Ong Bak 2 (2009) Trailer

[george stando]

I really liked the opening with the different characters and the crocodile pit, but it sort of lost steam for me after that although the elephant scenes and some other fights were good. it was a mess of a film. Also agree it was way too much standard kung fu type of fighting in place of the original dynamic thai stuff in ong bak 1. Lets see what ong bak 3 brings.

[tenzen]

hopefully more than the second one. if not i dont see his career lasting much longer in america. maybe in thailand and france but a bad movie twice in a row is a sure way end your american film career, unless you a scwerzennegger or van damme of course. although jcvd was not that bad of a movie, but then again he was not acting so much as playing the real him.

[george stando]

I think also the problem with Jaa is he takes way too long between movies and he hasnt even learned english so it seems he doesnt want to advance into the international market and try to achieve some sort of stardom, he wants to just keep doing the low rent thai stuff. Its too bad because he needs that breakout enter the dragon type of film.

[tenzen]

if he gets a good film like that he will be set. i think tarantino tried to helphim with protector but he really needs to learn english so he can become a star. this low budget stuff is ridiculous. maybe he is being told what to do by panna. he might not want him to cross over to be bigger than him.

[george stando]

I gathered here in thailand that they are making him believe that he is the thai industry and he is thai so they need him to stay and continue to build their films(meaning put more money in their pocket not the international people). So they got him roped in with a whole thai thing. He might be also not as smart as we think he is because he is settling for that and not breaking out into the big time, he could always come back and do the thai films in between the bigger stuff if they really needed him like that so badly. I guess we will see how it plays out in the coming years.

[tenzen]

but dont they understand that him getting world wide exposure will give them world wide exposure. look at the road bruce made for martial arts movies in general it has to give them the exposure they are looking for. them not letting him do anything only hinders their progress. i understand he is their superstar and all and they want to keep him butthey have so many other good actors that could fill in. or maybe they should give someone else a push like akara. i know he is not a martial artist but he did learn really well for the chaiya movie and he speaks english. teach him how to do some of that flashy stuff jaa does and you have an instant international star. all he needs is some stunt training. or what about the guy who played kem in the fighting beat movie or the guy from the hanuman movie. all good choices but they would need a big push where as with jaa he is established and could easily be used to draw attention to more of the thai stars.

[george stando]

I agree, its greed with the thai people trying to hold him and use him to make themselves big money while catering to him to keep him in their hold. I would hope that Jaa would look to the careers of bruce lee, jet li, jackie chan or any of the breakout stars of asia for a roadmap of some sort of how to do these things. Jaa is the thai movie industry for the world--who really sees or knows the other thai movies or thai movie stars. He brought alot of interest to martial arts back even within thailand and put all these old style guys back on the map and created this reawakening. He has tremendous untapped talent but he needs to step up into the big world or be lost making ong bak movies for the rest of his career. And you are right, Jaa becoming a break out asia superstar in the west, brings the spotlight back to thailand and asia in search of more movies and stars like him.

[tenzen]

too bad they cant see that.

[george stando]

Well, lets see what happens with the next ong bak which will be 3,after that he will need to expand out into new stuff because ong bak 4 will already be a tired affair.

[george stando]

I see they are marketing Ong Bak 2 in the US as Ong Bak 2: The Beginning, trying to clear up that it takes place in the distant past. Dont know still how they are tying it into the first film.

[kyuss]

Just watched ong bak 2, liked certain parts but its totally different from ong bak 1 and from a different time period which was very disorienting. Its not way near as good in any way as ong bak 1. Hoping ong bak 3 puts this series back on track.

[Tee Sok]

Yes it was good and refreshing to see the Thai fighting style and top notch action in the first Ong Bak. I was hoping they could do some weapon stuff and maybe some historical stuff like King Naresuan, it doesn't have to be Ong Bak all the time, they can break the serie like they did with Tom Yum Goong.

[george stando]

I agree tee sok. They can mix it up with other films and there are alot of topics i guess within thai history and with different thai fighting stuff to create many variations. But lets see what they do!