Tom Yum Goong Re-Edit: What's the Damage?
The good folks over at TonyJaa.org have spotted word of a French release of Tom Yum Goong, the latest martial arts pic starring Ong-Bak's Tony Jaa. This French release will be the first appearance of the TF1-mandated western re-edit of the film and the question that leapt to mind was a simple one: How much has been cut?
Well, a lot.
The French edition - which is the same cut that will be seen in all western countries - clocks in at 1h34m while the original Thai cut reportedly comes in at roughly 1h50m, meaning roughly sixteen minutes have been cut.
Now, I'm not automatically opposed to cutting a film to tighten it up and, despite some flaws on the new soundtrack, I'm generally of the opinion that Ong-Bak benefitted from Besson's tightening. But sixteen minutes? That's a lot. Either this thing was very bloated to begin with or this edit is cutting into the meat of things at least a little bit. Ouch.
For those hungry to see the original, uncut version there are two VCD options - the Thai and Hong Kong - coming available soon, but it has been confirmed that neither will include English subtitles. If you want to take the plunge un-subbed I'm recommending the HK release. It's a couple bucks more expensive but splits the film over three discs as opposed to the two disc Thai version, which should mean significantly better video quality.
