In memoriam: Panna Rittikrai, 1961-2014

Panna Rittikrai (พันนา ฤทธิไกร), the martial-arts choreographer who put Thai action movies on the world cinema map, has died.

According to The Nation, Panna died from liver disease on Sunday afternoon in a Bangkok hospital. He was 53, and had been battling illness since last November. Other reports can be found at Bangkok Post, Film Business Asia, Twitch and Film Combat Syndicate.

Tributes poured in on Twitter, most notably from Panna's former protégé Tony Jaa, who worked with Panna on B-movie action flicks for a decade before they made Ong-Bak in 2003, and kicked the Thai movie industry into high gear:

No matter the difficulties in relationships, people should be happy at the end of the day. Rest In Peace old friend. pic.twitter.com/maSiStKeX9
— Tony Jaa (@tonyjaaofficial) July 20, 2014

Another fitting tribute came from director Gareth Evans, who made the Indonesian martial-arts franchise The Raid:

What Panna and Jaa did w/ Ong Bak revitalised martial arts cinema. The importance of that film on the genre is huge.
— Gareth Evans (@ghuwevans) July 20, 2014

Evans also posted a link to the Dragon Dynasty trailer for 2004's Born to Fight. One of Panna's best movies, it's a sizzle reel of everything that is amazing about his innovations, which often took actors and stunt performers to the edge of danger – the truck wheel misses his head by just that much.

Converging movements, such as groups of fighters lunging toward each other from each side of the frame, explosions, flaming objects and crazy car and bike stunts are other Panna Rittikrai trademarks. It's stuff Michael Bay dreams of, but only does digitally. With Panna, the stunts were real and human, and the stakes were high.

Born in 1961 in Khon Kaen, Panna headed to Bangkok in 1979 to work in the movie business, starting out training actors how to do action. After a few years of that, he put together his own stunt team and headed back to his hometown. Taking inspiration from the films of Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and the Bond movies, he ground out a series of gritty B-grade action flicks that played second run houses in Bangkok but were vastly more popular in Panna's native Northeast. It was during this period that he met Tony Jaa and started working with him. Titles from this era include Spirited Killer and Hard Gun, and after Ong-Bak was a hit, such DVD labels as BCI Eclipse started mining Panna's back-catalog.

When the boom years of the "Thai New Wave" hit in the late 1990s and early aughts, Panna and Jaa figured they had enough footage to impress a big Thai studio. Producer-director Prachya Pinkaew got ahold of some, took it to Sahamongkol Film International, and Ong-Bak was born, becoming a worldwide phenomenon and jump-starting the Thai action-film industry.

Jaa's lost-elephant adventure Tom-Yum-Goong (a.k.a. The Protector or Warrior King) followed.

Panna and his team were also kept busy on all sorts of other Sahamongkol projects, such as stringing comedian Mum Jokmok up on wires for the rollicking action-comedy The Bodyguard or teaching Ananda Everingham to swordfight in the Rashomon remake The Outrage.

Among the best of this period was the aforementioned Born to Fight (Gerd Ma Lui, เกิดมาลุย), a remake in name only of one of his 1980s films. The 2004 version introduced another of Panna's protégés, "Diew" Chupong Changprang, playing a Muay Thai champ who goes to a village with a bunch of Thai national athletes, including a female taekwondo champion ("Nui" Kessarin Ektawatkul), a sepak tawkraw kicker, a rugby tough and a gymnast (take that Gymkata!). There's even a little girl Muay Thai fighter – "Katt" Sasisa Jindamanee. She would later turn up in a couple more of Panna's projects, Somtum with wrestler and Tom-Yum-Goong fighter Nathan Jones, and Power Kids.

Other notable efforts by Panna and his team included Chocolate, which introduced martial-arts pixie Jeeja Yanin to the world.

One of my favorites is Dynamite Warrior, which marked Panna's return to acting after a couple of decades. He played an evil sorcerer who needs the menstrual blood of a virgin in order to cast a spell.. Diew Chupong tangles with him, along with water buffalo rustlers, a giant cannibalistic criminal and a hi-so steam-tractor dealer with a lisp.

Meanwhile, Jaa was endeavoring to strike out on his own as star, director and action choreographer on Ong-Bak 2, a historical-epic origin tale of the first Ong-Bak. Delays and budget overruns put pressure on Jaa, and he had his infamous meltdown. Panna was called in by Sahamongkol Film honcho Somsak "Sia Jiang" Techarattanaprasert to play peacemaker and get the project back on track as a co-director.

From that point, Jaa's relationship with Sia Jiang become strained, though he did a few more films for the studio with Panna's steady hand. Ong-Bak 3 followed, and then a hiatus while Jaa got married and started a family.

There was Tom-Yum-Goong 2, and the "eastern western" A Man Will Rise with Jaa and Dolph Lundgren. Panna handled the action, and it was produced by Sahamongkol.

But now that Jaa has split from Sahamongkol in order to work in Hollywood and Hong Kong, it seems unlikely A Man Will Rise will get a release anytime soon.

And, there's another Panna Rittikrai action film already in the can, completed last year before he became ill – Rew Talu Rew (เร็วทะลุเร็ว , a.k.a. Vengeance of an Assassin). According to Film Business Asia, it stars Panna's Born to Fight leads, Diew Chupong and Nui Kessarin; he's a hitman who goes on the run after he is ordered to kill a woman under his protection.

There's plenty of other tributes around the Web. Hit the various links at the top of the article. And though I won't link to them, there's hospital photos of Panna. They are sad, but Tony Jaa did go visit him.

I'll leave you with a behind-the-scenes featurette from Bangkok Knockout, showing the master at work.

Hi-Jaa! Where is he now? Plus Protector 2 in U.S, TYG2 in China

Better not let your elephant see you tinkling those ivories. Via Tony Jaa Official Facebook page

This is another installment of the occasional feature of this blog that catches up on news of Tony Jaa.

Tony Jaa recently wrapped a globetrot that took him to Hollywood, where he schmoozed with celebrities, and to Switzerland, where he performed handstands in a ritzy hotel lobby.

After a brief stop back home in Thailand, he jetted off again to start production on his Hong Kong action debut, SPL II, which will see him clashing with Wu Jing. Pou-Soi Cheang directs this sequel-in-name-only to 2005's SPL, which was directed by Wilson Yip, who's now producing. Original SPL leading man Simon Yam also stars.

You can follow all of Jaa's moves on his official Facebook page.

