Ong Bak 3

From Zanecorpwiki

If you liked the other two, you'll like this one. DVD and Blu-Ray

Summary

The movie starts off strong with great action right off, but then goes through a long middle in which it seems to flounder about. In all fairness, this is just matching the floundering of the central character, so it makes a kind of sense, but it didn't work for me. Like maybe some thing just aren't that interesting to watch?

Just when I thought "another action flick with great potential but so-so results" it really picked up and finished strong. The last 30 minutes or so just click. Again, maybe this is paralleling the character, and the narrative does seem to reflect the state of the main character in subtle ways that are intriguing.

Overall, a solid four stars.

Details and Notes

In terms of the narrative, this really should be viewed in close proximity to Ong Bak 2, though you'll be able to figure it out.

I wish they'd spent a little more time on the "repair of the broken bones" scene. It's a trope you see from time to time. Kung Fu Hustle has a good example. "Repair by the master" seems more common than self repair, but Jaa does a good job evoking the idea he's wrestling with his own body until there's that moment that things snap into place. To bad the meat of it, the physical pantomime, only lasts about 30 seconds.

Ha, there's a scene of walk-training. Nice. I love the little recovery training sequence. The beard is a really nice touch to show the passage of time, and Jaa's training is awesome.

I especially like that Jaa looks pretty normal. If this were a Hollywood film, the lead would have done 3 months of intense gym work to pack on some vanity muscle. Jaa's got that "yoga chic" look going.

Spoiler ahead.

The 'false fight' at the end was really impressive. Narratively, it had me fooled, which was entirely the point. I was thinking, "Oh Jaa! Don't do it Jaa!" Which was probably entirely the point. At the same time, it allowed to the movie to fit in an entire extra awesome fight scene and really up the action quotient. Bravo.