Ok, I'm home again, and I've temporarily fixed (read: bypassed) my computer problems, so away we go. Of all the weeks to blow up, it had to be my week. It's ok though, because UFC 220 was a great time, Boston is always a lovely city, and it was a good trip overall. Enough about me, let's get to the face punching. Oh yeah, hey
@Bullitt68, where you at, homie? My excuse is that my laptop almost caught fire, what's up eh?
Before I delve too far in, I would like to address some criticisms I read above. First of all, sure, she's tiny and probably wouldn't do much damage against fully grown men, so that's where I embrace the willing suspension of disbelief and go with a "size matters not, judge me by my size, do you" approach. Her technique and finesse allows her to strike her opponent at just the right spot to take them out without needing to inflict much damage. Or just it's a martial arts movie, and this girl did great with what she had to work with in her first acting role. But yes, it is quite hard to believe that a tiny little thing like her would side kick a dude in the chest and he would go flying. I did note on this viewing after a while that the lion's share of her strikes are kicks.
Also, there's no doubt it thrust us into the middle of the story without basically any exposition, making us learn along the way of the forbidden love that Zen's mom had for the rival gangster, and how Zen's mom was stuck in a bad situation no matter where she turned. She tried to make the most of it for her daughter, but it was not meant to be. Not only did she have her own problems, including her illness, but she also had her daughter that she had to take care of.
I got such a kick out of her watching Ong Bak and other martial arts films to "git gud", especially her watching a film directed by the director a few years prior as an example of great martial arts exhibition. It was like a professor recommending his or her book for their course, it just felt funny.
I wouldn't go as far to say it's a ripoff of Ong Bak in terms of recurring motifs and writing, because they use characters like the dopey comic relief buddy or slow motion action shots of the fights, or specific techniques from the various martial arts styles like the downward elbows and flying knees from MT. I just think of it as favorite characteristics the director likes to portray. I don't know Thai cinema enough to know if it's a specific trope, like the dumb buddy, or if it's just the writer/director. Either way, it doesn't bother me too much.
I'd love to know what 20 minutes were cut out of this picture, that's pretty significant. Was it story, or more combat?
Rewatching this, I soured a little on the whole "the perfect enemy for Zen is another child who is disabled and unique". It looks like he has a very serious form of Tourette's, which is much more significant than the seemingly funny affliction you see portrayed on South Park and from the Tourette's Guy on youtube. My buddy had a mild form of it and it involved plenty of tics and twitches and it's just a pain to deal with I'm sure. He wasn't able to have a dance-off battle, it's cinematic so go with it.
I'd give it a 7/10, it's fun and has some great fight scenes. The plot is simple enough, and they didn't let much get complicated other than a little rivalry between Japanese and Thai gangs. With a film chock full of frenetic fight scenes, do we really need a complicated plot? The acting was fine, we got to feel for Zen's mother and her tragic story, but did you honestly expect high level acting and performances from a film like this? Be reasonable.