Meanwhile, Tom-Yum-Goong 2 opened over the weekend in select U.S. cinemas as The Protector 2. Reviews aren't pretty. They include the New York Times, Village Voice, New York Daily News, the AV Club and The Hollywood Reporter. A number of them say it's his "comeback" following his controversial "meltdown" during filming of Ong-Bak 2 and Ong-Bak 3, but really it's his swansong with studio Sahamongkol, which he left in the midst of making TYG2 during a contract dispute.

Now he's on to the next phase of his career, as an international action star and man of mystery.

Still, Sahamongkol is wringing Tom-Yum-Goong 2 for all it's worth, with a "wide release" recently in China – some 2,500 screens, the biggest yet for a Thai film. The Nation's Soopsip had more details about that, including a red-carpet appearance by Jaa's co-stars, Jeeja Yanin and Rhatha Pho-ngam.

A Blu-ray release for The Protector 2 is set for July 29.

Finally, it's the early 2000s again as Tony Jaa gets a mention in the newly reconstituted Kaiju Shakedown, the blog by Asian film raconteur Grady Hendrix. Now at home at Film Comment, Hendrix looks back at all the main figures of Thai cinema's boom days of the late '90s and early aughts, wondering "where are they now?"

Jaa, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pen-ek Ratanaruang, Ekachai Uekrongtham, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Chookiat Sakveerakul and Nonzee Nimibutr – they've all been right here, steadily working. Just one of the stalwarts of the New Thai Cinema Movement mentioned – Wisit Sasanatieng – has faded from view. Perhaps Wisit could get his long-gestating Muay Thai biopic Suriya out of development hell with help from Jaa and a host of international backers?

Rhatha Pho-ngam and Jeeja Yanin on the Beijing film fest red carpet for the Chinese premiere of Tom-Yum-Goong 2.

Review: Tom-Yum-Goong 2

• Directed by Pracha Pinkaew
• Starring Tony Jaa, RZA, Marrese Crump, Rhatha Pho-ngam, Jeeja Yanin, Teerada Kittisiriprasert, David Isamalone, Kazu Patrick Tang, Petchtai Wongkumlao
• Released in Thai cinemas on October 23, 2013; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

With an overly complicated plot, Tom-Yum-Goong 2, the much-anticipated new action flick from martial-arts star Thatchakorn “Tony Jaa” Yeerum, has turned out to be a rather bland concoction.

This is despite it being in 3D and pretty much non-stop action that crams in other martial-arts stars, including Yanin “Jeeja” Vismistananda and America’s Marrese Crump, plus hip-hop musician and kung-fu aficionado RZA and Thai singer-actress Rhatha “Yaya Ying” Pho-ngam.

It's better than Jaa’s previous feature, Ong-Bak 3, but is not as strong as his major studio breakout, 2003’s Ong-Bak and 2005’s Tom-Yum-Goong, a.k.a. The Protector.

Even more disappointing, it might possibly be the last Thai film Jaa makes. Tom-Yum-Goong 2 comes out amidst a feud between Jaa and his studio, Sahamongkol Film international, and its powerful boss, Somsak “Sia Jiang” Techaratanaprasert. He is upset that Jaa is now working in Hollywood, making a Fast and Furious sequel and teaching Vin Diesel Muay Thai.

The first Tom-Yum-Goong took Jaa to Australia as he chased gangsters who’d stolen his baby elephant. The relatively simple plot was an aim to broaden Jaa’s international appeal, setting up fights for him around Sydney landmarks.

Tom-Yum-Goong 2 stays in Thailand and again has Jaa’s character Kham losing his elephant Khon. But it keeps the international flavor, with such foreign fighters as Crump and RZA, plus David Ismalone (“Mad Dog” from Ong-Bak) and Kazu Patrick Tang (Raging Phoenix).

The set-up for the plot scripted by Ekkasith Thairath is labored, showing a snooze-worthy montage of news headlines about a war in fictional far-away lands. For some reason, Thailand is chosen as the location for the signing of a peace treaty.

And somehow, this will involve Kham’s elephant being stolen by the foreigner criminal mastermind portrayed by RZA. He leads a small army of martial-arts warriors, each with a number tattoo to indicate how good they are. Among them are the lethally brutal Number 2 (Crump) and the fierce Twenty (Rhatha), whose tattoo is spelled out across her cleavage.

Thankfully, it only takes 15 minutes or so for Kham to start running around, searching for his elephant, which was initially taken by the crooked owner of an elephant camp. But then that guy turns up dead, and Kham is standing over his body when the man’s nieces show up – Jeeja and another actress, Teerada kittisiriprasert. They are supposed to be twins, but apart from their pixie-bob hairstyles and clothing, they look nothing alike. Still, it’s pretty confusing trying to follow the Chocolate star Jeeja as she throws down against Jaa for the first time.

Arriving with the twins is a motorcycle gang. They chase Kham up a flight of stairs and onto a building’s roof. This is the best fight sequence of the movie, with the noisy bikes whizzing all around as Kham ducks and dodges them all with acrobatic ease. One smashes through a skylight and the camera angle quickly shifts above it to catch the bike and glass shards spiraling out of the screen in 3D.

More nifty camera work comes from a point-of-view shot of Kham jumping from the roof to a balcony on another building.

Kham eventually commandeers one of the bikes and leads the hundreds motorcycling miscreants on a chase through alleys and down an elevated motorway. He also takes a crazy ride on top of a drift-racing car.

And too soon, with an oil tanker explosion, it’s all over.

The action spills into a shipyard where Kham and the Pixie Sisters get the hurt put on them by the imposing Number 2.

While Kham is pursued by RZA’s gang of toughs, and is eventually captured and branded as No 1, he’s also a fugitive from a squad of Interpol officers who include Kham’s old friend from Sydney, Sergeant Mark (Petchthai “Mum Jokmok” Wongkamlao). I'm not sure why he's in this movie, but he at least gets to voice what everyone is thinking.

"Are you sure it's an elephant and not a kitten? Why do you keep losing him?"

From the first encounter with Crump, the fights all tend to blur together, taking place in such locations as dark warehouses and subway tunnels. For the most part, they are framed too tightly and move too fast to make any sense of.

One fun bit has Jaa and Crump fighting on an electrified railway line. In a move that defies the laws of physics, they both dip their feet in water and stand on the rails shocking each other. As their fists swing they make the same sounds as lightsabers from Star Wars.

Director Prachya Pinkaew and Jaa’s mentoring martial-arts guru Panna Rittikrai clearly had a ball coming up with all kinds of ways to have fists, feet, heads, elbows, weapons and elephant trunks zoom out of the screen in 3D. Some effects work, some don't. Jeeja and her "sister" have some kind of weird electric weapon they throw, but it's always hard to make out what it is.

Despite everyone's best efforts, the fights in Tom-Yum-Goong 2 lack the sizzle and originality of their earlier efforts in Ong-Bak and Tom-Yum-Goong.

On the plus side is Jaa, whose dour onscreen demeanor seems to have softened with marriage, fatherhood and maturity. Compared to his earlier films, he appears more at ease and natural. Perhaps Hollywood is where he’ll create his happiest memories.

Related posts:

• Tony Jaa is fast and furious as Tom-Yum-Goong 2 premieres
• Tony Jaa no slave to Sahamongkol, manager says
• Not so fast Jaa, says a furious Sia Jiang
• More Marrese Crump, bit more Jeeja in second Tom-Yum-Goong 2 teaser
• Tony Jaa moving too fast and furious for Tom-Yum-Goong 2
• Tom-Yum-Goong 2 English-subtitled teaser
• Tom-Yum-Goong 2 is still coming, plus more from Panna
• Tony Jaa is getting married
• Tony Jaa and Jeeja take time out for flood relief
• Marrese Crump joins Tom-Yum-Goong 2 cast
• Tony Jaa and Jeeja in 3D for Tom-Yum-Goong 2

(Cross-published in The Nation)

Tony Jaa is fast and furious as Tom-Yum-Goong 2 premieres

Actors have excused themselves from doing the promotional campaigns for their films before, but perhaps none have done so in quite the dramatic fashion as Tom-Yum-Goong 2 (ต้มยำกุ้ง 2) star Tony Jaa has.

The latest martial-arts epic from Jaa hits Thai big screens in the midst of a feud between the star and his studio, Sahamongkol Film International. In the runup to the release of Tom-Yum-Goong 2, a contract dispute arose when it was announced that Tony Jaa had been cast in a sequel to the Hollywood car-racing franchise, Fast and Furious 7.

Sahamongkol honcho Somsak "Sia Jiang" Techaratanaprasert asserted that Jaa was under another 10-year contract with his studio and had to get his permission to take part in an outside project. He's threatened a lawsuit.

But Jaa, newly emboldened by the backing of a new Westerner manager, retorted that the contract was null and void and he was no longer a slave to Sahamongkol.

So Tom-Yum-Goong 2 opens today, the Chulalongkorn Day public holiday, which is ironic because Chulalongkorn, King Rama V, is celebrated for his role in ending slavery in Siam. And the film's star isn't present to appear at premieres or make the rounds of press interviews. Instead, Jaa is in the U.S., filming Fast and Furious 7 and posting Facebook pictures of himself teaching Muay Thai to Fast and Furious leading man Vin Diesel.

Years in the making, Tom-Yum-Goong 2 is a sequel to a 2005 movie that was Tony Jaa's second major studio effort following his breakout hit Ong-Bak. Tom-Yum-Goong, a.k.a. The Protector, took Jaa to Australia, on the hunt for his baby elephant that had been abducted by gangsters. It was an aim to broaden Jaa's international appeal, setting up fights for him around Sydney landmarks with Vietnamese-American stunt performer Johnny Tri Nguyen and towering Australian wrestler Nathan Jones.

Tom-Yum-Goong 2 stays in Thailand, but still keeps the international flavor, bringing in hip-hop musician and kung-fu aficionado RZA as the main villain as well as American martial artist Marrese Crump. Jaa also meets on screen for the first time with Sahamongkol's other major martial-arts star, Chocolate actress Jeeja Yanin. She's paired up as a twin sister to another female fighter, Teerada Kittisiriprasert. Another featured fighter is Only God Forgives siren Rhatha "Yaya Ying" Pho-ngam, in her first action role. And Jaa's usual comic-relief sidekick Petchthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkumlao reprises his role from the first Tom-Yum-Goong as a Thai-Australian police officer, now seconded to a major Interpol investigation.

The story again involves a stolen elephant, with Jaa's character on the run after being blamed for the killing of an elephant-camp owner.

Also, it's in 3D, the first by Sahamongkol and director Prachya Pinkaew.

The contract dispute between Jaa and the studio is just the latest bump in the film's rocky road to completion. The production has been beset by delays, including flooding in 2011 and Jaa's marriage to his pregnant bride last year. Also, Jeeja hooked up with an assistant director during filming, and is now married and a mother herself.

Other behind-the-scenes drama comes from Jaa's tumultuous family life becoming fodder for the Thai press, which has reported news of Jaa's fiesty wife getting into fights with her in-laws.

Fortunately, the action-packed trailer, embedded below, helps you put all this nonsense out of your mind.

Tom-Yum-Goong 2 English-subtitled teaser

It's been a long time coming, but finally, an official teaser for Tony Jaa's Tom-Yum-Goong 2 (ต้มยำกุ้ง 2) has landed, offering about a minute of furious fighting, jaw-dropping stunts, an epic road chase involving thousands of motorbikes and an exploding tanker truck to top it all off.

That's all after about a half a minute of Tony Jaa recapping the glories of the past 10 years, including his major studio debut Ong-Bak, plus Tom-Yum-Goong (a.k.a. The Protector) and Ong-Bak 2 and 3.

Blink and you'll miss an appearance by Jeeja Yanin, who apparently got her licks in before getting pregnant. Rhatha "Yaya Ying" Pho-ngam, hot off her debut performance in In Only God Forgives, joins the cast as a fighter with a mean hair flip, a red dress and "twenty" written across her chest. There's also Marrese Crump, RZA as the villain and Tony Jaa's Ong-Bak sidekick Petthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkumlao.

But it's Tony Jaa's show, with Prachya Pinkaew and Panna Rittikrai sharing credit as directors. And it'll be in 3D.

The release in Thailand is set for October 23.

On Region 1 DVD: This Girl Is Badass

Continuing to mine Sahamongkolfilm's back catalog for anything that's Thai and has a bit of action, Magnet Releasing has put the comedy Jakkalan (จั๊กกะแหล๋น), a.k.a. This Girl Is Badass, on English-friendly DVD and Blu-ray in North America.

Folks overseas might be forgiven if they think this is a new film from Chocolate star Jeeja Yanin, but it's actually from 2011, and I didn't like it much back then.

Though there are cool scenes of Jeeja using a bicycle as a weapon, the action and stunts are too few and far between lame gags by the director Petthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkumlao. Subsequent reviews have been even less kind.

Still, if you're a fan of Jeeja and not sure you can wait for Tom-Yum-Goong 2 to come out (who knows if she's actually in it?), This Girl Is Badass may help tide you over.

The Region A/1 release includes the original soundtrack, English subtitles, an English dub and a making-of as an extra.

