 % with an 8.02/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring?