Ong Bak

SETTING:  Modern day Thailand.

RATING: R, action, adventure, crime.

PLOT: When the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it. 

QUOTES: None appropriate.

THOUGHTS:  I read a review on a movie that I have reviewed by the name of Chocolate. Chocolate is another Thai martial arts movie by the same company. The review stated that Ong Bak was a much better film than Chocolate. Let me start by saying this... THEY  ARE NOT THE SAME TYPE OF MOVIE!!

  Yes Ong Bak has better martial arts and sequences, but that does not deter from Chocolate. watch them both you will understand. Anyway, back to Ong Bak.

  Tony Jaa plays the lead character Ting. And let me say, this boy makes Jackie Chan look like the Karate Kid before Mr. Miyagi gets a hold of him. The moves that he pulls off are nothing short of impossible. 

SYNOPSIS: When the head of Ong-Bak, the sacred Buddha of a poor village is stolen, the population is plunged into misery. The Buddha was the focal point of an anniversary vigil believed to bring rain to the drought-stricken area. Young Ting is selected by the villagers to travel to Bangkok and rescue the relic in time for their ceremony. Ting has an affinity with the statue as he was left on the temple steps as a baby and raised by monks. The young Ting was taught Muay Thai by the monks, yet they  forbade him to use it in combat. But now he is forced to delve into a seedy underworld and try to avoid temptation of fighting for money.

THEIR RATING: 3 OUT OF 5 "Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior," the first Thai film to break through in the martial arts market. Having seen documentaries showing how stunt men are "flown" from wires that are eliminated in post-production, having seen entire action sequences made on computers, I sat through the movie impressed at how real the action sequences seemed. Then I went to the Web site, and discovered that they were real.

MY RATING: 5 OUT OF 5. DAMN!! really real true no strings attached action sequences!! who would not think this film is the shit! own it!! watch it!! share it with others!! The version i watched had patchy subs but I got the idea all too well. Gritty camera footage, and phenominal action packed ass kickery!! 

Yojimbo ( The Bodyguard)

SETTING: 1860 Japan, an obscure village.

RATING: Unrated, action, crime, Drama

PLOT: A crafty Ronin comes to a town divided by two criminal gangs and decides to play them against each other to free the town.

QUOTES: Sanjuro: I'll get paid for killing, and this town is full of people who deserve to die.

Hansuke: What happened? Why so glum? Your business should be booming.
The Cooper: No. When the fighting gets this bad, they don't bother with coffins.

THOUGHTS: If you have ever seen A Fistful of Dollars with Clint Eastwood, or Last Man Standing with Bruce Willis, You will enjoy this film, this is the original!! Akira Kurosawa has done it again! Last Man Standing was a complete remake to the core, (this film, without all the blood and swearing.) What a magnificent film! Paul you have got to see this!! As I have stated before I have an affinity for black and whites and for Oriental films. when the two genres are combined magic happens. Cheers Mr. Kurosawa I salute you for your genius once again!

SYNOPSIS: Sanjuro, a wandering samurai enters a rural town in nineteenth century Japan. After learning from the innkeeper that the town is divided between two rival gangsters, he plays one side against the other. His efforts are complicated by the arrival of the gunslinger Unosuke, the son of one of the gangsters. Unosuke has Sanjuro beaten after he reunites an abducted woman with her husband and son, then massacres his father's opponents. During the slaughter, the samurai escapes with the help of the innkeeper; but while recuperating at a nearby temple, he learns of innkeeper's abduction by Unosuke, and returns to the town to confront him.

THEIR RATING: Filmsgraded.com (Brian Koller) 4 out of 5. Pros: direction, cinematography, characters
Cons: Mifune the world's greatest swordsman, comic and dramatic mix doesn't always work.
"The success of Yojimbo bred imitations in the west. The first was A Fistful of Dollars (1964), the initial entry in Clint Eastwood's western trilogy with Italian director Sergio Leone. Less notable was Last Man Standing (1996), the remake starring Bruce Willis."

MY RATING: 5 OUT OF 5. I have loved this storyline for many years. Finally to see the O.G. screenplay was superb! the casting is as you would expect. The cinematography was quite the classic Kurosawa. for Kurosawa to bring the old west to Japan was ingenious. It is a western film pretending to be a Japanese film pretending to be a western! Lovely!!