Complete SNAFU - nice goin' Mill Creek!
All three films in this collection are defective. The first SPIRITED KILLER is presented with a choice of English dubbing or the original Thai language audio - but there are no English subtitles and the English dubbing is unusually bad.
SPIRITED KILLER 2 and 3 are screwed up differently. They are presented only in Thai and do have perfectly adequate English subtitles - but they forgot to letterbox the "scope" ratio films. The end result is that both films are stretched out to 16x9 making everything appear unnaturally tall and skinny. SPIRITED KILLER 1 it should be noted is properly letterboxed in the 16x9 frame.
Bonus points are awarded for referring to the Thai language as "Taiwanese" not once not twice but THREE times on the DVD cover. It shows how much work went into this release that not only are ALL the films on the DVD screwed up but Mill Creek can't even correctly identify the language spoken in the films' country of origin. Don't buy this release... unless you plan on downloading subs for the first film then re-encoding and re-authoring the whole package yourself.
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Studio: First Look Home Entertain Release Date: 11/24/2009 Run time: 180 minutes[]
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careful not to get the red sun version
It may be uncut but the 20th century fox version has much better picture quality and good subtitles too. The only thing you are missing out on is a couple mroe parts in the village. It is just not needed. If the story was actually good it might matter. But the reason to watch this is the stunts. The fights are some of the hardest hitting stuff you will ever get but Tony Jaa's stunt work is second to none. If you are a fan of watching great action movies check this out casue it is the best one that has come out in a while.
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Spirited Killer
A group of travelers visiting the exotic forests of Thailand is suddenly attacked by a multi-weapon wielding maniac. Some manage to escape others perish under his merciless blows. The maniac is the Spirited Killer a forest dweller who kills anyone who steps into his jungle. Leading the pack to help stop this madman is Tony Jaa (Ong Bak) making his film debut.
Born to Fight
When terrorists armed with nuclear weapons take a remote village hostage a tough-as-nails group of athletes comes together to stop them. Written and directed by Thai martial-arts legend Panna Rittikrai (who also stars) BORN TO FIGHT is a rollicking cult favorite brimming with explosive set-pieces intricate fight choreography and hair-raising stunts filmed without doubles or the aid of CGI.
Thai Police Story
Starring Panna Rittikrai as a man caught between corrupt police officers and vicious drug gangs in THAI POLICE STORY. The film features non-stop action and crazy stunts including a fight with Panna taking on four guys on top of a moving truck.
English Audio[]
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No Stunts No Wires No CGIs Just Actions; Just Amazing
You like Jackie Chan films? Or remember Bruce Lee? If so don't miss this one from Thailand where the film industry is thriving more than ever. And remember the name of Tony Jaa stunt-turned-actor (incidentally he was a stunt in the second 'Mortal Kombat' film and his then co-worker was Ray Park 'X-Men') Jaa's martial arts skills based on Muay Thai (Thai-style fighting) are simply astonishing.
[NO STUNTS NO CGIs] Strangely titled film 'Ong-bak: Thai Warrior' is as the title says an exciting Thai actioner starring Tony Jaa (real name Panom Yeerum) who plays the hero Ting living in an apparently sleepy country in Thailand. Not exactly you soon see. In this interesting opening scene you see these scantily dressed guys climing up one big tree and during the fighting they fall one by one onto the ground. This is actually a kind of festival or ritual of the hero's village but what you should realize is the film uses NO CGIs NO WIRES ATTACHED.
[FORGET THE STORY] Story? Need one? OK Tony Jaa's hero has to track down the theives who cut off and stole the head of the sacred statue in his village. With this mission he goes to town where he meets one middle-aged man George and his friend (perhaps girlfriend) Muay. Before you know it they all got in troubles for the thugs start attack them.
[ACTIONS] Then actions begin which are simply eye-poping. One example: in the cat-and-mouse chase scene in the market running away from the bad guys Tony Jarr jumps over the tables stalls and cars (!) with Jackie's comic timing. And look how he slides into UNDER an RV! To add to them he leaps through a ring of barbed wires (real ones I suppose) and comes out unharmed never stopping a moment!
Himself a Muay Thai fighter Tony Jaa (or his character) joins in several illegal boxing bouts. You might say you have seen this kind of bloody bone-crunching fight sequences in the past. Not Tony Jaa's high-kicking that strikes the opponent at the speed of lightening. This sounds like cliche I know but it is true his agile movement reminds me of the deadly power of Bruce Lee and the ultra-fast speed of Jet Li.
