|
 s
convoluted, improbable, and questionably scripted
as "Tom Yum Goong" is (and there's
little doubt it's all those things), there's a
roughly 10-minute sequence near the hour mark
where Kham (Tony Jaa) makes his way through an
elaborate building that serves as the bad guys'
ultimate lair. A spiral monstrosity that extends
upward to a final floor that holds a terrible
secret, the entire sequence is shot by director
Prachya Pinkaew in one long, continuous take
without a single cut or edit. It's a marvelous
example of filmmaking, and is one of many things
that make "Tom Yum Goong" as good as you
thought it would be. Bigger, tougher, louder, and
more elaborate seems to be the mantra, and oh my
do the filmmakers, from the director to its star
to the army faceless stuntmen, take it to heart.
As with "Ong
Bak", Jaa and Pinkaew's last
collaboration, their sophomore effort begins with
the theft of something valuable (in this case, an
elephant), that sends country bumpkin Kham (Tony
Jaa) to Sydney, Australia on a mission of
retrieval, revenge, and major ass-kicking, and not
necessarily in that order. Down Under, our Thai
country boy runs afoul of the Chinese mob, which
is in cahoots with Vietnamese toughs led by the
high-kicking Johnny (Johnny Nguyen). Fortunately
for our non-English speaking hero, Kham stumbles
across assistance from local beat cop Mark (Mum
Jokmok, "The
Bodyguard"). The duo's search leads them
to the duplicitous Madam Rose (Xing Jing), who is
plotting a violent restructuring of the
Sydney
criminal underworld.
Although written to be more
complicated than it really is, the script for
"Tom Yum Goong" is, not surprisingly, a
secondary notion that, once the fists start
flying, needn't really be of a concern. For much
of its first hour, co-writer/director Prachya
Pinkaew does what he can to convince himself that
he's making a true effort to tell a compelling
story, in particular the plight of Thai
expatriates being exploited by the
Sydney
underworld. But of course all that good intention
goes right out the window by the hour mark, and
Pinkaew wisely shelves the script to let star Tony
Jaa stop running and let him do a lot of kicking,
punching, and more kicking.
Which brings us to the film's
action sequences, of which there are a lot.
Not only that, but they're more elaborate, longer,
and has more of the bone-crunching goodness one is
used to from a film featuring martial arts
choreography by star Tony Jaa and Panna Rittikrai
("Born
to Fight"). The 10-minute, uncut
single-shot sequence previously mentioned is the
definite highlight, but coming in a close second
is a fight toward the end when Kham takes on a
room full of henchmen. When all is said and done,
the bodies have piled up to a ridiculous degree.
Unlike "Ong Bak", which had Jaa fighting
a series of faceless thugs, "Tom Yum
Goong" offers up a number of fearsome
fighters for our hero to match up against. There's
a swordsman, a Caribbean fighter who uses
Capoeira, and a muscle-bound behemoth. And not
just one hulking brute, but four.
Plus, happy-go-lucky criminal Johnny isn't a
shabby fighter himself.
Besides the action, there are
some unintentionally funny parts of "Tom Yum
Goong" to chuckle over, mostly involving the
film's bad attempts at English. Not only is
Jokmok's Australian cop barely capable of
stringing two coherent English words together, but
the film keeps featuring a Chinese newscaster who
makes Jokmok look like a professional English
instructor by comparison. Couldn't the filmmakers
have found someone who was Asian and could speak
English for the newscaster role? This isn't
exactly a major role, so it's perplexing that they
would go to such great lengths to hire someone who
is apparently reciting her lines phonetically. But
perhaps it's unfair to pick on the non-English
speakers, because for whatever reason, even the
Caucasian actors in the movie seem to have trouble
with the English language!
But I digress. It's not as if
anyone will be picking up "Tom Yum
Goong" for English lessons, or to get
pointers on the fine art of screenwriting. The
action is the thing, and if that's also your
thing, then you've come to the right place. The
main question people will undoubtedly be asking is
this: Is "Tom Yum Goong" better, or on
par with "Ong Bak"? The answer is a
little tricky. Yes, the action is better, the
choreography more in-depth and complex; but No,
for the simple reason that "Ong Bak"
came first, and we already know what Jaa can do so
the novelty of seeing a thin, Thai guy crack bones
with one powerful strike no longer exists.
"Tom Yum Goong" is
very much an open product, one of those purchases
without a catch-22. It doesn't have a very complex
story, and although Pinkaew and fellow
screenwriter Kongdej Jaturanrasamee (try saying
that name out loud!) puts up a façade of a deep
story with social significance, it's really just
about a Thai guy who goes after the folks who
stole his elephant. And along the way he destroys
most of
Sydney
and puts the Australian Stuntman's
Union
out of business. If you know the name Tony Jaa,
then you won't be expecting "Sense and
Sensibilities"; and because of the lowered
expectations when it comes to story, but high
anticipation of the action, "Tom Yum
Goong" is an unqualified success.
|
