Why I fancy foreign fighting films

How was that for alliteration, eh?

I just recently watched Ong Bak, which is a great movie about a man named Ting who is forced to fight to get the head of a sacred statue back to his village. It stars Tony Jaa, who is an amazing martial artist, and incorporates one of my favorite fighting styles, Muay Thai. I recommend seeing the film for some grade-A fights, which is always helpful to watch if you have some fighting sequences in your novels.

But today I want to talk about why I love foreign fighting films. I’ve been trying my hardest to watch as many as I can on Netflix, and I found some that I have truly fallen in love with. I’ll watch pretty much anything Jeeja Yanin is in because I think she’s incredibly talented, and I always love seeing a girl doing her own stunts and totally kicking butt! I also recently discovered Tony Jaa, and I think he’s amazing. I can’t wait to see more of his movies.

The main reason why I love foreign martial arts films is because the fighting is almost always superior to American-made films. The sequences are more complex and more beautiful. It’s not just about throwing punches and who can take the most hits before they fall over, it’s about your skill set and your ability to adapt to your opponents’ style, to truly defeat them using your mind and your body.

I find the sequences to be far more realistic, both in how they play out (i.e. when someone gets punched, they don’t get knocked out cold for the rest of the scene, they actually get back up and try to keep fighting) and how they look. From the movies I’ve seen, a lot of the times these actors are taking real hits. It’s a lot more dangerous that way, but it also makes for some incredible shots.

Another reason why I love them is because they have far more respect for the art than most American films do. In so many of these action films we have here in the States, people get beat up and blown away by guns and no one really thinks about the impact it makes on a person. It’s just entertainment. And that’s fine. It really is. I love action movies, and I think they serve their purpose. But films like Ong Bak often portray the main character as a reluctant fighter, and I think that’s important. A lot of the time it isn’t about revenge, it’s about self defense. They have a respect for what they can do, and they know how dangerous even one punch can be. It’s something I’d like to see more of in all kinds of movies.

While the storylines aren’t always the greatest (for example, if I were to watching Raging Phoenix  again, I’d stop about three-quarters of the way through and pretend it ended there), that’s because the highlight of the film is the fighting. If you can get past the cheese and the silly dialogue and the not-always-solid writing and just focus on the talent of the actors and their skill sets, you’ll find movies like Ong Bak to be incredibly enjoyable and enlightening.

Do you like watching foreign martial arts films? Which ones have been your favorites? Least favorites? Do you have any recommendations for me? (Preferably something I can find on Netflix Instant!)

Movie Review: Chocolate

Bottom Line:

Watch it.

Details:

[Minor Spoilers]

About a month ago I talked to you about Raging Phoenix, which has the same female lead as this movie. This movie is pretty different and about a hundred times better! Chocolate is about Zen, an autistic girl that has the ability to learn martial arts just from watching movies, playing video games, or watching other people. Her mother is very sick, and in order to get money for her hospital bills, Zen and Moom, her best friend/cousin (I’m not sure if he’s actually her cousin, but he does call Zen’s mom “auntie”) decide to get it from people that owe money to her mother’s old gang. Zin (the mother) has long since fallen out from the gang, so this doesn’t sit well with its leaders. Either way, it puts Zen in the perfect sort of situation to really kick some butt!

This movie is so full of lovely and perfect things, but let’s start with the obvious: the fighting. The fighting in this movie is very Jackie Chan-esque (this could also be because I watched Rumble in the Bronx on the same day). It’s got the same sort of flare for comedic moments, and the same style that finds the protagonist using ordinary objects to beat up her attackers. (Technically she’s the attacker and they’re just unfortunate, but I’m not going to split hairs.) Just like with Raging Phoenix, I found the fight sequences much more engaging than in most American made movies.

Jeeja Yanin is a great actress. She did an incredible job portraying an autistic child in the movie, and some of her scenes were really heart-wrenching and beautiful. On top of that, the other characters were likeable (or hateable, respectfully), and I really liked Moom. There’s a scene where she first starts fighting and the way she imitates the movies she’s seen is both hysterical and incredibly adorable.