And that's not the end for Jaa does many many other actions which I refuse to write about here for you should see them for yourself in theatres. Again I say Tony Jaa uses no stunts no special effects or no strings. Of course he will not win the Oscar for acting the hero of this film but when he can fight like Lee Chan and Li who cares?
My advice: 'Ong-bak' is a must for any fans who love action films. Watch it and be surprised.
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This movie is a scam!Don't be fooled by the cover. I bought this movie because I am a fan of Ong-Bak and The Protector. As soon as the movie started I was dissappointed. The voice-overs were absolutely horrendous and the captions would not even come close to what you actually heard. But stillI thought it has Tony Jaa in it so the fighting will probably be good.!!Wrong!! In one of the reviews it says that Tony Jaa was at the end. I never even saw him at any point in the entire movie. As a matter of fact the pictures on the packaging are from Ong-Bak. On the inside casing it has a picture of Jaa's mentor Rittikrai and on the opposite side it has a picture of him again with Jaa's head pasted on. You can tell because they're wearing the same jacket. A jacket that Rittikrai is the only one to wear in the movie.Tony Jaa's name never even appears in the credits.
Unless you like to buy things that are an absolute liestay very far away from this product. Hopefully the companies that have been fooled into selling this product become aware of it and seek retribution on the people who fabricated this scam.
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Ong Bak 2Its hard to put into words whether I like Tony Jaa's follow up to Ong Bak. On the one hand the movie looks great has a better story idea than either Tom Yum Goong or Ong Bak and delivers on the action. But at the other end of the spectrum from what I like there are the obvious problems.
The film as it is marked the troubled debut of Jaa as a director a task that was marked with him apparently suffering a breakdown running away from the set and apparently on finishing the movie with the original director of Ong Bak stepped in to help. Theres a lot I dig with the story even if its riffing on themes from Hollywood movies. The whole thing seems set up like an ode to Jaa's inspirations from the martial arts movies He cribs from to plot elements out of films like Conan and Empire Strikes Back. But the pacing feels sluggish in reality and never really captured my interest out of the action scenes. Theres a basic idea of a revenge story but the film spends maybe an hour focusing on Jaa's Tien training with bandits before rushing to a finale where He's avenging his parents murder at the hands of a ruthless conquerer. And the less said about the ending the better in my opinion.
Still like I said when the movies in action mode it delivers. Truthfully most of the times thats all I really watch a martial arts movie for even though a good story would help. When the movie dishes the action it does it well showing Jaa dishing out several forms of martial arts beatdowns in the opening. There are some amazingly good scenes throughout like at a slave camp featuring what looked to be a person fighting a real crocodile or the ensuing revenge where Jaa unleashes drunken kung fu to destroy the slavers. But nothing compares to the last fifteen mintues with Jaa taking on masked sword wielding assassins dishing out the punishment and going to a duel between two fighters with his signature mhuy thai of course before fighting Dan Chupong on the back of an elephant. One of my big issues with Tom Yum Goong was the lack of a great fight scene. This film certainly rectified this error presenting a scene that stands alongside the best modern martial arts action scenes in my opinion.
Look in the end the movie could have been better. But at ninety seven minutes with a so so story when it dishes out the action all my complaints are basically moot. Its not the best but what it does right it does it perfectly and provides this action fan what He wants.
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AwesomeI've noticed a disturbing trend in a number of these reviews: People are saying they didn't like this movie because of the lame plot. Do these people have any idea how insane this is? Who cares? People are getting spoiled I guess by all these expensive arty dramatic and well-acted martial arts movies that have been being released as of late so now they can't appreciate a fun old school and ludicrously-plotted stunner like "The Protector". (Or more likely they couldn't appreciate this kinda thing in the first place.) I haven't got anything against these fancy martial arts movies mind you but "The Protector" is a lot more fun than almost all of them and letting the tired thin plot get in the way of the spectacular fighting is just insane.
The plot's like this: Some gangsters steal Tony Jaa's elephants and he's gotta kill 'em all 'til he gets his damn elephants back. There's some subplots yeah but what'd I say about the plot not mattering. None of it matters in the least or should matter anyway. That said I will admit that in the international version the story takes perhaps a bit too much screentime particularly at the beginning. Occasionally it seems like the filmmakers forgot that the plot was to be ignored. Still you never gotta wait around too long for it to get good and damn does it get good.
