Ong Bak 3

Picking up directly where we last left off in that cliffhanger ending in Part 2 after an opening credits montage to quickly jog our memory, we see how Tien gets systematically broken down by the many minions of his nemesis Lord Rajasena (Sarunyoo Wongkrachang). Here's where I think the Thai audience have the last laugh with their recent censor ratings. Ong Bak 3 is rating an 18+ there, and over here, we got by with an NC16. Not so bad I thought to myself, until the first 5 minutes saw a number of badly executed butchering of the film, that I balked. We should have gone M18 to be in line, and perhaps those torture scenes would have survived the censors scissors. But no thanks to the distributors who decided to try and make this film appeal to a larger Jaa audience. Surprisingly though the more violent moments later on in the film were left untouched, scenes that I felt were violent enough with the likes of a decapitation, and face/head stomp to warrant an axe under the NC16 rating. But I guess I'm not a censor.

Anyway, action fans may feel a little bit disappointed with this installment which ran just over 90 minutes. For the first hour we only have limited battle sequences involving our hero, so savour whatever you can in his fight for survival against hordes of weapon wielding enemies who have the unfair advantage of strength in numbers against a badly beaten (just came off those numerous fights from Ong Bak 2) Tien. Totally broken and just as he's about to be executed, Tien gets saved by the bell and brought back to the village of Kana Khone, where another fight ensues involving his new rescuers against Rajasena's assassins.

Then it's a good plod onto the hour mark, where Tien goes through a reincarnation of sorts, involving body wraps, mystical chants, Master Bua (Nirut Sirichanya) turning to monkhood and imparting pearls of wisdom, the rehabilitation of body, mind and soul, time for romance with Pim (Primorata Dejudom) his pillar of strength, discussions of karmic philosophy and the circle of life. Tien has to unlearn what he has learnt, and basically has to snap all the bones of his body back in place before he can practice martial arts again, which brings us a bearded Jaa and a training montage in a tree, under water, showing off a lean though scarred body, and is that a little paunch I see as well?

So while Tien takes a breather of sorts for his transformation, the duty of keeping the action junkies entertained fell on Dan Chupong's shoulders, as his very short supporting role as the Crow Ghost got expanded here, with his motivation fully revealed. His character soars to evil heights here, taking over the mantle as chief villain, and allowing Chupong to reintroduce himself as an action star to be reckoned with in his own right. Those who have seen Born to Fight and Dynamite Warrior will know what he is capable of, and I really salute him for daring to take on a negative role just to spar with Jaa on screen.

But what a letdown when they finally get together to do battle. Overall I found their sparring quite weak compared to what had been done earlier in the film involving other exponents, and the finishing blow was quite a letdown. Already the number of fights and spars here were limited to begin with, one even involving the architecture of the mind (sorry, Inception still fresh), and this one just didn't pack enough oomph. It's built up to be something like Tien being a Moses to lead his people, captive by the Crow to be slaves getting constantly whipped, back to their promised land, and hey, he even comes with a staff that got dropped off after a magical moment got executed, in time for fisticuffs.

The only positive coming out from this new Tien, is his new fighting ability. Tien is now more graceful, thanks to the fusion of dance to his moves, and the many moments when this parallel that dance brings to the table, got heavy emphasis, meshing what we usually think of as effeminate, to giving that suppleness to the more masculine moves involving elbows and knees to bone-crunching effect. This to-the-point moves were not forgotten of course, and come in the form of very economical, sometimes comical, but always simple, strikes involving forearms and a rigid body trained to be as hard as steel. I still miss those drunken fists moves from the earlier film, and the insanely choreographed finale battles then, which this one had tried to emulate, only to be a pale shadow of its former's glory.

Comedian Petchtai Wongkamiao provided some comic relief in a film that took itself quite seriously, and I think in light of some of the themes that were handled in quite a verbose manner, this was much appreciated. Ong Bak 3 straddles martial arts and philosophy very openly and tried to strike a fair balance between the two, but alas it came off as quite a schizophrenic film very much like True Legend in spirit. I hope the Ong Bak 2 and 3 episodes don't tank Tony Jaa's career, because I'm sure he has enough in reserve to wow audiences once again, should the right story come along that pushes his physical boundaries.

Viewers seem to absolutely hate this third film in the series. It certainly isn't great, but I didn't think it was terrible, and if you sat through the second one, which ends on a cliffhanger, you'll definitely want to see this one. The story is incoherent, but so was the second one. Jaa, having been captured, is tortured to near death. He's saved in some confusing way. The big problem with this one is that there's a long section in the middle where Jaa's being healed and then trained. The martial arts sequences are entirely absent for much of the film, and obviously that's the only reason anyone showed up. Thankfully, when they do re-enter the movie, they're awesome enough where it almost makes up for the boring parts. Honestly, one can be perfectly happy sticking with the first Ong-Bak and The Protector. The plots of those two films amounted to "Hey, the bad guys stole something from me, now I'm going to go get it (while kicking the ass of everyone who gets in my way), whether or not my pants are on fire." Ong-Bak 2 & 3, which Jaa directed, wrote and choreographed (he's most successful in the latter aspect), have a mytho-historic epic plot line that is as confusing as it is unnecessary.

