There is no cinematic selling point that gets my juices flowing quite like the description 'does all his own stunts without wire work or CG effects'. Done. Sold. Sign me up.
The year was 2005. The movie was Ong-Bak. And an hour and thirty four minutes later, Tony Jaa had a new fan for life.
And I know what you're thinking: what's with the elephants? We get it: Thai people like 'em. You can stop trying so hard to convince us. But cut the man some slack, he grew up the son of an elephant herder. An elephant herder! Tell me that a childhood filled with doing back flips off your own elephant isn't the most bad-ass thing you've ever heard. That and he developed a new style of Muay Thai specially for The Protector based on elephants' movements, described simply as "throw, stamp on, grab, break". The man loves his elephants.
The man also loves being awesome. Sure, it's not easy to get a feel for his personality through interviews in which he struggles to answer in broken english. But the things he's done in front of a camera lens give him a free pass to be a self absorbed douche bag for all I care. Hopefully he's not. But I can forgive him if he is, so long as he keeps my jaw on the floor.
Which brings us to my one concern with Mr. Jaa. Go back and re-read the description of 'Elephant Boxing' that he developed for The Protector. The 'break' part in particular. It made The Protector almost difficult to finish. And Ong-Bak 2 was even more gritty and bloody. So far, each release has ramped up the level of intensity and violence. And it may not be very manly for me to suggest this, but I don't really like that he might continue heading in this direction. I was raised on Schwarzenegger flicks in the 80's, and whet my martial arts beak with a full on Jackie Chan obsession in the 90's. And although decidedly violent, these films still always had a slight element of humour to them (in Jackie's case, more then just slight). And that's the one thing I find lacking from Tony Jaa. He's a little too serious.
But, like I said, I can forgive him of almost anything so long as the movies keep coming. And I don't offer that grace to just anyone. Sounds like a Man Crush to me.
Proof of Awesomeness:
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