Jeeja, meanwhile has been settling into motherhood, with a little boy that arrived around nine months after she met assistant director Andrient Bowden on the set of Tom-Yum-Goong 2. They're now married and Jeeja is getting back in fighting shape with an aim to start work on the long-delayed Chocolate 2 in the next couple of years.

Tony Jaa saddles up for A Man Will Rise

Tony Jaa and Dolph Lundren. Photo via Twitch.

Doggedly pursuing any news of Tony Jaa, TwitchFilm is reporting on the martial-arts star's long-awaited first foray into "international" action filmmaking, A Man Will Rise, in which Jaa co-stars with the great Dolph Lundgren.

Others taking part are David "Mad Dog" Ismalone, Jakkrit Kanokpodjananon and Game of Thrones original Ser Gregor "The Mountain" Clegane himself, Conan Stevens.

Set in 1950s Thailand, it has a sort-of Tears of the Black Tiger sound to it, with Jaa as a plucky local hero standing up to gunslinging foreigner cowboys.

The Nation's Soopsip column today implies that Jaa's father figure at Sahamongkol Film International, executive producer Somsak “Sia Jiang” Techaratanaprasert, is involved. He's nicknamed the project Ai Noom Kangnam or Kangnam Boy, which has to be a joke. Soopsip also names a possible director – Vitidnan Rojanapanich. He's best known as the first Thai to scale Mount Everest, which seems like the perfect training for someone to be able to deal with the troubled artist that is Tony Jaa.

Jaa had earlier been rumored to be in a project with Jean Claude Van Damme.

Meanwhile, it appears that filming has finally wrapped up on the long-awaited Tom-Yum-Goong 2 (ต้มยำกุ้ง 2), which had earlier been tipped for possible release in May. That ain't happening, Twitch says.

TYG2, which is Sahamongkol's first foray into 3D and is likely undergoing some pretty extensive post-production work, is being positioned as a major tentpole for an auspicious date in December. Or maybe an auspicious date in August.

Production on TYG2 was troubled to say the least, with Jaa taking a break from the shoot to get married to his feisty pregnant bride (whom he met while making Ong-Bak 3). If that weren't enough, co-star Jeeja Yanin hooked up with an assistant director and got pregnant.

So who knows who and what was actually captured on film for TYG2. We'll only know for sure if and when it unspools in front of our eyes.

Tom-Yum-Goong 2 is still coming, plus more from Panna

Continuing with The Nation's roundup of coming attractions for 2013, due out sometime this year, perhaps in May, is Tom-Yum-Goong 2, which will see the return of Tony Jaa to the big screen, and for the first time in 3D.

Directed by Prachya Pinkaew with action choreography by Panna Rittikrai, the project has been long in the works, owing to production delays and Tony juggling a new marriage and fatherhood.

No one seems to know what exactly the film is about. The only hint comes from the cryptic Tinglish tagline: "This time the fight get beyond."

Whatever.

Twitch recently posted that it "marks the end of the no wire, no CGI era for Tony Jaa."

When TYG2 was first announced, it was touted as an all-star project involving not only Tony Jaa but also Tony's Ong-Bak 3 enemy Diew Choopong from Born to Fight and Dynamite Warrior plus Chocolate heroine Jeeja Yanin.

But now perhaps neither Diew nor Jeeja are actually involved. Or maybe they are. Only when the film is released will anyone be totally certain of what it's about or who's in it.

An accompanying Soopsip column in today's Nation sows more confusion, revealing that Jeeja is now pregnant!

Meanwhile, action guru Panna has prepped a new action star, stunt-team member "Wut" Nantawut Boonrubsub, for another project called Reaw Talu Reaw, which will also star Diew Choopong.

More on that when it is actually released.

Back to TYG2, it was announced months ago that newly minted martial-arts actor-director RZA had been added to the mix that already included RZA's stunt double Marese Crump. And as an aside, RZA's The Man with the Iron Fists comes to Thai cinemas this week.

On DVD: Headshot, Mundane History, Dark Flight, The Kick, I Miss U

There have been several recent English-friendly releases of Thai films in various parts of the world.

Probably the most prominent is Headshot, Pen-ek Ratanaruang's unique and acclaimed hitman thriller. Thailand's submission to the Oscars, Headshot has been a fixture on the festival circuit this year and won a bunch of awards in Thailand. Released on DVD and Blu-ray in the U.S. by Kino Lorber (which includes an English dub in addition to the original soundtrack), it's the first time in years Pen-ek's had a Stateside release of one of his films.

Indie director Anocha Suwichakornpong's debut feature Mundane History (เจ้านกกระจอก, Jao Nok Krajok) has been released in the U.K. by Second Run. The drama is about a paralyzed young man from a wealthy family forming a friendship with his nurse, a young man from the rural northeast. A story of Thailand's great class divide that eventually goes back to the very forming of the cosmos, it's taken awhile for this acclaimed 2009 film to find its way to English-friendly DVD. Now, reviews are comparing it to newer movies, like Terrence Malick's Tree of Life or the French blockbuster Intouchables.

Anocha has self-released Mundane History on DVD in Thailand, but, of course, there are no English subtitles. There's an English-friendly Region 2 Dutch release, but it looks like the U.K. version is the one to get thanks to such extras as a booklet featuring a long essay by critic Carmen Gray. There’s also Anocha's 2006 graduate-thesis short film Graceland, which was the first Thai film to be selected for the Cannes Cinefondation competition. And there's an interview with her.

Meanwhile, there are a bunch of Thai genre films, mainly horror titles, out in Hong Kong.

Five Star's bumpy airplane thriller Dark Flight, the first Thai film actually filmed in 3D, is offered on Blu-ray in both 2D and 3D. There's also a 2D DVD release. Directed by Isara Nadee, who was part of the Ronin Team that did the Art of the Devil movies, and scripted in part by Ronin Team member Kongkiat Khomsiri, the haunted airliner tale stars Marsha Wattanapanich as a veteran flight attendant who's troubled past causes problems for passengers and fellow crew on a short, stormy hop from Bangkok to Phuket.

The Kick is a fairly entertaining mix of Korean and Thai martial arts, with a family of taekwando experts clashing with gangsters who've stolen a treasured ancient Siamese dagger. Along with the South Korean cast, the film directed by Ong-Bak and Chocolate helmer Prachya Pinkaew also features Jeeja Yanin and funnyman Mum Jokmok and action choreography by Panna Rittikrai. It's on DVD and Blu-ray.

