WARRIOR KING (2005)

‘Wow’. I'm pretty sure they were the first words that fell out of my mouth after I had finished watching this DVD. I say ‘pretty sure ’ because I think I said it more than once. In fact I’m positive that’s all I’ve said for the last half an hour. My brain is still trying to process all the data that my eyes so greedily gobbled up. In fact I think I need a lie down........

That’s better. So, for those of you that don’t know, the star of this film is a fellow called Tony Jaa. He played the lead in Ong Bak, and I’m sure that if you’ve not seen it yourself, then you know someone who has and then tried to persuade you to watch it too. I’ve seen both. This one is better. But what’s it all about? Well, the story goes that his father is bringing up an elephant and it’s calf (although the calf is really the pet/best friend of Jaa’s character). The older one is being groomed for the King of Thailand. There is a ceremony where the best elephants in the land are gathered together and the cream of the crop are taken to become part of the royal entourage. There is no greater achievement for animal or owner. So the day comes and the elephant, due to earlier plot points, sees a man at the selection process that he doesn’t like. Jaa’s father sees that the beast is obviously distressed, tries to stop him from being taken and gets a bullet to the gut for his trouble. Both the adult and infant pachyderms are captured and shipped off to Australia, and so the chase begins.
The first twenty minutes or so of the film are a beautiful sight to behold. Seeing the scenery of Thailand, the forests and rivers, and the way it is shot left me with one of those warm fuzzy feelings inside. I was so hoping that the rest of the film was going to continue in the same vain. Unfortunately it didn’t, and the rivers and trees of Thailand gave way to the tarmac and skyscrapers of Sydney. This is where the charm of the film ended for me, and I was a little disappointed, but what was lost in picturesqueness (is that even a word?) was made up for in frenzied action. Let’s not kid ourselves here. This was never going to be a film about the rolling hills of the Far East and it’s indigenous species. This is about blood, broken bones (and boy are there a lot of those) and torn cartilage. It’s about watching someone perform the most incredible action scenes I’ve seen in a long while, without the use of wires or CGI. This is about violence in it’s rawest form, and it delivers it in spades. Whether the fights are one on one, or one hundred to one, the action is unrelenting and absolutely astounding. I did, however, cringe at one long sequence that involved a gang on rollerblades and BMX’s as it was all a bit daft. Don’t get me wrong – Tony Jaa was excellent, flipping, dodging, kicking and punching with the most amazing agility, but his opponents were mostly useless and I really thought that they were included just to make the film a bit more en vogue – more current for the culture of today. The fight in the temple makes up for it though. I can’t praise the action sequences enough, but I’ll stop harping on about them as I have other stuff to write about. Just let me finish by saying that I have never said ‘Ouch’ out loud so much whilst watching a film.

The story on the other hand I found a bit choppy. It flicked from one scene to the next a couple of times without explaining how it got there. More thought should have gone into the overall continuity and flow of the story as these jumps distract the viewer unnecessarily. It’s not to say it was bad – I loved the fact that before he introduced someone’s soft fleshy parts to his knees he’d ask them where his elephant was. It was quite surreal. It’s just that the other half of the plot, involving the Thai policeman and his partner, was annoying and I could have quite happily had that part removed.
I will most definitely be watching this again, and I would strongly advise anyone who likes their action thick and fast to take the time to sit and watch it too. You will be amazed at what Tony Jaa can do with his body, and probably wondering, like I did, exactly how many people actually got hurt during the making of the film. I can’t imagine that everyone got away unscathed. It's now perfectly clear why the likes of Jackie Chan and Jet Lee are winding down their action careers– there's a new star in town. He is brutal and graceful and a joy to watch.

The DVD extras come crammed on a second disc, and believe you me, they need to be. This is one of the most complete packages I’ve ever seen, so much so that I won’t go into too much detail as Vaughan would shout at me for over running. We have a 'Promotional Gallery', which has 6 different trailers in it for you to watch. Then we have the 'Interview Gallery', with interviews (you’d never have guessed would you) with various members of the cast and crew including Director Prachya Pinkaew, Tony Jaa and stunt coordinator Panna Rittikra. There are 5 in all. Finally we have the section entitled ‘A Warriors Journey’, and for my money this is the best section. Here we find various things such as preproduction filming, another cast and crew interview and the piece de résistance, the Multi angle shots. Select this and you see, side by side, the theatrical version of the fight sequences and a second angle from a similar, but not identical perspective. Because of this you view the scenes in a new and fresh way. Comparing the two is great as you can observe what some of the crew would have seen on set, not just what the director and editor wanted the audience to see. This is worth the price of admission in itself and a great addition to an already fine release.