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Warrior King (2006) DVD Review
Warrior King (2006) DVD Credits:
Warrior King (2006) Directed by:
Prachya Pinkaew
Warrior King (2006) Written by:
Prachya Pinkaew
Warrior King (2006) Cast:
Tony Jaa, Mum Jokmok, Xing Jing
Warrior King (2006) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
2
Warrior King (2006) DVD Release Date:
22nd October 2006
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Warrior King (2006) Synopsis:

A young fighter named Kham must go to Australia to retrieve his stolen elephant. With the help of a Thai-born Australian detective, Kham must take on all comers, including a gang led by an evil woman and her two deadly bodyguards.

Warrior King (2006) DVD Review:

In the couple of years following Thailand’s smash martial arts film Ong-Bak its star, Tony Jaa, has been busy. Touted as the next fists of fury legend to rival Jet Li, Jackie Chan and the great Bruce Lee the 30-year-old is already a master of every conceivable fighting style and for his follow-up film spent two years developing an all new set of moves to combine thumping Muay Thai with the stabbing, pressing and breaking of an enraged elephant. Like its predecessor The Warrior King (Taiwanese title TomYum Goong after a spicy dish) is a breathless display of a man at the very height of his powers with Jaa continuing to give the best physical performance around using no wires or CGI cop-outs. But with the film heading to the shores of Sydney can Jaa cut it in the big bad West?

Like Ong-Bak the story follows a hero searching for a lost artifact. Previously it was the head of a statue, now it’s an elephant. Pretty hard to misplace but Kham (Jaa) finds himself elephantless when his is kidnapped and shipped over to Australia. Brought up by his father, Kham’s trained in the ancient ways of elephant protection where four warriors would each protect the leg of the beast bearing the king into battle. His only help is from policeman Mark (Petchtai Wongkamlao) but with Kham’s poor grasp of English he uses this vicious form of attack to seek out his lost pet through the gangs of Sydney. This is where the film falls down, in Ong-Bak Jaa was reluctant to put his skills to good use, in The Warrior King, the elephant goes missing, cut to a man flying across the room and from then on Jaa is in full, bone-snapping swing.

See Jaa fight skate gangs, steroid filled wrestlers, rooms full of punks, the list is endless but each of the scenes is spectacularly shot. The jaw-dropping movement on display is excellently complimented by extravagant sets; the disused warehouse and the slug-out against a backdrop of fire and water are particular stand-outs. There’s even a 4 minute uncut steadycam shot of Jaa fighting dozens of villains as he makes his way up three stories of a hotel that took a grueling 5 days to shoot and 8 takes before everything came together. It’s a masterpiece of stunt work and timing but the trouble is it sums up the rest of the movie; one long fight sequence. There’s none of the humbleness or heroics of Ong-Bak just a lets-get-on-with-it attitude that creates a mess of a story where nothing seems to make sense and a great deal seems missing for the sake of getting to an action scene quicker. Even Wongkamlao’s comic relief fails to find a place and he had such a conflicted character in Ong-Bak.

Due to the fact Ong-Bak is mentioned 40 times in this review you’ll have guessed that The Warrior King is simply nowhere near as good. The action will marvel genre fans but those seeking something with a heart will be flailing like a fallen stuntman. Jaa needs to get some of those knees and elbows flying towards the editor of this movie as such a star in the making deserves better. Whether it was the ambition of working with a western crew or producers just wanting more and more have left what should be a martial arts classic very much missing the art.

Special Edition DVD

The second disc comes with a smattering of extras that, while insightful, will only apply to martial arts fans looking into the stunt work that went into such an action spectacular. On top of several trailers the disc includes…

On the Press Trail – A 10 minute collection of shots from Jaa on the marketing junket where he’s accompanied by plenty of guys in black jumpsuits on hand to be knocked about by the star to show he can do it all live. Audiences are amazed from the US to France and back in the Far East. There’s plenty of proof of Jaa’s ass-kicking credentials.

Interview Gallery – A host of interviews with English subtitles including chats with stars Petchtai Wongkamlao and Bongkoj Khongmalai plus stunt coordinator Panna Rittikra. More interesting though are comments from director Prachya Pinkaew and Tony Jaa who provides an insightful comment on his own work in a half hour interview. The star is both shy and endearing, eager to show the world the real Thailand and push himself to the limits when it comes to training which he’s been doing since the age of 10.

A Warrior’s Journey – Broken into several parts there’s a good look at pre-production on the film where key fight scenes are practiced by Jaa and heavily padded stuntmen although the added whacks and snapping onto the soundtrack were probably unnecessary. You can also take a look at some of these scenes from the movie with the multi-angle function. Finally there’s a 10 minute collection of English speaking interviews with other members of the cast including the intimidating Nathan Jones and sword-wielding Jonathan Foo plus Aussie crew members.

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Warrior King (2006) DVD review written by: Rich Badley

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