And there's I Miss U  (รักฉันอย่าคิดถึงฉัน, Rak Chan Yaa Khid Tueng Chang), director Monthon Arayangkoon's horror romance tale about a widowed, guilt-ridden chief surgeon (Jessadaporn Pholdee) who just won't let go of the memories of his dead wife (Natthaweeranuch Thongmee), and a plucky first-year resident doctor (Apinya Sakuljaroensuk) who finds herself haunted as she gets closer to the grieving guy. Inthira Charoenpura also stars. Controversially, studio M-Thirtynine released I Miss U in Thai cinemas with three different endings, which screened on different weeks during the movie's run. However, it appears there's only one ending available on the Hong Kong home-video release, even though the "alternate endings" gimmick seems tailor-made to be a bonus feature. It's on DVD and Blu-ray.

(Thanks Logboy!)

Tony Jaa – performance artist, wall tagger

In the midst of preparations for Tom-Yum-Goong 2, still in production, with prominent guest stars being added, and still due for release sometime next year, the post-meltdown, post-monkhood, now-married-family-man martial-arts star Tony Jaa recently took time away from the movie shoot to put on a live performance at the opening of an exhibition of street art inspired by him.

“Pride of the Nation #1 Tony Jaa” at Bangkok's Artery Postmodern Gallery features various interpretations of the Ong-Bak star, from his fierce side, as represented in a Hulk-like green-hued painting, to his gentler side, as symbolized by a little boy in a pink bunny costume, his arms clutched around the trunk of an elephant.

Here's more, from The Nation's Soopsip column yesterday:

“I’m into martial arts, so I get my inspiration from watching Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee and Jet Li,” he said at the opening of an exhibition of art that he in turn inspired.

Jaa put on a show of his own while musicians played and graffiti makers did their thing.

In another corner, Patcharapon “Alex Face” Tangruen explained that Jaa’s affection for animals led him to draw the actor as a cute boy with an elephant. “I noticed his soft side during our workshop.”

Cecê Nobre from Brazil emphasised Jaa’s eyes in a portrait of bravery and determination. “He doesn’t need to flex the muscles to show his courage.”

Good stuff, but Jaa believes everyone can succeed in whatever they do. “You’ve just got to have belief in your work.”

Read on at Soopsip for more news of another film in the works, a biopic of the Myanmar fortuneteller "ET", planned by Kantana's Nirattisai Kaljaruek.

You can see more of Tony Jaa in a video from Thai PBS, embedded below.

Tom-Yum-Goong 2 is now set for a Thai release in May 2013. Head over to Twitch for more discussion about that.

Review: The Kick

• Directed by Prachya Pinkaew
• Starring Jo Jae-Hyeon, Ye Ji-Won, Na Tae-Joo, Kim Kyong-Suk, Petthai Wongkumlao, Yanin Vismitananda
• Released in Thai cinemas on December 22, 2011; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 3/5

Koreans play nice and rough with Thais in the bi-national co-production The Kick (วอนโดนเตะ!!), in which cultural icons of both countries are trotted out for display. There's a dancing elephant, Thai and Korean food, Korean and Thai music, national costumes and plenty of demonstrations of the respective martial arts, taekwondo and Muay Thai.

Co-produced by South Korea's CJ Venture Investment and veteran Thai producer Sa-nga Chatchairungruang's Bangkokfilm Studio, The Kick aims to capture in movie form the feel of the South Korean stage shows like Jump and Cookin' Nanta, cultural tableaux that have proven popular with Thai tourists. Cookin' Nanta has even established itself in its own theater in Bangkok.

Directed by Prachya Pinkaew with the screenplay and action choreography by Panna Rittikrai, The Kick is about a South Korean couple, both former national taekwondo competitors. They have moved to Bangkok, where dad (Jo Jae-Hyun) runs a martial-arts dojo and the strong-willed, domineering mother (Ye Ji-won) operates a Korean restaurant. They have three children, a teenage boy (Na Tae-Joo), a teen daughter (Kim Kyong-Suk) and a little boy.

And, of course, everything they do is done with taekwondo flair. Mom cooks with martial-arts moves and rips a live octopus in half. And the elder son waits on tables with dramatic sweeping motions. Later, he does some dance moves, incorporating taekwondo kicks and flips. Daughter does a 360-degree somersault to kick a soccer ball.

Together, they also do taekwondo demonstrations at Bangkok shopping malls.

As is usual for action movies from the pair of writer-directors who brought us such movies as Ong-Bak and Chocolate, the plot involves something being stolen. In this case, the MacGuffin is an old dagger that once belonged to a Siamese king.

The Korean family, in their rattletrap little Daihatsu van, get in the way of black-suited gangsters who are stealing the dagger. There's a little car chase involving the tiny van and a big black Mercedes, and then the teenage son and daughter fight the thugs in the Airport Link train station. The head bad guy (Lee Gwan Hoon) comes away with his face scarred, giving him another reason to sneer wickedly.

Having retrieved the artifact knife, the Koreans are hailed as heroes and it's arranged that they will perform at the official unveiling of a museum exhibition.


Meanwhile, masked thugs come calling at the family restaurant, and mom and dad decide they should send the kids away. So they call their oldest Thai friend, a comic-relief zookeeper named Mum, played by Petthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkumlao. Mum takes the kids out to his place in the countryside, where he has an elephant, a pet monitor lizard and some monkeys.

Here, finally, is where they meet Mum's niece, Wahwah, played by none other than Chocolate heroine Jeeja Yanin. She's introduced while practicing Muay Thai moves in a rippling stream and is spied on by the teenage guy. Later, she spars with the guy and his sister, beating the guy and calling it a draw with the girl. Turns out she's a national Muay Thai champion.

There's a subplot involving the father and the elder son. Dad suffered an emasculating defeat in his Olympics days and he's pressuring the boy to train hard in taekwondo and redeem the family's honor. But the son really wants to be a back-up dancer for K-pop bands, and he's kept that a secret from his parents. Another family dynamic is that the mother and the daughter are actually portrayed as stronger martial artists than the men. So the henpecked hubby has another reason to push No. 1 son to try harder.

Eventually, the gangsters find the kids. They put up a good fight, but the little boy ends up kidnapped.

The older brother and Jeeja go on the run, with Jeeja helping the guy with his dance tryout or something. Junior passes the audition with flying colors, not only doing taekwondo with K-pop moves, but, inspired by Jeeja, adds a few Muay Thai elbow thrusts as well.

Meanwhile, to get the little boy back, the family will have to steal the dagger during their demonstration at the museum. This involves teaching Mum a few martial-arts moves so he can join the taekwondo troupe.

There's a fight in a riverside warehouse, and eventually the action moves to Mum's zoo where each character gets their moment to fight, even the little boy.

The mother goes to the kitchen, where she uses pots and pans as weapons. Later, she stumbles into a pit of CGI crocodiles.

