The Kick

A family of South Korean martial artists are on their way to a tournament when they inadvertently get involved in a plot to steal an ancient knife that is priceless but, if I had to put a price on it, I'd say it was worth about US$33million. Anyway, hailed as heroes for their intervention, the family find themselves the target of the gang when they come looking for revenge.

Having been really impressed by Jija Yanin Mitananda in Chocolate I had sought out other films with her in it – and the trailer for this one looked very good indeed. The reason for this is of course but it is full of clips of great physical feats and thankfully it is representative of the film in that it does have plenty of action and much of it very impressive. The skills of the main cast members is impressive and there are a few very well choreographed sequences. Problem is that the film itself is pretty poor and, while some of the action compensates for this, it really isn't what they deserve. The plot is weak and makes almost no sense. The delivery of the comedy is poor and the use of music is roundly terrible – particularly a fight sequence where a character "dances" his way through the villains. There are lots of things like this and it hurts the film – and I felt it even more when the really cool move or sequence came along to remind me what it was capable of.

In terms of performances it is hard for me to judge because I watched a dubbed version. As with Chocolate I did love Yanin – she is stunning but physically her abilities are amazing, she really needs a film that can support her. Wongkamlao was pretty funny here – previous films I have not always liked him but here he worked as comic relief. Korean Lee is a decent villain if you ignore that his character's motivations make pretty much no sense but his bodyguards were good. The rest of the family are mixed but I liked the son, daughter and mother characters – the father and cute kid I could have done without.

A weak film then, but one that contains some great physical sequences – so good in fact that they really deserve a film that is better than this one.

I love this movie, has all the right mixes of action, adventure, comedy, etc. I only have one regret, I wish jeeja yanin had a bigger part in this movie, I think she's great.

The title says it all. Or better said, all the positive aspects. The script is just too silly. The family makes decisions that endanger themselves and the youngest kid all the time and whenever things go their way, it's just due to plot armor. Don't even bother with any dialog, just skip from one fight scene to the next. Oh, except for the kitchen fight scene; skip that one. I came back to this review to lower one star because of that scene.

Sadly, THE KICK is another Thai martial arts film that ends up disappointing rather than exhilarating. Don't get me wrong, I love and adore the first quartet of these Thai films I watched: ONG BAK, BORN TO FIGHT, WARRIOR KING, and CHOCOLATE are all fantastic little films that I can happily watch over and over again. But everything else that has come since has been a disappointment.

Even with ONG BAK director Prachya Pinkaew on board, and martial arts choreography from old timer Panna Rittikrai, THE KICK is an underwhelming film. There's a storyline about the hunt for a priceless and ancient kris (a type of eastern dagger) but the main narrative is bogged down by the antics of an unlikeable Korean Taekwondo team who really drag things down. The reason for their inclusion is that this film was part funded by South Korea, who obviously wanted a slice of Muay Thai for themselves.

The problem with this is that we get the likes of Tae-joo Na occupying most of the screen time. This Korean actor's acting is poor and his martial arts is little better, and the bit where he does a hip hop dance to beat up the villains is a huge embarrassment. At least the reliable Petchtai Wongkamlao (THE BODYGUARD) is on hand to bring some laughs, and the fantastic JeeJa Yanin (CHOCOLATE) stars in support as another fighter. But they really should have focused the story on Yanin alone and concentrated on doing great choreography and extensive fight scenes and then this would have been something special instead of weak and generic.

From the director of Ong-bak, The Protector and Chocolate comes this Thai/Korean co-production. A family of taekwondo instructors living in Bangkok foils a group of smugglers after they steal a priceless Thai artifact. The gangsters target the family and turn the tables on them, forcing them to steal back the artifact. JeeJa Yanin (of Chocolate fame) shows up about forty minutes into the film and helps the family kick butt. She's as awesome as ever. The teenage son of the family (I think the actor's name is Kyung-suk Kim) is an awesome martial artist - in the film he does a combination of taekwondo and hip-hop dancing, looking kind of similar to capoeira. I'd love to see this kid star in more movies, perhaps more of them with JeeJa. The action is often awesome in this flick, though I could have done without all the CGI (in particular the awful CGI crocodiles). This film never showed up in Region 1, though it's been on the internet for a couple of years (as have subtitles).