Got to hand it to the production team behind Thai martial arts film Ong Bak: They know a good thing when they see it. And after seeing the way their female star Jija Yanin performed in her debut picture Chocolate, they went straight to work on her sophomore picture. In the process Sahamongkol Film not only got away from the in-production-for-years cycle that has plagued their recent releases but they've also pushed into some new territory in their approach to action and martial arts.
Tailored specifically to Yanin's personality and skills, Raging Phoenix introduces a romance element to the story while also fusing Yanin's martial arts skills with hip hop dancing and other elements. I wrote about this one during Cannes, when Sahamongkol released the first promo reel for the film, but there is now - finally - a public trailer to show. The focus is purely on Yanin - her romantic interest is barely present at all - with a good taste given of the hip hop fusion fight style. And for those who worry that the romantic side will mean toning down the violence ... well, I think the first shot will cure you of that notion.
Check out the first trailer for Raging Phoenix below the break!
Looks good to me. I really liked her in CHOCOLATE and am looking forward to seeing her in another film.
looks good but not impressive though!
Her moves still feels slow, I like the part she was walking, walked like Jet Li:)
But damn man! She looks so damn different, that poster reminds me of Milla Jenovich (Resident Evil girl)
Really looking forward to this... maybe Midnight Madness this year?
Yanin, oops.
Likin' the new haircut a lot! Oh right, yup, film looks good too! Looking forward to another heated fighting vs plot debate when this one comes out.
I really liked Chocolate and Yanin is cute. :)
Bet it will be awsome.
Let's hope it's better than Chocolate (the script was so atrocious it could have been written by Luc Be$$on).
I didn't think the script was that bad, far superior to Ong Bak and such films.
I really liked Chocolate (much better than any Tony Jaa flick) and i love Yanin so I'm in.
This girl is unbreakable and inmortal and is going to become a legend!!;)
I love her so much.
Apart from the dance scene, are we seeing anything NOT assisted by wires or CGI in that trailer? :-/
While I liked Tony Jaa I do have to admit the story lines do seem to run from the pretty basic (Holy relic stolen from village, get it back, beat up baddies) to slightly childish (A boy and his elephant... How touching.) Although it does seem to me that Tony Jaa films did have an effect on the Martial Arts genre as a whole.
I do agree Chocolate had a lot more meat to it's script and was easier for a none Thai like me to relate to. And Yanin is a cutie. Can't wait for her and Jaa to do a flick together. A brother and sister team perhaps.
It's clear that the problem with Chocolate is not the script. The problem for me was the pacing of the fights. Some were quite well done, while others just felt too mechanic, and you could clearly see the stuntmen stepping into their marks over and over. Ong Bak has even less story, but i had no doubt in my mind, from start to finish, that Jaa was beating the ideas out of everyone there. In Chocolate some kicks barely look like they touch anyone at all, and i don't blame the girl for this, i blame the poor direction.
ChevalierAguila brings up a good point. The fights were better in Ong Bak and Tom yum goong than in Chocolate.
I want to see Yanin fight Sasima Jindamanee (from Som Tum), that would rule!
Eh, much as I admire Tony Jaa, I haven't gone back to [i]Ong Bak[/i] in forever, couldn't stand what I've seen of [i]The Protector[/i] and I have absolutely no desire to watch [i]Ong Bak 2[/i]. I get that he's clearly the superior martial artist - obviously he's playing a major part in driving his films whereas I'm guessing Jeeja is more "who do you want me to kick next?" - but there's just something about the guy that bores me rigid all too quickly.
For me the biggest difference between Jaa's movies and 'Chocolate' was that 'Chocolate' entertained me. Ong-Bak already looks damn dated, Tom-Yum-Goong had great fight scenes but they were to few and far apart in a looooong ass incredibly boring movie. Haven't seen Ong-bak 2 yet 'cause it quite frankly doesn't look interesting.
Looking ahead I have much more faith in Yanin than Jaa.
Since the Thai’s have taken over the martial arts mantle from large art-house Chinese pictures (despite Donnie Yen/Wilson Yip’s attempt to bring a more free-form wrestling approach into the genre in Hong Kong) I have had some concern. Tony Jaa brought the house down during the North American premiere of Ong Bak, the main western introduction to Mui Thai as the main thrust of a martial arts film. The story was flimsy enough to string some truly jaw-dropping fight sequences together and the picture was successfully marketed and sold in France, Canada, The United States and elsewhere in the world. But Jaa seems to lack the charisma of Bruce Lee, or the playful spirit of Jackie Chan, or heck, the gravitas of Jet Li. And the screenwriters in Thai populist cinema leave a lot to be desired. Case in point were two of the big followups to Ong Bak pushed internationally, Born To Fight and Tom Yum Goong. With increasingly silly and nonsensical plots there is the temptation to just fast forward to ‘the good parts’ and skip all the extraneous plotting and story. Particularly in the incomprehensible Tom Yum Goong case, or its shorter even less coherent American cut titled The Protector. Albeit there were 3 or 4 stunning set-pieces contained there-in, notably a lengthy single take staircase brawl which is a technical marvel, you take it in from all angles and drool over the scene, but after it is done, the urge to fast forward returns as soon as anyone starts speaking. Um, you, know, like in the pornos.
A couple years on and we were introduced to a slender and talented young girl named Jija Yanin burst on the scene with Ong Bak director Prachya Pinkaew setting up the ’story’ of a young girl with Asberger’s Syndrome who becomes an autistic super-fighter. The story pushes ludicrousness to a place where there ought to be a new word. Sure the action sequences are fab and many stuntmen look to be damaged in the making of the film (apparently the Thai seal of approval is the abuse taken by the ‘extras’ who are the fighting-fodder for the heroine to really kick around). That film was for no apparent reason titled (in its English language release, Chocolate and while sure, I had a good time watching it on a huge screen with over 1000 enthusiastic fans, the storytelling probably hit a new low for bad plotting and reliance on high-concept (Yes, even more than Jet Li’s The One).
dont forget RINA TAKEDA in your mentions of new fighting stars from asia.