In a nifty innovation by Panna, the elder son jumps on top of some empty animal cages where some low-hanging ceiling fans are going around and around. There's an endless parade of masked henchmen, and they all get knocked to the straw-covered floor by the spinning fan blades. The guy even grabs one from the ceiling and wields it as a weapon.

Jeeja grabs a tree branch and uses it to wallop bad guys. Later, she and the girl team up to take on a long-legged female gangster (Kim Yi-Roo), and their fight takes them to the glass roof of a greenhouse.

And dad somehow ends up wired with a bomb that someone will have to defuse.

A niggling problem with pan-Asian productions involving a cast of different nationalities is language. In Thailand, the Korean actors lines are dubbed, with the same voiceover artists that dub all the movies. I guess when the movie showed in Korea, the Thai actors were dubbed, and if this movie is ever picked up for the English-speaking world, everyone will be dubbed in the grand tradition of grindhouse kung-fu flicks.

The story is okay, but as is the case with these types of movies, the plot is secondary to the action, and there's plenty of it. Action that is.

Since Oldboy, it's become a cliche in Thai movies involving Koreans that a live octopus get involved. Don't worry though, unlike Oldboy, the octopus is CGI. No cephalopods were harmed in the making of this movie.

Some stuntmen, however, were harmed.

The obligatory blooper reel accompanies the end credits, and shows several stunt guys being injured by hard strikes by the Korean actors. One is taken away in an ambulance.


Related posts:

• Get ready for The Kick
• World premiere of The Kick highlights big Thai selection in Busan
• Prachya, Jija and Mum join Koreans for 100-million-baht Kick

Get ready for The Kick

While Tom-Yum-Goong 2 with Tony Jaa, Jeeja Yanin, Dan Chupong and a host of other martial artists may be apparently delayed because of the flooding in Thailand, there's still the Thai-South Korean co-production The Kick with Jeeja kicking around.

Originally slated to open in Thailand last month but postponed over flood fears, The Kick (วอนโดนเตะ) is now set for release on December 22. It premiered at the Busan Film Festival and was released theatrically in South Korea already.

Directed by Prachya Pinkaew, this is a joint effort by CJ Venture and Bangkok Filmstudio, which Sahamongkolfilm is distributing.

The plot, via TwitchFilm.com, goes something like this:

Couple and former Taekwondo champs Moon (Jo Jae-hyeon) and Yun (Ye Ji-won) settle down in Thailand and open a Korean restaurant and Taekwando school. Their three kids are interested in different things; the teenage boy is crazy about K-pop, the girl loves football and Thai dance and only the youngest boy shows any interest in Taekwando. There, the family made friends with Mum and his niece Wah Wah (Jeeja Yanin), a talented Muay Thai boxer. Their life changes when the family and their friends become involved with Korean mobsters who've stolen some ancient daggers.

The Thai trailer's now available for viewing (embedded below). It's a bit different than the Korean trailer.

By the way, there's more Jeeja action in a review of Jakkalan, a.k.a. This Girl Is Bad-Ass at TarsTarkas.net, with loads of screenshots. Fun to look at, but the opinion of the movie itself isn't much different from mine. The trailer's got most of the best bits.

Tony Jaa and Jeeja take time out for flood relief

The floods in Central Thailand have delayed filming on Tom-Yum-Goong 2, but director Prachya Pinkaew and stars Tony Jaa and Jeeja Yanin aren't just sitting around waiting for the waters to recede.

Along with execs from Sahamongkolfilm International, they've been doing a roadshow, handing out relief supplies and putting on movie screenings, complete with popcorn and cotton candy, in the flood-hit areas.

The photos here are from November 25 in Nakhon Chaisri, Nakhon Pathom, northwest of central Bangkok.

There's a couple more shots from reader Alex in comments to a previous post.

According to an item in The Nation's Soopsip column today, the 3D Tom-Yum-Goong 2 – a sequel to Tony Jaa's 2005 missing-elephant drama – has indeed been stalled by the flooding. The column gives no details on when filming might resume.

And, no, I don't know anything about the plot of the sequel, whether it's set in ancient or contemporary times or even if it's really a sequel at all.

World premiere of The Kick highlights big Thai selection in Busan

Director Prachya Pinkaew's South Korean-Thai martial-arts movie The Kick will make its world premiere at the 16th Busan International Film Festival.

It's just one of many Thai films in the Busan fest.

In addition to The Kick, there's Tongpong Chantarangkul’s I Carried You Home in the New Currents competition, the Asian premiere of Kongdej Jaturanrasamee's P-047, the international festival premiere of Sophon Sakdaphisit's thriller Laddaland, ML Bhandevanop Devakula's Chua Fah Din Salai (Eternity), veteran director Nonzee Nimibutr's short film Superstitious, Aditya Assarat's short 6 to 6 and a special screening of Wisit Sasanatieng's Tears of the Black Tiger, which celebrates 10 years this year.

The Kick (더 킥), destined for theatrical release in South Korea on November 3, is about a South Korean family of five martial artists running a taekwondo studio in Bangkok. They have to use their skills to stop some gangsters trying to steal a Thai national treasure. Jija Yanin and comedian Petthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkamlao are in supporting roles. There's a trailer making the rounds, embedded below. It's screening in the Midnight Passion program at Busan.

Also in the midnight slot at Busan is Laddaland (ลัดดาแลน), making its international premiere. The latest thriller from studio GTH and Sophon Sakdaphisit, screenwriter of Shutter and director of Coming Soon, Laddaland is a gripping, dread-filled psychological-ghost story about a family who moves into a haunted Chiang Mai housing development.

Making its Asian premiere is Kongdej's P-047 (Tae Peang Phu Deaw), a quirk-filled drama that has a lot of positive buzz going for it after its last-minute out-of-competition addition to the Venice Film Festival. It's a story of a locksmith who strikes up a friendship with another young man, and the pair break into people's homes to "borrow" their lives while they are away. P-047 screens in the Window on Asian Cinema program.

Also in the Window on Asian Cinema is Eternity (Chua Fah Din Salai, ชั่วฟ้าดินสลาย), making its international premiere. Not to be confused with indie director Sivaroj Kongsakul's Eternity (ที่รัก, Tee Rak), which won the New Currents Award at Busan last year and is now in limited release in Bangkok, this other Eternity is Outrage director ML Bhandevop "Mom Noi" Devakula's lavish romantic drama about cheating lovers (Ananda Everingham and Ploy Chermarn) chained together. Busan is apparently screening the theatrical version from last year's commercial release in Thailand and not the three-hour director's cut that Mom Noi prepared with the intention of having it screened on the festival circuit.

