Deu suay doo

Thai sensation JeeJa Yanin burst onto the martial arts movie scene in 2008 with Chocolate, wowing fight fans worldwide with her amazing performance as adorable but bad-ass autistic girl Zen (and earning her the title of 'the female Tony Jaa' in the process). Expectations were naturally high for her next film Raging Phoenix, but although Yanin once again displays incredible agility, skill, and speed, the film as a whole must be considered something of a disappointment, lacking the simplicity, charm, originality, and raw power of its predecessor.

The script flits brazenly from one nonsensical scene to the next and is irritatingly indifferent to its main gimmick, the drunken fighting style of Meyraiyuth, so carefully developed in the first half of the film yet completely ignored in the second; almost as brash are the fight scenes that vary wildly in style from bone-crunching realism to comic-book excess (with naff wire-work employed for 'cool' gravity defying moves), most of which are so highly choreographed that they are more like immaculate dance routines than amazing displays of martial arts prowess (impressive to watch, certainly, but hardly adrenaline pumping). Meanwhile, Yanin desperately struggles to create another endearing character in Deu, but thanks to far too many embarrassingly over-melodramatic moments, her street urchin with attitude comes across as more pathetic than sympathetic.

Throughout the film, there are plenty of scenes that display promise, but all ultimately fail to deliver the levels of genius that have made recent Muay Thai movies like Ong-Bak, Warrior King and Chocolate so memorable; the fact that this potential for awesomeness is so frequently and readily wasted makes Raging Phoenix an all the more frustrating experience.

An unsatisfying 5.5 out of 10, generously rounded up to 6 for IMDb.

I greatly value originality in any story or flick. When I see something I've seen before, I recognize it and it's somewhat off-putting. This flick has a lot of martial arts that's unique but that's not the half of it. This is a martial arts flick with amazing, unique locations. Best of all it has a unique and original story line. One of the sets appears to be an abandoned hotel at the beach that was demolished in Thailand by the tidal wave. Another set is a labyrinth of tunnels and sewers. That's not all. This movie has atmosphere to spare. The characters are also original but I will not reveal anything about the unique, original story line.

JeeJa Yanin has had an auspicious start to her martial arts movie career. He first film Chocolate (2008) was a solid martial arts film that showcased her ability and allowed her to downplay acting by having her being mute. She gets to talk in this film and is generally fine with her acting abilities, but her strong points are still her martial art abilities. JeeJa is the most exciting female martial artist in cinema right now. While that might not be saying much, I do find her fun to watch. Much like Tony Jaa, I feel with the right script both could do much more than with the material they are currently given.

Raging Phoenix succeeds on the action scenes but ultimately fails in the plot. JeeJa is Dea a confused slightly erratic woman down on luck with choosing boyfriends, removed from the band she was playing in because of attacking that boyfriend during a performance and of all the luck she is now targeted to be kidnapped by a gang called Jaguar who target specific smelling women who will be harvested of their pheromones to sell on the black market as a sex aphrodisiac. That just sounds silly doesn't it? Wait it gets better. She is saved by Sanim (Kazu Patrick Tang: Bangkok Adrenaline) a practitioner of a martial art called Meiraiyuth who is part of a group of marauding good guys who have lost their significant others to this nefarious gang. These include three others named Pig Poop (Nui Sandang), Dog Poop (Sompong Leartvimolkasame), and Bull Poop(Boonprasayrit Salangam) NOTE: I modified the names for IMDb. She then becomes their student in learning this martial art to use in destroying all of these kidnappers and in search of the head of the serpent of the gang played by Thai/Indian bodybuilding champion (and once was part of the Royal Thai Police) Roongtawan Jindasing in her first movie appearance. Of course she has to survive the training which involves imbibing much liquor and getting beaten up.

The first fight scene is partially impressive. I love the use of modified powerisers the bad guys have which are like a pogo stick per leg but longer and built with blades. I was skeptical at first, but it came out quite creative and entertaining. I would love to have those, though I would probably kill a few people while learning it and potential decapitating myself.

While the use of wires to accent the fight scenes is overused, they do help create an aesthetically pleasing martial arts style in Meiraiyuth. It is a mixture of drunken boxing, Muay Thai, break-dancing and Capoeira. While it may not always be advantageous to throw in a dance move while beating someone up it is impressive here. One problem that occasionally comes up is that when doing extremely flexible moves at impossible angles the impact of the blow comes off as very soft and the overreaction of the opponent is forced though I have seen this issue in many action films (as well as the mysterious blow that completely misses the person yet that person is blown over by the wind of the punch or kick).

