Kickboxer vs. The King of the Kickboxers!

No, this is not some re-edited Thai movie "directed" by Godfrey Ho (but if it existed I would be the first one to watch it!), it's just me who had a weekend filled of cheesy kickboxing on the TV! I've been in a Jean-Claude Van Damme phase recently and decided it was time to watch Kickboxer (1989) again after approximated 150 years. I probably watched it the last time as a young teen on a censored VHS and most of it was erased from my memory by now.  In all honesty, I kinda stayed away from the kickboxing phenomenon at its peak. I felt it was too repetitive and just an excuse for stiff actors to try too look cool on the screen. I preferred (and still do) the more creative and imaginative Hong Kong cinema where everything was used in the fights and not just two dudes kicking each other in the face for 90 minutes.

What makes Kickboxer work is the presence of a very innocent looking Jean-Claude Van Damme and a cheesy, but honest, story about a young man, Kurt, who wants to take revenge on his brother (played by Dennis "The Terminator" Alexio) - who got his back broken during a fight against the dreaded Tong Po - and becomes a student under the slightly mad Xian (Dennis Chan). In a series of tests and exercises Kurt learns to control himself and be the best kickboxer in the world! And he also listens to the ghosts of Ayutthaya and flexes his muscles under water.

Kickboxer is very, very silly. But the story is timeless and the gorgeous locations makes it a nice movie to look at. It almost borders to parody and the drunke dance scene with JCVD is a sight to behold. But Van Damme is a good sport and it's quite visible that he's giving it all, even when the scenes is more than embarrassing both for him and the movie itself. The fighting is pretty decent also, but it's hardly the most spectacular ever filmed. Van Damme is excellent, but both him and the rest of the fighters seemed to be held back. Maybe the director is to blame for this. Still, it's a damn fine little action-drama and Van Damme is doing a better performance than he's credited for in countless reviews.

A film that doesn't hold back on the fights is The King of the Kickboxers (1990), which more or less is a remake of Kickboxer, just with the added concept of snuff filmmaking into the mix. This time goofy-looking Loren Avedon wants revenge on his dead big brother who was killed by the evil, evil, evil Khan (Billy Blanks) and heads back to Thailand to be taught by mad drunk master Prang (Keith Cooke) and, to quote myself "In a series of tests and exercises Jake learns to control himself and be the best kickboxer in the world!". And like Van Damme's Kurt he also runs around in the ruins of Ayutthaya, finding his inner self. TKOTK is a lot bigger and fancier than Kickboxer, more advanced, Hong Kong-inspired fights and explosions - but it's very similar to the 1989 classic. Several locations look the same also - and two actors worked on both of the movies.

It's a lot of fun, but the cockiness of Jake is more annoying than the more subtle, human Kurt. A lot of it is for fun, for a laugh, but it always irritated me when Americans come to some Asian country to show them that Americans are bigger, better and stronger. But I guess it's part of the genre. TKOTK also have a few interesting character actors showing up, Richard Jaeckel and Don Stroud, and both Loren Avedon (doesn't that sound like a soap or something) and Billy Blanks is awesome during the fight scenes. But it still lacks "it". That special kinda movie magic, that passion.

Kickboxer, a more modest and less bragging film, still goes winning from this fight. Much like the character of Van Damme. It has less action, but more heart.

Man of the Week: Bin Bunluerit

I know very little of Bin Bunluerit, but this promotion photo from Roy Pah (ร้อยป่า, 1986) kinda made him an obvious choice for my short-lived series of Man of the Week posts. This is the first one since 2010! Well, enjoy - a half-naked, muscular man with a chainsaw is always welcome here at Ninja Dixon!

And for you who's interested in Thai movies, welcome to The Mee Noi Thai Movie Review - with two new, fresh reviews packed with killer crocodiles!

Farewell, Pearl of Asia...

It's with shock and sadness I hear today that Pawana has left us. Yeah, that's the shittiest start of a Monday ever. According to Bangkok Post she was found drowned in her pool and some other sources says they also investigation her death as a possible murder. But that’s probably just to be safe.

Earlier this year I went to Thailand, both to meet dear friends and to have a well-deserved vacation. I met up with monster-maker Tong in Bangkok and we set out to hook up with actors and filmmakers we admired. One of them was the Pearl of Asia, Pawana Chanajit - star of countless Thai action movies and several Hong Kong films opposite David Chiang.