The writing for this movie is much better, and the storyline is much more concrete. There wasn’t any pacing problems, and it was much less cheesy. And although the ending is still a little sad, it is much more hopeful and realistic than Raging Phoenix’s.

I have very little to say on the negative side. Some of the fight sequences dragged a little bit and you really start to wonder how long these people can last after being beat up so many times. On the flip side, though, I think it’s much more realistic than them getting punched once and then never getting up again.

I’m sitting here trying to balance this out a little more, but I honestly can’t. I really, really enjoyed this movie. Even though this came out before Raging Phoenix, I suggest watching Chocolate after you see the other one. That way you don’t get your hopes up for Phoenix, and you’ll appreciate this one more.

Here’s the trailer if you’re interested. It is definitely worth your time!

 
Also, I’m posting this now realizing that it is Autism Awareness Month. How perfect is that? I’d be interested to know what they did “right” and what they did “wrong” in this film. I know Jeeja did a lot of research for her role, so I hope that it’s believable to someone who has a little more experience with autistic children than I do. Let me know what you guys think of it once you’ve seen it!

Movie Review: Raging Phoenix

Bottom Line:

Watch it.

Details:

[Medium to Well-Done Spoilers]

I’ve developed a strange affinity for martial arts films, especially foreign movies.

Enter Raging Phoenix.

This movie caught my eye because it was about a girl (Deu) who was nearly kidnapped by human traffickers, but then got away and decided to learn martial arts to get revenge on them. Other than that, I had no idea what the movie was about.

Well, I was pretty surprised.

It turns out that the basis for the style of martial arts that they do is getting really, really drunk. It’s actually a lot cooler than it sounds. And it sort of makes sense. Anyway, it’s a made up style, but it’s a combination of Muay Thai and break dancing. (Yeah, you read that right.) Deu finds out exactly why the kidnappers wanted her (for the human pheromone market. …Yeah, you read that right, too.) and she decides to offer herself as bait so they can find their hideout. This is when the real action started.

So, I actually liked this movie quite a lot. The style of martial arts was interesting and different, to say the least. I’m not sure how it would work in the real world, but in this story is was effective and it looked cool. The fighting sequences were much better than a lot of the ones that I’ve seen in American made fight movies. The acting was also pretty good, and I liked the general layout of the story. It was funny, but deep and thought provoking. Some of the visuals were gorgeous. And even though you need to read the subtitles (unless you speak Thai, of course), it isn’t dialogue heavy and you can sit back and enjoy the fighting scenes.

However, sometimes I didn’t know whether this was trying to be a comedy movie or an action movie. There were some pretty hilarious scenes and some great one-liners. Three of the main characters were also named “pigshit,” “dogshit,” and “bullshit.” No, I’m not joking. I think that was one of the problems – there’d be something really funny in a serious scene, and I wasn’t sure if they were trying to be funny or not. I think they were, but it did sort of jolt me out of the movie a little bit.

Another problem I had was the pacing. The first half of the movie was pretty awesome, but it was only halfway through that we found out what the real plot was. It was like the entire first hour was exposition, which we all know isn’t a good way to get the story up and running. Over and above that, though, was the fact that I actually liked the exposition better than the real plot line. The real story was a little hokey. (Human pheromones on the black market…really???)

Lastly was the ending. I won’t give it away, but I will warn you: if you like happy endings, tread carefully if you want to watch this movie. It felt like it was leading up to one thing the entire movie, and then all of a sudden that choice is completely taken away. It wasn’t the most satisfying ending, but it could have been worse, I guess.

I’d watch this movie again just for the visuals during the first half, plus the fighting sequences. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes foreign films or martial arts movies. Even if you just like good action movies, this might keep you entertained.

Also, here’s a funny story…I was debating on whether I wanted to watch this one or a movie called Chocolate. It turns out that the girl who plays Deu (Jeeja Yanin) actually plays the main character in Chocolate. How crazy is that! I’ve read around a bit and a lot of people are saying that Chocolate is a lot better. Guess that’s up next for me to watch (and review)!