But besides the plot I have one other issue that annoyed me. Some of the CGI use is pretty bad. This is especially evident when they are trying to break into the lair of Jaguar. At its worst is when they initially break in and fall or "slide" down to the lower depths. They basically looked like they were moving their arms and legs while the background is changing. The bridge fight scene is also hurt by this where much around them looks like they are in a computer game from the mid 1990s. When you watch something as impressive as the few fight scenes you wonder why they resorted to this phony graphics manipulation.

I have to admit I had a fun time watching this movie. The story is not as solid as Chocolate (though better than Ong Bak 2) and like many Thai action films they feel derivative (or homage) of other successful Asian films especially ones from Hong Kong. The incorporation of Meiraiyuth reminds me quite a bit of drunken boxing and it is impossible not to think of Drunken Master. Early on the manipulation of Deu's body as a weapon by Sanim certainly reminds me of its use in Dirty Ho, but a few Jackie Chan films as well. The film seemed to completely forget the drinking part of the art in the later part of the film.

I have the Magnet R1 release. It has two main extras: a "Making of Raging Phoenix" and "Behind the Scenes of Raging Phoenix." The "Making of Raging Phoenix" (11m.53s) is in Thai/French with removable English subtitles. It is a fun extra though you wonder how/why the director Rashane Limtrakul spent a year writing the script. Patrick Tang speaks French in the extra. The "Behind the Scenes of Raging Phoenix" (10m.35s) is pretty much showing them practice the fighting scenes (and some drum training) to a Thai(?) rap beat. However like in the end credits of a Jackie Chan film you get to see mishaps and the dangers of this type of film when JeeJa Yanin hurts her neck and gets put into a brace. And to top it off it has the international trailer (3m.34s) of this film and various trailers "Also From Magnolia Home Entertainment." There is an English dub and the English subs do not appear to be dubtitles though many of the sentences are the same.

Movie as such is pretty simple and straight forward with a twist in between which actually jinxed me. However, saying that, the only reason I watched it was JeeJa Yanin and her martial arts skills.

I was browsing through action videos in youtube and came across this movie's last action sequence which kind of so much impressed me that I was curious to watch the full movie. It went smooth and I wasn't expecting much too. But, by God, this lady had some skills and showed perfectly in martial arts. I remember watching Tom Yoom Gung earlier of Tony Jaa and that action star is the only other Thai actor which impressed me with his techniques. Bravo. JeeJa Yanin, in the same way, performed her own style and who knows, it could be taken as a reference in other action movies. Am now eager to watch her movie Chocolate. Fingers crossed.

OK i have to admit i am generous when i give an 8, because i was to other movies as well a couple years ago. I know when i watch a martial arts movie to not look too much at the story, more on the fights. But since i started to go back on martial arts around 2 years ago and started my collection(which is now over 300 movies) i find the same problem going on with every THAI martial arts movie. To the Tony Jaa's to the unknown's. The fights are always very impressive, but the story is always CRAP !!! This movie is no exception. Some could say the initial synopsis is not that bad, gang abducting womens and heroes going after them. But where TAKEN(with Liam Neeson) succeeded in that department, this movie does not, going from one weird thing to the other and so on. The heroine training is pretty good and the initial plot seem pretty find, its later it become like "whatever". At least the fight are VERY impressive and well choreographed so you never get bored and always stay in the movie. But i would wish sometimes the Thais would learned that a good yet simple plot of a movie is the best way to showcase awesome martial arts. You don't need fancy stuff, you don't need weird stuff, you don't need stuff the audience would be like "huh....ok" . With Thais movie, its always the same thing, either a relic has been stolen and the hero goes after it, or its supernatural stuff. I don't know, maybe they should check the simple, yet effective formula of the US movies of the 90s. Hero got his ass kick, go back and train to a master, come back and kick the ass of the bad guy. I don't know... sometimes in martial arts the simpler plots work best, if you have good fighting to display and i can assure you this movie has.... Please people from thailand... leave the supernatural out of the martial arts movie... we don't wanna a cross over between star wars and bloodsport... we want just good ol martial arts.