I met her at a restaurant outside Bangkok. She was a bit late, but when she arrived - an elegant, colorful, woman with a big smile - she welcomed this big, pale, bearded Swedish geek with open arms. Thanks Pawana! I will never forget that!

We sat down, me and Tong, for an hour or so, with her and talked movies and how she by chance became a movie star - and she made me eat some strange food also! :) She retired from acting in 1979 and was since then a successful business woman.

She was in a hurry – she actually forgot about our meeting – and was on the road to do other things, but took time to meet us , and after signing some posters for us she asked me when I would return to Thailand. Maybe in a year, or earlier I told her. She smiled, "Then we must meet again and talk longer, eat dinner and just hang out!" she said in excellent English.

I promised her that. And said goodbye.

Farewell you pearl of Asia, may you forever glimmer among the other stars that's left us.
/Fred

(you can read more about my meeting with Pawana Chanajit here)

H-Bomb (1971)

Together with Kom Akadej, Philip Chalong was probably one of the best and most talented action directors of Thailand. His career contained many co-productions with international stars and better budgets than his colleagues in the same genre. I H-Bomb he had the hot up-and-coming Chris Mitchum, still a few years before his bigger genre hits like Summertime Killer and Ricco. What’s more weird is the presence by Olivia Hussey, still fresh from her sensational role in Franco Zeffirelli Romeo and Juliet. How she ended up in a HK-Thai co-production with Chris Mitchum beats me! More on the cast later, first a few words about the slightly Jamesbondish-storyline…

After witnessing the top CIA agents of the world getting killed in various ways during the pre-credit sequence and finding out that a top secret experimental missile (Alpha) has been stolen, the US sends blond-haired CIA agent Eddie Fulmer (Chris Mitchum) to Thailand to co-operate with the Thai secret service in finding the missile again. Luckily for him his ex-girlfriend, Erica (Olivia Hussey) is the daughter of ruthless businessman Jake Koo (I think he’s played by Kecha Plianvithee) who’s also a suspect in kidnapping the deadly weapon! He’s also working together with the terrorist group Fuji (which suggests that they are Japanese, but nothing more is mentioned about that – expect that they have mount Fuji tattooed on their arm) lead by General Yang (the always bald and evil Pipop Pupinyo). Everything could be an easy match from here, but Zeke (Krung Srivilai), Koo’s henchman is also in love with Erica and this makes him even more destined to kill Eddie!

Even if H-Bomb is a movie co-produced by Shaw Brothers and starring to famous American actors, this is mainly a Thai movie in ever way possible. Krung Srivilai was a big star in his own right, even if he always had a darker streak than for example Mitr Chaibancha or Sorapong Chatree. Co-starring Mitchum’s Thai secret service contact is Phairoj Jaisin, who was one the actors supposed to replace Chaibancha as the big star after the latter’s death in 1970. H-Bomb was probably one of the first movies Jaisin made, a nice start of a long career. General Yang is played by Pipop Pupinyo, who was typecasted as a balded villain in tons of flicks from the seventies and up to the early eighties (for example in Kom Akadej’s The Killer Elephants and comedian Thep Thienchai’s James Band 007.

What strikes me the most with H-Bomb is the ambitious action set-pieces, concentrating on very impressive car- and motorcross-stunts. This is international quality, maybe even more spectacular stuff than in the Bond movies from that time. Most impressive is when one character jumps with his motorcross onto a speeding train, something Michelle Yeoh did in Stanley Tong’s Jackie Chan-production Police Story 3 in 1992. But I must admit that the stunt performed in H-Bomb is a lot more impressive and better shot. This is not the only stunt of course and we’re treated to several very nicely executed action scenes with big explosions and dangerous vehicle acrobatics.

Even if H-Bomb has a more “realistic” atmosphere, its still feels a lot like a Bond-movie. From the pre-credit sequence, the extremely Bondish theme song, Phairoj Jaisin Felix Leiter-style character, the action, the underground monitor-filled base and a plan to take over Thailand (maybe even Asia) by controlling a secret missile to the overall sense of an international spy-adventure. H-Bomb is a great action movie and proves once again what a talented director Philip Chalong was.

Operation Black Panther (1977)

Sombat Metanee was one of the biggest stars in Thailand during the seventies, and is still considered one of the most famous movies stars ever in the land of smile. What I didn’t know was that he had a talent for directing and produced a couple of major hits. One of them is Operation Black Panther, a James Bondish action-comedy complete with crazy stunts and action. The story, without subtitles, was a bit hard to understand but what I could figure out is that he’s supposed to be some secret agent/police/detective who live with his parents. Or at least terrorize them from time to time with pranks.

