Subway Cinema News

This year NYAFF is showing two sets of action packed Thai films that are the yin and yang of their film industry, but what the two KING NARESUAN and the two BODYGUARD films have in common was their enormous popularity at the box office. I had the chance to catch all four of these films in a theater in Thailand and half the fun was just being surrounded by Thais hollering, cheering and having fun.

Thai audiences love patriotic films and KING NARESUAN gave them nationalism in spades. (Speaking of patriotism, here’s a helpful tip if you ever see a film in Thailand – stand up for the National Anthem or you will likely find yourself spending some time in a Thai jail with a guy called Nong who is covered in demonic tattoos.) Along with bone breaking stunts, Thai audiences also love their action comedy splattered with insults, word play, funny faces and overall bad taste. Now, you won’t find any of that in KING NARESUAN, but the BODYGUARD films are stuffed with it like a mid-west family after Thanksgiving dinner. Political correctness hasn’t found a home in Thailand yet where they still believe in equal opportunity insults.

KING NARESUAN is a gigantic earth-shattering celluloid spectacle like Hollywood used to make in the 1950’s and 60’s when audiences thrilled to films like LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, BEN HUR and SPARTACUS. Hollywood doesn’t make those kinds of movies any more or at least not without gobs of CGI effects because doing so would cost more than our national debt, but they still make them in Thailand. Of course it helps when making a film the size of KING NARESUAN if the director is related to the King and is considered the greatest Thai director of all time. Director Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol gets what he wants to make a film. He needs the entire Thai army to show up as extras, he gets them; he needs hoards of elephants for enormous battle scenes, he gets them; he needs ornate temples as settings, he gets them. It’s good to be a Prince in Thailand.

The two NARESUAN films are the biggest box office hits ever in Thailand for three main reasons: they relate the story of Thailand’s greatest hero and the founder of their country, it was basically almost mandated that everyone see them, but they became hits mainly because they are amazingly good and filled with political intrigue, nation building and plain old fashioned blood-and-guts heroism. The final forty minutes of the second film may be one of the most exciting set pieces I have ever seen. Chances are this will be your only opportunity to ever see these films – the DVDs in Thailand have no subs and, at least so far, no US distributor has gone after them because they think US audiences have the attention spans of a fruit flies.

The BODYGUARD films are polar opposites of the NARESUAN films. They are weird, crazy and action packed like a long lost Hong Kong film from the 1980’s. Both films star Mum Jokmok who is best known to Western audiences as Tony Jaa’s wisecracking sidekick in ONG BAK and TOM YUM GOONG, but back in Thailand he’s the most popular comedian around using his dim deadpan expression and famous square head to deadly comic effect. You see him everywhere – on billboards, on TV with his own variety show, on commercials selling anything he can and in lots of films. He acts in them, directs them, writes them and sometimes produces them. Thais like Tony Jaa but they love Mum Jokmok. In the first BODYGUARD film he plays a bodyguard (surprise surprise!) who loses his client in a huge shootout and then has to regain his pride and honor. But in between this there are enough insults and physical comedy to make the Marx Brothers blush. In the second film he oddly enough plays the father of the character in the first movie! Here he’s a secret agent who has to stop a dangerous conspiracy at work and who’s henpecked at home by his wife who thinks he’s an unemployed bum. And in case you’re a Tony Jaa fan, he makes an action cameo in each film for his good friend Mum Jokmok. You won’t come out of these films feeling like you are a better person, but hopefully you will have a dumb grin spread across your face and, to be honest, that’s better for you than being a better person. - BN

(Buy tickets, get more info, and see the trailer for KING NARESUAN 1 & 2)

(Buy tickets, get more info, and see the trailers for BODYGUARD 1 & 2)

(A NOTE ON THESE FOUR MOVIES: two movies from Thailand and their sequels! How does one pick which to watch? Here’s my take: THE BODYGUARD 1 is like an old school Stephen Chow movie, full of action and absurdist humor, but rough around the edges. THE BODYGUARD 2 is much more polished, with a much bigger budget. While the humor is toned down some, the stunts and action are amped up - think late 80’s Chow Yun-fat action-comedy from Hong Kong like TIGER ON BEAT, only slicker. For me, I prefer BODYGUARD 1, but that’s cause low budgets don’t trouble me none, and I think Mum Jokmok’s nude chase through Bangkok can’t be topped. As for KING NARESUAN 1 and 2, they’re like THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGS and THE TWO TOWERS, respectively, if you don’t mind a LORD OF THE RINGS reference. Like FELLOWSHIP, KING NARESUAN 1 puts the focus on character development and drama, with some stand-out action setpieces sprinkled throughout. KING NARESUAN 2 is like THE TWO TOWERS in that the whole movie builds to a final battle sequence that lasts for close to an hour and is a Helm’s Deep-sized blow-out of epic proportions. Personally, I’m dying to watch them back-to-back on Sunday, June 29. - GH)