Best known as the mentor to and fight choreographer for Tony Jaa, Rittikrai had a long career as a screen fighter and director himself, the man plying his trade in a string of ultra low budget grinders never seen anywhere outside of Thailand until Jaa vaulted him to fame. And so when Rittikrai was given the first real budget of his career in 2004 to direct Born To Fight - a remake of one of his own earlier titles - nobody thought that much of it. It was, among other things, simply a gesture of respect from producers Sahamongkol, a thank you to the veteran performer who had groomed and prepared Tony Jaa to become by far their biggest star and largest export and expectations for the film, anchored by one of Ong Bak's lead stunt performers and a handful of Olympic grade Thai athletes, were minimal.
This is ironic, really, because Born To Fight now stands as one of the high points in Sahamongkol's action catalog, an enormously entertaining picture with huge replay value and it's more than a little perplexing that it wasn't the start of a string of pairings for Rittikrai and star Dan Chupong. After all, the Pinkaew / Jaa pairing was working out pretty well, so why not keep this one going?
Well, it's been nine years (!!!) since Born To Fight now and Chupong and Rittikrai are finally getting back together. The duo - along with rising action star Nattawut Boonrabsap - are now in production on a new action picture titled Vengeance Of An Assassin. The image and title are all we've got on this one for now but, really ... what more do you need?