Tom-Yum-Goong (2005)

Tagline: Vengeance knows no mercy.

Curiosity: I like it when Tony Jaa does that thing where his knees fly into people’s faces.

Plot: Kham (Jaa) is a descendent of guards who took care of the King of Thailand’s war elephants. He and his father (Sotorn Rungruaeng) continue this tradition and raise a mighty badass elephant named Por Yai and his calf, Kohrn. When poachers kidnap the elephants and injure Kham’s daddy-o, it’s up to this young herder to travel to Australia and kick so much butt that he gets his stuff back. Aiding him is Sgt. Mark (Petchai Wongkamlao, who also starred with Jaa in Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior), a streetwise Thai officer whose department might have a hand in the same elephant ring that stole Por Yai and Kohrn. Looks like it’s time for some flyin’ knees… to the face! Yeah!

Thoughts: To a certain extent, it’s hard to watch Tom-Yum-Goong (The Protector here in the U.S.A.) without comparing it to Jaa’s breakout hit, Ong-Bak. They share identical plots (Somebody steals Jaa’s stuff, he beats the shit out of people until he gets it back, Wonkgamlao provides comedic support). Ong-Bak also introduced Jaa’s insanely awesome fighting style to most people (myself included). Sure, watching him jump-knee people off helicopters is cool, but Ong-Bak did it first.

Of course, that criticism just means I rank Onk-Bak above Goong. I still love both films. Even though Goong takes a little while to get going (at least in the uncut international version), it takes time to establish all of the characters. Once that’s out of the way, Jaa gets plenty of time to… fight rollerbladers:

And restaurateurs:

FACT: That second clip, four minutes of which was one shot, took about a month to set up and film. Jaa completed it in five takes. He might not set himself on fire this time, but he still delivers some sweet, succulent fight scenes. What a nice guy.

Oh here’s an important note: Don’t watch the U.S. version. It cuts out a lot of the early scenes which, while admittedly slow, develop the characters a bit. It also kills Kham’s dad, when in reality he survives being shot by baddies. The film also straight up changes the gender of the main villain, Madame Rose (Xing Jin). In the international version, Rose is a transgendered female. In the American edit, she’s simply a she, which is a lot weirder, I think, since that means no one acknowledges Rose’s Adam’s Apple.

Reflection: I like elephants.