I was spoiled for choice of which version of Ong Bak to get from Moviesville, but eventually set on the VCD version featuring the original soundtrack, the original uncut film and complete with the original not so sweetened ending. This was a version I’d never seen before and it looked extremely interesting.
I knew I was taking a hit on the VCD side though, they just don’t have the quality or content of DVDs. Moviesville were also good enough to offer the suggestion to look for the DVD version if you couldn’t listen to the dual audio tracks mixed with Chinese subtitles. I could live with that, in order to see the uncut original version.
Ong Bak is a very basic storyline pieced together to be able to showcase the amazing talents of Tony Jaa, and talents he has in vast quantities. Jaa is a stunning martial artist, he seems to be able to control every muscle of his body and perform some amazing stunts, as well as some of the most thrilling fight scenes I’ve witnessed in a very long time.
The stunts and choreography are what makes the movie, and the rest is a fair attempt at a story around it, and to be fair it’s not bad it’s just that the stunts and fight scenes are so good to watch that you are absorbed in waiting for the next choreographed sequence rather than the next moment of the plot.
From the amazing tree sequence at the opening you’re hooked, and you can hardly fathom the work involved in choreographing the entire sequence, much less how these stuntmen (you have to presume they are stuntmen) survive the flips and falls. This carries through the brutally realistic fighting scenes in the underground fighting den, to the final buddha battle which brings together all the elements of the fighting you’ve seen previously and adds them into one big sequence between characters of equal skills.
I’m not going to begin to review the VCD as I would a DVD. The picture quality is far inferior, and with the dual audio languages takes a bit of getting used to. Yet you have to realise what you are getting, a version of the movie which you can hardly get your hands on. This is something that Moviesville seems to specialise in, unique versions of movies as well as some stunningly crafted and limited edition boxsets.
If I were you, I’d get your hands on the normal DVD to watch the movie in it’s full visual and audio splendour, and then get this VCD to appreciate the full uncut version.
Ong Bak VCD from Moviesville
IMDB UK movie details
My voting history on UK IMDB
That’s okay Louis, sometimes you never can tell which way comments are meant on text.
You should check out the post we did about the best Asian movies to catch, that really went into overdrive.
…and I can’t believe you threw in another advert!
sorry man.
i didn’t mean it that way.
it’s a great movie.
make sure you to catch ‘Born to Fight’ too.
http://www.madman.com.au/actions/catalogue.do?releaseId=5975&method=view
Sorry Louis, perhaps we could get the review from your hard work and given up personal life over at your movie site? Ahem.
I thought that perhaps a little honesty might go far, in that this is the only version that I’ve seen, hence no comparison. I didn’t want to write the words of others to say it when I haven’t reviewed it myself. That would be lying.
Plus a big point for me is I was reviewing this VCD, it does not contain the other version. This review is about this VCD and the movie itself.
If you don’t like it you don’t have to drop a negative comment on it with a sales link to another site!
you can get both verions on dvd from here.
http://www.madman.com.au/actions/catalogue.do?releaseId=4927&method=view
I like how you didn’t say what the differences between the 2 version where. So really, whats the piont in this review again??
The thai verson as more story and is slower pased than the other.
I just got my hands on a copy of TOM YUM GOONG :)