I guess the best thing to say is that if you enjoyed "Ong-Bak" I can't imagine that you wouldn't like "The Protector" as well. Jaa plays pretty much the same character he did in "Ong-Bak" being a naive good-natured rural guy who happens to be a superhuman killing machine. It's a bit less stunt-intensive on Jaa's part anyway but he still does plenty of amazing stuff and the fights are even better then before. The fight in the restaurant is particularly renowned and not without good reason. It's a 4 1/2 minute unbroken take as Jaa works his way up the stairs and takes out a few dozen opponents and it would have to qualify as one of the most stunning action scenes I've ever seen. This is hardly the only standout and we get plenty of other scenes that would put anything in most martial arts movies to shame: We've got the ultra-bizarre face off between Jaa and a pack of roller-blade clad goons wielding fluorescent lights; We've got him taking on pretty much the whole of the Australo-Thai mafia and breaking at least one limb on each of them; We've got him fighting a colossal apparently invulnerable Australian dude in a burning flooded temple. And it just goes on. The fights very pretty substantially in quality but that's mostly because of how amazing the best ones are.
Anyway I've not got much else to say. Suffice to say Tony Jaa is far beyond human and it'll be an absurd crime if he doesn't become far more popular in the States. Check it out.
Grade: A-
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AwesomeI've noticed a disturbing trend in a number of these reviews: People are saying they didn't like this movie because of the lame plot. Do these people have any idea how insane this is? Who cares? People are getting spoiled I guess by all these expensive arty dramatic and well-acted martial arts movies that have been being released as of late so now they can't appreciate a fun old school and ludicrously-plotted stunner like "The Protector". (Or more likely they couldn't appreciate this kinda thing in the first place.) I haven't got anything against these fancy martial arts movies mind you but "The Protector" is a lot more fun than almost all of them and letting the tired thin plot get in the way of the spectacular fighting is just insane.
The plot's like this: Some gangsters steal Tony Jaa's elephants and he's gotta kill 'em all 'til he gets his damn elephants back. There's some subplots yeah but what'd I say about the plot not mattering. None of it matters in the least or should matter anyway. That said I will admit that in the international version the story takes perhaps a bit too much screentime particularly at the beginning. Occasionally it seems like the filmmakers forgot that the plot was to be ignored. Still you never gotta wait around too long for it to get good and damn does it get good.
I guess the best thing to say is that if you enjoyed "Ong-Bak" I can't imagine that you wouldn't like "The Protector" as well. Jaa plays pretty much the same character he did in "Ong-Bak" being a naive good-natured rural guy who happens to be a superhuman killing machine. It's a bit less stunt-intensive on Jaa's part anyway but he still does plenty of amazing stuff and the fights are even better then before. The fight in the restaurant is particularly renowned and not without good reason. It's a 4 1/2 minute unbroken take as Jaa works his way up the stairs and takes out a few dozen opponents and it would have to qualify as one of the most stunning action scenes I've ever seen. This is hardly the only standout and we get plenty of other scenes that would put anything in most martial arts movies to shame: We've got the ultra-bizarre face off between Jaa and a pack of roller-blade clad goons wielding fluorescent lights; We've got him taking on pretty much the whole of the Australo-Thai mafia and breaking at least one limb on each of them; We've got him fighting a colossal apparently invulnerable Australian dude in a burning flooded temple. And it just goes on. The fights very pretty substantially in quality but that's mostly because of how amazing the best ones are.
Anyway I've not got much else to say. Suffice to say Tony Jaa is far beyond human and it'll be an absurd crime if he doesn't become far more popular in the States. Check it out.
Grade: A-
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Martial Arts superstar Tony Jaa (Spirited Killer The Protector Ong Bak) costars with his mentor and trainer Panna Rittikrai in this non-stop action assault on your senses. In an a-typical role for Jaa Tony plays the villian along with Rittikrai being hunted down by police after pulling a robbery.
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Studio: Magnolia Pict Hm Ent Release Date: 08/26/2008 Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Nr
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Tony Jaa makes a long awaited return as The Battle Warrior. Tony is the protector of an artifact that mercenaries are seeking to get at any cost. Joining Tony is his mentor Panna Rittikrai and the team that brought us ‘Ong Bak’ ‘The Protector’ ‘Born to Fight’ and ‘Dynamite Warrior.’ The action segments were so enormous that a total of three stunt teams were called in to handle it all!
‘Battle Warrior’ gives Tony ample opportunity to show off his phenomenal skills which the Seattle Post-Intelligencer calls `...the best human special effect since Jet Li...' - and TIME magazine simply refers to Jaa as `The Next Action Hero'.