Now he’s going to infiltrate a big crime organization and to test his reliability he’s going to perform an assassination for them. But instead of doing he’s flees and a now they’re after him because he’s the only one knowing who they are and were they have their secret base! Somehow, along the way, Sombat get a female colleague, played by Aranya Namwong, who joins him in his fight against the Black Panther organization!

Operation Black Panther is made with a big juicy tongue firmly placed in the cheek. The whole pre-credits sequence is filled with “borrowed” footage from a Pink Panther cartoon, which also makes me think this is a reference to the Inspector Clouseau films with Peter Sellers and the rest of the movie is easy going. The only instance of something darker is when Sombat is breaking into the organizations secret base and tries to kill guards with strangling them, which creates a couple of very funny and black moments of comedy.

But most of the movie is spent on action and it boasts a couple of very creative moments. The first chase is with Sombat’s doubled-fronted car and then goes over to motorcycle. Lots of fast driving in a city I believe is Bangkok and a couple of very nice stunts. A few fights later and we’re treated to a very fun mini-chase with the car in a garage, were Sombat and Aranya take turns driving the car from the opposite side. Ah… fuck it, I’ve stolen a screenshot from the brilliant DIE, DANGER, DIE, DIE, KILL! to make it clearer:


The ending also has one of the worst miniatures since Amando de Ossorio’s The Ghost Galleon, but at least it’s easy to forget in the scene after when a nice explosion lights up the effect quality of the movie!

I’ve noticed, just as a detail, that Sombat has a tendency to strip almost naked in a lot of movies I’ve seen with him. Nothing bad with that, just a good thing, because he’s obviously the fittest Thai star of the seventies and isn’t afraid to show off his biceps and wide chest! He was popular both among women and men, and Sombat knew this "I never thought of acting, but I was good-looking, smart; I had sex appeal” – and that alone can create a career. The only difference was that he could act also, and direct – which he proven clearly with this entertaining piece of Thai popcorn-culture!

Magic Lizard (1985)

Some people use drugs, I personally prefer watching Thai family entertaining the get the same trip. Sompote Sands Magic Lizard, the last movie he directed, is the perfect example of pure cinematic insanity. Made in the same style like his other fantasy movies, but with that extra twist of absurdity and more aimed at a younger audience. I wasn’t really prepared for the entertainment value, because the few screenshots I’ve seen has just been that damn lizard standing around doing nothing. But believe me, he do a lot. More than I would in a life time in just ninety minutes.

Our friend the Magic Lizard (voiced by the annoying little girl in our nightmares!) is skating with his friends around Bangkok (I think) some nice and happy music. Then he goes to relax under a pagoda but is soon disturbed by invading huge aliens, who look like something from Kamen Rider or Ultraman who steals his crystal! Those darn aliens! Shocked by this he goes to his friend, a Hanuman statue, who flies away to get the crystal. But now when the lizard already is out, why not some adventures?

Yeah, those adventures… it’s hard to describe them, because the whole movie is very episodic and not very concerned by a comprehensible storyline. He meets a big bloodthirsty crocodile who kills people in bloody attacks (including a very nude woman), he finds himself a nice bike to drive around with, gets chased by a train on a track not once, but twice, meets some treasure hunters who are stuck in a golden cave with some mean skeletons and a golden bull! The lizard also befriends a horde of elephants and a dirty old man played by Lor Tok (who we saw as the evil mastermind in James Band 007 the other day). A lot of chases, songs and cheap rubber monsters later we’re treated to a happy nice ending!

Yeah, what can I say? This is of course brilliant. Brilliant in a way only Sompote Sands could be brilliant. For fan so cheap monsters and rubber creatures this is heaven. No big monster wrecking havoc, but they are so bizarre, so odd and strange. One of my favourite scenes is when the poor lizard is fighting a bear, and the bear suit just looks fucked-up! Everything with the crocodile is cool to and the big mechanical rubber elephant used in a couple of scenes is awesome also! It’s easy to make fun of Magic Lizard, but why? This is packed with bizarre entertainment! Not one boring second! But my thought goes to the poor sucker inside the lizard-suit, who obviously had problem walking around in this monster of a dress! I could see at least two places were he probably just fell because he couldn’t stop it and they used in the movie because it looked fun! In one of those he’s actually riding on a galloping bull! The same bull that a moment later takes a graphic dump into the lizard’s mouth!

