Panna Rittikrai Exits In Style With Balls-Out Insane VENGEANCE OF AN ASSASSIN Trailer

Weep for the loss of Panna Rittikrai for when the acclaimed Thai fight choreographer succumbed to illness earlier this year the fight world lost a simply enormous talent. While Rittikrai has often been viewed as a secondary player in the rise of Tony Jaa and Thai action cinema, known primarily as Ong Bak director Prachya Pinkaew's go-to fight guy, I have long been of the opinion that putting Rittikrai in any sort of secondary role does him a great disservice. As a performer and director he laid the groundwork for everything that Pinkaew has done since and, frankly, I think Rittikrai was a better director - one who knew his audience better and would go to absolutely any lengths to deliver adrenaline fueled thrills.

Case in point: Rittikrai's 2004 effort, Born To Fight. Released on the heels of Ong Bak, Born To Fight was consigned to more or less live in that film's shadow but - in my opinion, at least - it has aged significantly better. Far more ambitious in scope, positively littered with massive and diverse action set pieces, and more playful by far than anything the often far-too-serious Pinkaew has ever done, Born To Fight took one of Ong Bak's leading stunt performers - Dan Chupong - put him in the lead and delivered a purely entertaining thrill ride.

Born To Fight never reached the levels of success that Ong Bak did, relegating both Rittikrai and Chupong back into secondary player territory but Rittikrai and Chupong reunited for Rittikrai's final directorial effort before his untimely passing and with the trailer for Vengeance Of An Assassin freshly on the scene ... well, good lord. Rittikrai appears to be exiting on a high note. Yes, there is clearly some CGI assist in here but if there wasn't everyone would be dead. Rittikrai has always been a high risk - high reward sort of choreographer and he's doing things here that most would never dream of. There's one fall, in particular, that ranks as one of the nastiest I have ever seen on film. Take a look below, be amazed, and raise a toast to one of the true greats.