I Carried You Home, the debut feature by indie filmmaker Tongpong, makes its premiere in the New Current Competition. It's the story of a pair of estranged sisters who are reunited by their mother's death. The film has been supported by Busan's Asian Cinema Fund, receiving funds for script development and post-production.

Wisit Sasanatieng's 2001 debut feature Tears of the Black Tiger (Fah Talai Jone) will be screening in the special focus program on Asian westerns, Men of the East. It's a really cool selection that spans the history of the Eastern westerns. Among the selection is Chingachgook: The Great Snake, a 1967 drama about Native Americans by East German director Richard Groschopp, and Uzbekistan'sThe Seventh Bullet (1972) by Ali Khamrayev. There's a pair from Japan, Saito Buichi's The Rambling Guitarist from 1959 and the 1960 sequel The Rambler Rides Again, and a pair from the Philippines, Fernando Poe Jr.'s San Bernardo and Gun in My Hand, both from 1966. Two recent entries are Chinese director Jiang Wen's Let the Bullets Fly and Kim Jee-woon's The Good, the Bad, the Weird. Also from South Korea is Im Kwon-taek's Eagle of the Wild Field (1969). And no Eastern western program would be complete without 1975's Bollywood classic, Sholay.

In the Wide Angle program there's two shorts from last year's films in commemoration of His Majesty the King's 83rd birthday: Superstitious by Nonzee Nimibutr and Six to Six by Aditya Assarat. Superstitious (เกษตร ...ตะกอน, Kaset Ta Korn), is a colorful comedy about a farmer who plants a genetically modified sunflower seed. Villagers believe the plant has magical powers leading to a wildly out-of-control situation. Six to Six (เพลงชาติไทย, Pleng Chat Thai) is a quietly comedic look at workers in an apartment building cleaning their master's top-floor room. It also screened at the recent Thai Short Film & Video Festival and is actually a prelude to Aditya's feature Hi-So, which screened at Busan last year and finally opens in Bangkok cinemas next month.

Apart from all those Thai movies, there's also a look at the old cinemas of Thailand and elsewhere in an exhibition of photos in Busan by the Southeast Asia Movie Theater Project.

There's also the Asian Project Market, with projects by Nonzee and Aditya being pitched.

Further Thai involvement comes from filmmaker-critic Kong Rithdee as a member of the NETPAC jury, Aditya judging the short film competition's Sonje Award and Apichatpong Weerasethakul as a keynote speaker in the Busan Cinema Forum.

In all, the Busan International Film Festival will screen 307 films from 70 countries, and the fest makes it home in a brand-new main venue, the Busan Cinema Center. The fest runs from October 6 to 14 2011.

Marrese Crump joins Tom-Yum-Goong 2 cast

American martial artist Marrese Crump, who's long been angling to take part in a film project with action guru Panna Rittikrai, has announced that he's joined the cast of Tom-Yum-Goong 2 (The Protector 2), starring Tony Jaa along with Jija Yanin, Dan Chupong and "Kazu" Patrick Tang.

Here's the announcement from Marese Crump's blog:

The collaboration between the prominent American martial artist and legendary action director Panna Rittikrai is much sooner than previously arranged. The Protector sequel, locally titled Tom-Yum-Goong 2, is to now set the stage for the much anticipated appearance of Crump facing the series' star, Tony Jaa.

Marrese Crump's project Formless, set to be directed by Rittikrai and already boasts a hard hitting cast, is next in line after the filming of Protector 2. The sequel's cast also includes Chocolate star Jija Yanin, Dan Chupong and Kazu Tang, which has everyone expecting this to be the studio's most action-packed movie so far.

In the Opening Ceremony to kick off production [on August 17], Panna Rittikrai, who reprises his position directing the action, has stated he is very excited to be working with Marrese Crump, Tony Jaa and the rest of the action lineup, while Prachya Pinkaew directs and produces.

Marrese Crump has recently come back from the set of RZA's The Man with the Iron Fists in Shanghai China, now in post-production, and is looking forward to Protector 2 with many more projects to follow.

There's more photos at Crump's blog.

Tom-Yum-Goong 2 filming is under way, with plans for a 3D release.

(Thanks Anesti!)

Review: Jakkalan (This Girl Is Bad-Ass)

• Directed by Petthai Wongkumlao
• Starring Yanin Vismitananda, Petthai Wongkumlao, Athit Amonwet, Akhom Pridakun
• Released in Thai cinemas on April 28, 2011; rated 15+
• Wise Kwai's rating: 2/5

The just-revealed international English title of Jakkalan (จั๊กกะแหล๋น) is This Girl Is Bad-Ass. And yes, Jeeja Yanin is all that. Unfortunately, her fierce brand of martial-arts action is secondary to an extremely lame-ass collection of one liners and sight gags by director Petthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkumlao and his comedian cohorts.

Playing like an outtake reel of scenes from various Sahamongkol comedies, romances and action flicks, the problem with Jakkalan is a lack of focus. A bit of Bodyguard here and Chocolate there, with some Crazy Little Thing Called Love (and even Love of Siam) tossed in, it could've been decent, but it's instead a disaster.

An unwieldly, kitchen-sink blend of comedy, romance and action, Jakkalan is too loosely plotted, with unfunny jokes, fight scenes that have no resolution and a cast that's overstuffed with Mum's showbiz pals who were apparently allowed to run wild with whatever dumb gags they could come up with. By comparison, past directorial efforts by Mum, like his first Bodyguard movie, the soap-opera satire Wongkumlao or his country comedy Yam Yasothon were much more tightly scripted and way more entertaining.

But those movies were mainly for Thai audiences. And if Jakkalan is to be made a success internationally, it'll need to be significantly retooled, but then there isn't that much there to begin with. Folks overseas want to see Jeeja, but her scenes come too few and far in between the nonsense.

Jeeja is a tomboyish young woman named Jakkalan who's been raised by her uncle (Mum). She works for a bicycle messenger service, and, in bowing to the current fad in Thailand for fixed-gear bicycles, Jeeja pedals a fixie. She even uses the bike as an effective weapon in the first big fight scene. But that takes forever to get to because first there are scenes of Mum taking care of little Jakkalan as she grows up, from a precocious rugrat to a rebellious 10-year-old who beats up all the bullies in the neighborhood.

Uncle Mum runs a street stall selling movies, which gives him a chance to note that he only sells authorized copies (only by Sahamongkolfilm of course) and issue a frustrated but ultimately self-serving and unfunny diatribe against movie piracy.

More "comedy" is provided by ubiquitious yukster Kom Chuanchuen, who wears outfits that seem to have been put together from the discount bin of the BDSM department at a thrift store. The only way you can protect yourself against the heinousness of what the clown Kom is wearing is to close your eyes whenever he's onscreen, which is a lot. He plays the boss of the bicycle messenger service.

