Ong-Bak

Traduzione in corso

[ENG]

Ong-Bak is a mindless Thai fighting movie. Let me enumerate the reasons why you should watch it anyway:

First, the protagonist beats the living crap out of a Japanese with a ridiculous haircut. I'm not saying every movie should have Japanese men with stupid harcuts being beaten, but it helps.

Second, the protagonist kicks a huge American around a pub like he's a rubber doll. When the fight ends, you can almost see FUBAR written all over him.

Finally, a fridge gets the living crap beaten out of it, too. That scene is so awesome, everyone should keep some living crap inside his fridge and pay a Thai to beat it out of it. It's fun for all the family. Really. Make sure your kids are watching. Maybe write "don't try this at home" on the fridge (or on the Thai).

On a slightly more serious note, while the whole movie is completely devoid of any kind of intelligence, it is really, really entertaining. If you're one of those sophisticated people who enjoy storylines and character development you might want to kick critical thinking out of your brain right before watching it, maybe with a whiskey-induced stupor (I suggest Four Roses but Jack Daniel's or Ballantine's are good enough too); in any case, if you like perfectly staged mindless action, with replays of the most awesome blows and jumps, Ong-Bak is your thing.

On a definitely serious note, there is actually something genuinely good to be said about this movie: it shows the gap between rural Thailand and modern Bangkok in a satisfying way. The director likes to push you around, switching from a small village to the big city, from young and old people following the traditions of their culture, imbued with ancient wisdom and rituals, to young people living off gambling and drug dealing. How realistic it is, I don't know; but the contrast is nice and adds variation and color to the movie. It may be that most of us westerners know little enough of that part of the world to be able to keep the suspension of judgment needed to enjoy any kind of movie, or it may actually be accurate.

I personally liked it simply for the amount of testosterone running through the movie's veins and the funny circus-like performances the lead pulls off so well. As always, YMMV (your mileage may vary).