Asian-film expert Derek Elley, among the critics told by Variety bosses to take their way or the highway, has recently started his new gig: Chief movie reviewer at Film Business Asia, a fledgling enterprise built by ex-Variety Asia honcho Patrick Frater with Stephen Cremin and Gurjeet Chima. The whole crew is at Cannes, covering the Asian cinema scene like it's never been covered before.
Elley already has a bunch of reviews posted at FilmBiz.Asia. For his latest, he caught a market screening of Ong-Bak 3 (องค์บาก 3), Tony Jaa's much-anticipated follow-up to the cliff-hanger ending of Ong-Bak 2. Here's a bit of what Elley has to say:
Following directly on from the ending of Ong-Bak 2, Ong-Bak 3 is more of an extended finale than a real movie in its own right. (Both 97-minute films could easily be cut together into a single 2 1/2-hour picture.) More than half of Ong-Bak 3 is taken up simply with our hero's gruelling physical torture and agonisingly slow recovery - shown with a blend of masochism and narcissism extreme even by actor Tony Jaa's standards.
Read the rest. It's a to-the-point assessment.
That's one of the more brutal reviews I've ever read. I really like Jaa, but genuinely disliked most of Ong Bak 2--it was humorless and mean--and hearing this one is worse in that regard is depressing. I'll still pick it up, but I hope Jaa allows himself to branch out a bit. He's such a physical talent...
ReplyDelete"Ong Bak 3 makes Ong Bak 2 look like a masterpiece of character development, "
ReplyDeletesince when do people watch Martial Arts movies for storyline or character development!?
if you want character development, go watch some Korean Drama or some sh...
I can't wait for this movie man!