Meanwhile, there's a weird young guy (Akhom Pridakun) with bad teeth who has a crush on Jakkalan and is always hanging around, asking Mum for advice on how to approach her. The fact that he keeps calling Mum's character "Uncle" seems strange, even if you owe that to the convention of Thai people referring to their unrelated elders as "uncle", "auntie", "older brother", etc.

But Jakkalan has her eyes on a long-haired neighbor guy (Athit Amonwet) who's a rock musician, and this gives her a chance to act like a goofy teenage girl in puppy love – a side of Jeeja that hasn't been seen, and it's actually pretty adorable. There's also a couple scenes where Jeeja forgoes the T-shirt, jeans, trucker's hat and sneakers and is dolled up in a dress and make-up.


She has some comedic bits as well, and acquits herself in a scene in which she delivers rapid-fire insults to that weird guy who keeps pestering her.

Jeeja's even funny when she's fighting, and the key to that is pretty simple: Instead of frowning, all she has to do is turn on that sweet smile while she's punching a dude's face.

Her job at the messenger service involves delivering mobsters' cash and some kind of illegal "stuff". It's never explained what the "stuff" is, but it's probably drugs. She's actually keeping a chunk of the mob's money, as well as some of the "stuff", which gets her in trouble with the two ridiculous mobster outfits she's working for. Like the samurai Sanjuro in Yojimbo, she finds a way to play the rival mobsters off each other. But that's a plot point that gets lost amid all the drawn-out jokes and tiresome romantic overtures.

The fight scenes don't come often enough, and when they do, they don't last very long.

The first fight has Jeeja taking on a crew of bad guys trying to retrieve the mobster's dough. They come tumbling out of a small van like clowns from a tiny car in the circus. And Jeeja wastes them all with a combination of muay Thai kicks and fixed-wheel, backwards-riding shenanigans. One of the bad guys even gets stabbed with a knife, repeatedly, borrowing Stephen Chow's schtick from Kung Fu Hustle.

Another fight has Jeeja tangling with a female fighter (Alisa Sonthirot) in a schoolgirl uniform, like Go-Go in Kill Bill. But the schoolgirl isn't really all that fierce, and soon Jeeja faces a half dozen or so guys, and gets creative by using bicycle sprockets as throwing stars, hexagonal nuts as knuckle dusters and bicycle-tire innertubes to tangle things up. The CGI blood sprays and again it's all over too soon as Jeeja is pointlessly faced off by a group of trash-talking female mob enforcers brandishing pistols.

The frayed and frazzled plot threads finally come together for a long, dragged out ending, involving a shootout between the mob factions and the police in a warehouse. Jeeja again faces the schoolgirl, but the focus isn't on her so much as letting Mum's comedian friends get in on the action. Even Mum and his stunt double throw a few punches and kicks.

The cavalcade of comedians is endless, with all the Chuanchuen family taking part (they beat up their dad, though since he's not playing their father in the movie, that's apparently okay). There's also appearances by Sudarat "Tukky" Butrprom, Pongsak "Teng Terdterng" Pongsuwan, Yam Yasothon co-star Janet Khiew and others.

The best part of the movie is the end credits, where the identity of one of the mobster's sycophants – a guy in a zipper-mouthed mask like the Gimp in Pulp Fiction – is revealed, and he lets loose with a tirade against Mum that keeps going until the screen is dark.


Related posts:

• Jeeja does comedy in Jakkalan

Tony Jaa and Jeeja in 3D for Tom-Yum-Goong 2

Tony Jaa is ready to get back to work. And this time he'll be in 3D.

The martial-arts star, who entered the monkhood after a contentious time with studio Sahamongkolfilm International during the making Ong-Bak 2 and Ong-Bak 3, appeared at a press conference today alongside studio executive Somsak "Sia Jiang" Techaratanaprasert, as well as director Prachya Pinkaew and action choreographer Panna Rittikrai for the announcement of Tom-Yum-Goong 2 (ต้มยำกุ้ง2).

A sequel to the 2005 action drama that had Tony Jaa jet off to Australia in search of his missing elephant, Tom-Yum-Goong 2 will be in 3D.

Sahamongkol is reportedly budgeting 300 million baht for the picture. The movie's release will be sometime next year.

Ong-Bak and Tom-Yum-Goong helmer Prachya will again direct, after Tony Jaa took over the director's chair himself for the two Ong-Bak sequels and ran into budgetary problems that led to his celebrity meltdown. The movies got back on track when Tony's old mentor Panna took over as co-director. Panna will again lead the martial-arts stunt team on Tom-Yum-Goong 2.

Tom-Yum-Goong 2 will mark the first time another of Sahamongkol's major action stars, "Jeeja" Yanin Vismitananda, will co-star with Tony. She stars in the action-comedy Jakkalan (directed by and also starring Tom-Yum-Goong co-star Mum Jokmok), opening this week, is featured in the upcoming Korean-Thai co-production, The Kick (also with Mum) and is also set for a 3D sequel to her debut film Chocolate.

Comedian Petthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkumlao was also present for the Tom-Yum-Goong 2 press conference. In the first Tom-Yum-Goong, he played a Thai-Australian police officer in Sydney's Thai community.

The announcement of Tom-Yum-Goong 2 follows rumors that Tony was unhappy with Sahamongkol and was looking to work overseas, and might star in a project by Hong Kong superstar Sammo Hung.

Screen Daily has a story about Tom-Yum-Goong 2.

Update: Todd Brown has a post up at Twitch.

(Photo via House RCA's Facebook)

Jeeja does comedy in Jakkalan

In addition to Chocolate 2 and her supporting role in the Thai-South Korean co-production The Kick, Jeeja Yanin has another movie coming out soon.

The Chocolate and Raging Phoenix star looks pretty capable at combining kicks with comedy in Jakkalan (จั๊กกะแหล๋น). Riding a trendy fixed-gear bicycle, she's aiming the business end of her high-top tennis shoes at a bunch of bad guys in the crime farce, which is directed by and also starring Jeeja's The Kick castmate Petthai "Mum Jokmok" Wongkumlao. It's produced under Mum's Bang Fai Productions. The cast is rounded out by the usual faces in Thai comedies, including Kom Chuanchuen, "Tukky" Sudarat Butrprom and Teng Terdterng as well as Mum's Yam Yasothon co-star Janet Kiew.

The trailer is playing in Thai cinemas now, and it's scheduled for release on April 28.

Update: Twitch as a look at the promo reel for The Kick.



(Via Major Cineplex)