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Aug
29
2008

ONG BAK 2 Rides Again!

Posted by Todd Brown at 6:50am.

Posted in Film News , Martial Arts, Action, Asia.

And now I think we can finally put the very strange saga of Tony Jaa’s directorial debut behind us.  Thai media are reporting that Tony Jaa is back on set of Ong Bak 2 and production has resumed on the very troubled film, shut down recently for two solid months when Jaa simply disappeared - apparently having crumbled under the stress of directing a big budget film.

The interesting wrinkle here because nothing is ever straight forward with this film, it seems - is that Jaa has returned as star only.  Sahamongkol Film have apparently done the sensible thing and bounced Jaa out of the director’s chair, replacing him with his mentor, Born To Fight director Panna Rittikrai.  Now this, to me, seems like the best possible outcome for this.  From Sahamongkol’s perspective they now have a director in place with a proven track record of turning in good work cheap.  With Rittikrai they know they’ll have a finished film delivered on time.  From Jaa’s perspective, he is now relieved of the immense pressures of directing himself, can focus on his martial arts, and has a director in place who he knows and respects, having trained under Rittikrai for years.  And from our perspective?  Well, we know we’re going to get the film now, which was not a sure thing a few weeks ago and, honestly, I think Rittikrai is the best action director Sahamongkol has, better by far that Prachya Pinkaew.  Look at what Rittikrai accomplished on a tiny budget with Born to Fight and you’ll see the work of a man who knows how to stage his action, shoots good film, understands how to edit and is certainly not afraid to pull out all of the stops and go big.  This whole thing has been a horrible mess but we should get something good out of it.

You can check the incredible Cannes promo reel for the film below the break.


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Reader Comments

  1. M@rc 08/29/2008 @ 9:50am

    Born to Fight has way too much use of slow motion. Hopefully Ong Bak 2 won’t.

  2. Mike 08/29/2008 @ 12:02pm

    Finally.

  3. Todd Brown 08/29/2008 @ 4:39pm

    Panna does like his slo-mo, that’s true, but put Born to Fight next to Chocolate and tell me which looks better ... I really feel like Prachya’s going backwards from film to film whereas Panna knows how to get the absolute max out of whatever he’s got to work with.

  4. ChevalierAguila 08/29/2008 @ 9:27pm

    Prachya is a hack, so i’m glad he didn’t jumped into the direction. Panna might be just an ok director, but then again, it’s only like 20% of the film that lacks completition right? That promo reel is all Tony Jaa as far as we know.

    So, all we can hope is for the best result for this one.

  5. Rhythm-X 08/29/2008 @ 10:13pm

    Did anyone hold on to their distribution rights, or is this film completely up in the air now?  Weinstein Company had been attached for the US, but that was before the shutdown came to light.

  6. M@rc 08/30/2008 @ 3:14am

    Todd: I think Chocolate, as far as story telling and acting is concered, is an improvement over both Tom Yum Goong (TYG) and Ong Bak. I agree that TYG is worse than its predecessor, although the action is top notch.

    Born to Fight does indeed pack some of punch for a movie of that kind of budget, but overall I much prefer the martial arts choreography Panna did for Prachya’s movies. But as far as the overall direction, Panna is probably better indeed.

  7. thomasjane9 08/30/2008 @ 4:02am

    yum goong had real combat tec. things the shaws would never show. form vs application.  only outher place i seen thoes tec. is shaolin boxing. pinkews third film had no such feel (that girl had very little combat training.) i dont know it all but what i do know is there are very few real practioners of combative arts. most everything is waterd down or ruined by sport real combat is in close unexpected natural and freeflowing. maby someday ill be lucky enough to make my own kungfu movie.

  8. Ichi-The-Killer 08/30/2008 @ 9:11pm

    this news has to be a slap in the face to Jaa, well I guess its his fault for not maning up and finishing it.

  9. Rocket Punch 09/07/2008 @ 3:34pm

    “Born to Fight” was pretty bad, IMO. It was like a slow motion festival and the whole movie have one action track which they kept repeating it for the entire movie....

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