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Tony Jaa, the martial arts master
who is as mesmerizing as ever
(Entertainment Weekly), stars in this epic tale of revenge set hundreds of years in the past. This prequel to Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior takes Jaa s skills to the next level, showcasing him as a master of a wide range of martial arts styles. THE BEATDOWNS ARE EPIC, with several jaw-dropping set pieces. The climactic scene qualifies as one of the BEST MARTIAL ARTS FIGHT SCENES EVER. (LA Daily News)
Really good for a lazy day!The movie is good. The action is great.
The action is different than Ong Bak in that they have more film cuts and use many martial arts, but the action is absolutely visually stunning and as usual, Tony Jaa clearly put life and limb on the line for his art.
If you have 10 bucks and have nothing to do, it is a nice treat!
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Thai martial arts virtuoso Tony Jaa stars as Kham, who travels to Australia to take on a gang and rescue a kidnapped elephant.
Customer Reviews
Pure Entertainment at it's best
This movie blew me away. I won't try and say it should be up for best movie or anything, but if you are looking for a great way to kill an hour and a half, look no further. I'm a huge fan of movies in general, of all genres, but kung fu happens to be one of my favorites.
I've always preferred 70's kung fu movies over modern ones for there lack of Hollywood touch. This has that feel of a 70's kung fu movie, with the picture and sound quality of today's movies. No Keanu Reeves dodging bullets and floating through the air, no Chow Yun Fat fighting on tree limbs that should not carry his weight! Just straight realistic fighting. Sure some parts seem over the top, but it fits the movie perfect. More detail ...
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Tony Jaa, the martial arts master
who is as mesmerizing as ever
(Entertainment Weekly), stars in this epic tale of revenge set hundreds of years in the past. This prequel to Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior takes Jaa s skills to the next level, showcasing him as a master of a wide range of martial arts styles. THE BEATDOWNS ARE EPIC, with several jaw-dropping set pieces. The climactic scene qualifies as one of the BEST MARTIAL ARTS FIGHT SCENES EVER. (LA Daily News)
Customer Reviews
Great flic, but has NOTHING to do with the first film...
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning, is a killer martial arts period piece film... lots of great action and stunts. One of the best! But just a little notice, it has NOTHING to do with the first film. Feel free to watch it all by itself!
It's actually far Superior to the first IMHO, and the first is pretty good too!
Tony Jaa Is Incredible
I have a Chinese version (chinese or english subtitles) and it is something to see. Tony Jaa's skills are incredible and he shows his stuff in this movie far beyond what he's shown us before. I have just pre-ordered the Blu-Ray version, and I imagine the format will just make it better. You will not be disappointed.
Excellent Flick
This movies is awesome, Alot better then the first one. Tony J. has proven to be one of the best.
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Thai-born martial artist Tony Jaa, whose gravity-defying stunts wowed American audiences in Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior, returns in an equally eye-popping stunt fest that should thrill all but the most jaded action fans. The very simple plot has the soft-spoken, mild-mannered Jaa as a young man from a rural community dispatched to Australia to recover a pair of sacred elephants. Once there, he discovered that a female crime boss (played by transgendered actor Jing Xing) is behind the missing pachyderms, and Jaa pulls out all the stops to recover the animals for his village. As in Ong-Bak, the appeal of The Protector is watching Jaa unleash his muay thai skills on a host of villainous types, and he gets several astonishing showcases in this film, most notably a nearly-unbroken take in which he dispatches some 50 goons as he makes his way up a four-story structure. Those looking for the depth of story or character found in the best of Hong Kong action cinema won't find it in The Protector, but the rewards for action fans are plentiful and thoroughly entertaining. The two-disc Collector's Edition of The Protector includes a wealth of extras, most notably the original Thai version of the film (titled Tom Yum Goong), which runs approximately 30 minutes longer than the American version. Commentary by martial arts writer and fan Bey Logan is featured on the American edit, along with a deleted scene, a featurette about Jaa with Logan and rapper/producer The RZA (who scored the American version and, for some reason, is described as a major force in bringing Asian entertainment to the States), making-of featurettes on both the English and Thai versions of the film (the latter features a subtitled Thai-language commentary track with Jaa, director Prachya Pinkaew, and stunt coordinator/mentor Panna Rittikrai), and three fair short films that were produced for a promotional tie-in contest. -- Paul Gaita
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Product DescriptionTony Jaa, the martial arts master
who is as mesmerizing as ever
(Entertainment Weekly), stars in this epic tale of revenge set hundreds of years in the past. This prequel to Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior takes Jaa s skills to the next level, showcasing him as a master of a wide range of martial arts styles. THE BEATDOWNS ARE EPIC, with several jaw-dropping set pieces. The climactic scene qualifies as one of the BEST MARTIAL ARTS FIGHT SCENES EVER. (LA Daily News)
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