Tony Jaa is an incredible athletic specimen, and his last three films – "Ong Bak" (2003), "Tom Yum Goong" (2005), and "Ong Bak 2" (2008) – were fantastic exhibitions of buttkicking. Considering the production hell that "Ong Bak 2" endured, it seemed like Jaa could do no wrong. But then something unexpected happened. He pulled a Dave Chapelle on us and stuck a big middle finger at his fans. Instead of sucking it up like a man and simply enduring the last few years on his contract, Jaa chose the crybaby route and ran like a child into the woods. I was still looking forward to "Ong Bak 3" (2010) despite the horrible online buzz it has been getting, because deep down inside I was hoping that Jaa would give us one last exhibition of glory before taking a (hopefully) temporary vacation for the next few years. Unfortunately, he left us a fluff piece that's merely watchable.

This picks up immediately after "Ong Bak 2" ends, with Jaa being captured, tortured and beaten. Much of the first hour is dedicated to his rescue and recovery, which might get on the bad side of action junkies but this part of the film is actually decent despite a weak storyline (pretty environments and good scoring do help to hold one's interest). The script basically sucks, and is actually a downgrade from "Ong Bak 2" (which at least had a number of cool characters and scenarios). I seriously question the whole "king curse" element that was introduced in this film. I guess it could have worked in theory, but the execution leaves much to be desired.

Of course, no one watches Jaa's films for award-winning scriptwriting, which means that the fighting represents the one major element that simply must work in order to earn entertainment value. One thing the viewer will notice in "Ong Bak 3" is that the degree of difficulty of the martial arts choreography is not nearly as high as Jaa's previous works. There's quite literally not one awe-inspiring exchange in the entire film, and it's obvious that Jaa was sleepwalking through this because his presence feels superfluous. It's no exaggeration to say that any B-grade Thai action star (e.g., Mike B., etc.) could have been inserted into the lead role and the film would have lost very little. The choreography itself is too simplistic to be memorable, and for the first time ever I felt like Jaa's take downs got repetitive after a while.

Now that's not to say that the fighting completely stinks. "Mediocre" for Tony Jaa is "good" for everyone else, which means that the action in "Ong Bak 3" is engaging enough to be moderately entertaining. One big blunder though was having Dan Chupong carry the load as the lead antagonist. It irritates me that people are talking this guy up like he's gonna be the next big thing when in reality he's only slightly above average in his athleticism and skill. "Dynamite Warrior" (2006) was terrible and "Born To Fight" (2004) was entertaining more for its other half dozen protagonists and unintentional hilarity than Chupong's physical skills. His punches and kicks look incredibly flimsy and weak when captured in wide camera angles and he doesn't have much in terms of diverse moves. If you want to rely on someone while Jaa is gone, check out Indonesian action star Iko Uwais – who recently gave us the impressive feat of awesomeness known as "Merantau" (2009).

"Ong Bak 3" comes with a very reserved, marginal recommendation. In reality it's on the same level as something like "The Sanctuary" (2009) or "The Bodyguard" (2004) and comes off like a poor man's version of "Ong Bak 2." Jaa's typical critics – you know, the people with awful taste in action films – will have a field day lambasting this one while giving it a 1/10 rating. Jaa's fans will be justifiably underwhelmed, and could probably skip it entirely without missing much of anything.

It's a martial arts film. Nothing more. Jaa is one of the best movie fighters on the business and that is what you get after seeing this movie: a fun and amazing experience from one of the best martial artists of today. If you want "something more", go on and watch "The Notebook" or something like that.

For those who doesn't think that a movie should always try to be a "masterpiece", this is their kind of movie: pure fun, full of kicks, a history of vengeance, some love, and a lot of people getting kicked on the head.

Maybe is not at the height of Ong Bak 1, but it doesn't mean that it isn't a good film to watch if you like martial arts flicks.

Recently I was re-watching all of the Ong Bak trilogy and found it much better than a decade ago. Obviously part one is a milestone and true classic of martial arts movies. The 2nd installement was set in a different time and thus did not feature modern muay thai/muay boran. For part 2 I recommend, to try and get hold of the european cut, that runs about 20 minutes longer, than the theatrical version. Then we come to this here part three. Yes, it's the weakest of the trilogy, yes it cannot live up to what most of us fans hoped for. BUT, it's not half as bad, as some people want you to think. I am not Thai, so I need to watch it with subtitles, but it's still giving me joy, when I understand part of the conversation. And concerning the "lack of action" that some reviewers mentioned before me, the first part of the movie is really rather historic or telling the background, but the final twenty minutes, are outstanding. And to combine classical siamese dance moves with muay thai/muay boran is not an easy feat, the coreography is beautiful in my personal view.

Just take it for what it is and enjoy, don't try to find a deeper truth within.