"Ong Bak 2: The Beginning"
Grade: D+
“Ong Bak 2: The Beginning” is as much a cautionary tale as it is a movie. Completely plotless, it is a lesson in clichés, at best; at worst, it is replete with seizure-inducing visuals. Utterly indecipherable on its own, it is doubtful even SparkNotes could adequately explain it.
By all accounts, the first “Ong Bak” was an incredible Thai movie stuffed full of superb fight scenes in the search for the missing head of a sacred Buddha in modern-day Thailand. Somehow, someway, “Ong Bak 2: The Beginning” acts as a prequel to the first film — although exactly how, one would be hard-pressed to say, especially considering the head in question appears only in the final scene of the film with absolutely no context to it whatsoever.
Nothing about “Ong Bak 2” has any context: it is inextricable and utterly opaque from start to end. Not only was the little dialogue the film had spoken in Thai with English subtitles, but the subtitles are also often extremely difficult to read.
Set in ancient Thailand, the plot vaguely appears to be about a young boy raised by a group of bandits to be some kind of melancholic hero/warrior/savior. However, the main character is merely a guy with a handful of subtitled lines who grunts and screams while throwing some mean punches and high-flying kicks.
Otherwise, the plot consists of a chase scene, a fight, a training montage, a series of fights, a flashback, some more fights, something between dancing and plot meandering, a fight, another fight and then finally, blissfully, it stops.
The film does not end, mind you. A film would need to have a climax proceeded by falling action and something that legitimately wraps up the plot to truly end. Instead, “Ong Bak 2” just stops, leaving the audience as ignorant as it was in the opening credits and quite possibly dizzier, considering the many visual elements that wobble and never quite focus. The resulting film is more likely to deliver headaches than adrenaline rushes.
In all likelihood, audiences will spend approximately the first 70-or-so minutes bewildered, slightly dizzy and more than a little exasperated with a plot that seems allergic to sense. Then, without any kind of build-up whatsoever, what you think is the climax gets underway as you hear a voice in your head elated at the prospect of the film’s end.
Unfortunately, you eventually realize it’s not, although to call this disappointment a plot point would be overly generous. Almost immediately, another potential climax begins and you are too fearful of further treachery to actually believe the befuddlement is soon to end. The film finds a small measure of redemption as this actual climax builds, and this time, it really is climactic — a virtually endless fight scene rarely matched in martial arts films.
Understand that overall, “Ong Bak 2” is terrible, utterly without sense or reason and so full of clichés that it never even crosses your mind to take it seriously. But strange as it sounds, the last 10 minutes almost, but not quite, make up for the first 80. The end fight scene goes on and on and on with hoards of fighters bearing every weapon and style swarming the protagonist, the supposedly mysterious Tien. Played to physical perfection by Tony Jaa, who performs all of his own stunts, Tien is consequently a fantastic martial artist and the core of a world-class fight scene that stretches seemingly forever. The scene is often ridiculous, but always full of the energy and violence that characterize only the best melees.
But at the end of the day, even this final fight can’t make up for the 80 minutes of confusion that precede these 10 minutes of mindless bliss. The film is far more headache than it’s worth. If you’re intrigued, by all means, see it — but do yourself a favor and watch the movie in the only way its plot could possibly make sense: wait until the film has come out on DVD, rent it and skip ahead to the fight scenes.
You can reach this writer at thescene@theeagleonline.com.
