Elephant in the Room
Lots has happened since my last update…
But, in this post, I want to discuss a guilty pleasure.
I succumbed to a DVD viewing of a mostly enjoyable movie I saw, theatrically, this past autumn, The Protector, with international phenom and Thai national, Tony Jaa. Ok - so, I'll admit it: there's a lot about The Protector that's pretty dopey - the whole thing with the elephant is sooooo Disney and isn't it soooo convenient that Jaa just happens to run into a Thai-speaking cop within the first five minutes of getting to Australia, but, geez, who cares? I mean, all the action and the stunts and the fighting are electric - I get a buzz just thinking about them!
And Jaa, of course - I know, I know, he's still really a newcomer, and I know that there're probably dozens of martial arts geeks rolling their eyes about how overrated he is and how there're dozens of cooler, better, (even younger, as Jaa's already, gulp, 31) martial arts stars out there that deserve to be more famous than him, but, who cares? I mean - just look at what he can do! Show me a Jackie Chan movie with stunts as elaborate and exciting as the ones in the warehouse scene! Show me a Jet Li movie with a fight sequence as intricate and daring as the long, stair climbing centerpiece battle! It's like a scene out of the greatest martial arts video game never made.
Plus, let's face it, Tony is just cuter than those guys. And he's not a show-off: you can tell he's a really nice guy and he has such a wonderful aura around him. I don't mean to crush out, but the screening I went to at The Museum of the Moving Image in the Astoria section of Queens, NY, featured Jaa, in person, doing stunts and taking questions. He comes across as a shy, dynamic gymnast farm boy. After hearing him speak and watching his body language, it's actually kind of hard to imagine him hitting or hurting anybody. When he starts doing backflips and kicking soccer balls held 15 feet over his head, well, I imagined it a lil better.
Still, though, while I don't want to see him repeat himself, there was a kind of simplicity (and poetry) to Ong-Bak that this movie just doesn't have. This seemed way too much like your standard, generic Hollywood action movie plot (except for the elephants, the transsexual triad leader and the bizarre restaurant plot borrowed from The Freshman). I totally want more people to see Tony's movies, but not if it means pandering to an audience. Oh, yeah - the comic relief in The Protector is pretty lame, too.
Actually, though, as long as the movie was going to have those elephants, I wish they had given them a bigger part. Tony just seemed so natural with them, it is kind of a shame no one figured out a way to make them more central to the movie. As it is, they're really just a big, cute MacGuffin.
On a closing note, for any New York City Asian film fans out there and especially fans of Bong Joon-ho, I will be personally hosting a very special screening of his great new film The Host on Monday, Feb. 12th at a great screening location in NYC, and giivng away some free movie posters there too. You can find more information on my web page. Thanks and hope to see you there!
