Ong-Bak

My friends can testify to the fact that I'm... how can I phrase this... rather impressionable when it comes to fictional things. When I was a kid, I carried a hot wheels General Lee with me everywhere, especially when I watched the Dukes of Hazzard, and when the car jumped on TV, mine jumped in real life. Yeeeeeeha! When I was a little older, I knocked myself out with plastic nunchucks pretending to be a Ninja Turtle. Cowabunga! When Rounders came out, I tried to make a living playing poker. If you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker. When the Fast and the Furious came out, I had to start tuning my Saturn (that's right, I said Saturn.) I live my life a quarter-mile at a time... And to this day, I still have dreams of one day becoming a jedi knight. Try not... do... or do not. There is not try.

In my defense, I think that all of these things are legitimate interests that were simply awakened a bit more by their dramatization on the screen. I like cars (fast ones, namely). I like playing cards (though I've managed to ween poker out of my diet). And I'm still interested in the martial arts. I'm taking Tai Chi now, and if the day comes that I deem myself to have "mastered" it, I'd like to study something else. Something like, oh, I don't know... Muay Thai Boxing?

Which brings us to the title of this posting: Ong-Bak. This is, arguably, one of the best modern martial arts films made. There are no strings. There are no special effects. There are no stunt doubles. And a lot of the stunts are filmed from multiple angles, and shown back to back in the movie, so you can truly appreciate the skill with which Tony Jaa (thus far a more-or-less unknown, but after this movie he's gotta be the next Jet Li or Jackie Chan) performs his moves. To quote (or at least kinda quote) Maxim: They're moves that would make Jackie Chan need a chiropractor.

Anyway, the form that Tony Jaa has studied is known as Muay Thai, or just Thai Boxing. The elbows and knees are some of the hardest bones in the body, and it is these bones that Muay Thai focuses on. Remember Sagat, the boss from Street Fighter 2? His light and medium punches were elbow shots, and his light and medium kicks were knee blows. Guess what: He hailed from Thailand. His style was Muay Thai. Now, I'm not going to venture a guess as to which style throughout all the world is the best. (If I had to, I'd say Tai Chi; that's why I'm studying it. It focuses on the internal, and lets the external take care of itself.) But I love Muay Thai because it's great to see something besides punches and kicks being thrown. It's just neat to see a different perspective. Check out www.ongbakmovie.com if you like martial arts movies.