Magic Lizard (aka King-Ka Kayasit aka กิ้งก่า กายสิทธิ์) is out on VCD in Thailand and it’s a very good release, widescreen with a sharp and nice-looking print. Recommended for you who might have something extra to show your children or poor partner who can’t defend themselves!

Bloody Krasue (1994)

In Thai the title reads กระสือ กระหายเลือด which literary means “Bloody Filth-Eating Spirit”, but a Thai friend suggested that Bloody Krause would be a more fitting title so I’ll trust him and hereby baptizes this movie to it’s first (?) English title ever. The Krause has been the subject of many many many movies from Thailand and Indonesia, and it’s a female ghost, consisting of a flying head with the guts hanging underneath it. Cool, eh? First time I heard of this movie was when I saw the original poster on eBay and bought it (it’s the poster used in this review) and finally I also found it on VCD and it just took me a year or so to finally watch it. And you know, this was actually not bad at all!

Thida Teerarat plays a woman being chased by a gang of bandits. What they want with her I have no idea, but she escapes them and finds shelter at an old woman, a good-hearted witch! In the night the old woman, who is a Krasue, flies away in the night scaring away the bandits. Next morning Thida finds the old woman dead in her bed. Thida decide to stay in the house, because no one else claims it, but what she don’t know is that she’s possessed by the Krasue now and every night she have to fly out and eat the animals belonging to the neighbours! They are aware that she’s a Krasue but she causes no danger for them and protects them. But soon the bandits is getting closer and Thida starts to get a thirst for human blood instead of chicken!

Not that Bloody Krause is any original, but it’s a surprisingly well-made little horror movie. Thida Teerarat was hot at this time, and both in 1992 and 1993 she won the best actress award at the “Thai Oscars”, the Tuk-ka-Ta Thong award. She’s also a very good actress and gives us a sensitive performance in-between the horror scenes, were she looks completely out of her mind as the flying head! Overall the acting is very good, and Ekapan Banleurit playing her love-interest especially. The style of the movie is classy and looks extremely good even on the cheap VCD I have. The direction by Sang-Tawan is intelligent and so is the script, with really no boring parts, by Wasuthep O-Siri.

Compared to the last Krasue film I saw, Ghost of Guts Eaters, the effects works better here, mostly because of the lack of primitive video effects. This is mostly a fake head flying with the help of wires and cool close-ups of the actresses faces drenched in massive green light. It’s not overly gory, except a few shots of the ghost eating meat and drooling blood, but it has enough attacks on humans the last half hour to make up for that.

As a bonus there’s one very nice and violent fight scene, similar of what Panna Rittikrai and friends did in their movies in the eighties. The fun thing with that scene is that it was obviously shot in chronological order and probably quite late in the day, so it gets darker in every shot and in the end its night! Sure, it could have been on purpose, but as an ex-filmmaker I know the problem and have experienced it myself several times!

Bloody Krause is a very good movie in the Krause genre. Not original, but never boring and filled with nice shots and some excellent use of stolen music!

Here’s the other actors names, to make it easier for others who’s researching this movie:

ศิโรจน์ โอศิริ (Sirojn O-Siri)
กุสุมา หทัยทิพย์ (Kusuma Hataitip)
นันทิดา ระหงษ์ (Nanthida Rahong)
ชุมพร อุดมศักดิ์ (Chumporn Udomsak)
เป้า ปรปักษ์ (Pao Porapak)
เผ่าไท พรพิสิจ (Paothai Pornpisit)
สุชาดา อีเอม (Suchada E-aim)

It’s produced by Pakinee Sunthornchart.

Garuda (2004)

When Garuda came people said it was the first big monster movie to come from Thailand, which is of course wrong. Sompote Sands did the same thing in the seventies with some of the most insane movies ever made. Garuda is more inspired by American modern monster films, and even send a few hints towards the awful US Godzilla by Roland Emmerich. But Garuda is way better than that movie, and even if the story is very generic it’s still a very nice addition to the world of monster films.

Sara Legge is Leena, a half-Thai, half- French scientist and her best friend and assistant, Tim (Daniel Fraser) is called to Bangkok when the drillers building the new subway system finds a weird cranium, something that could be proof that the legendary creature Garuda actually existed for real. They’re met by a cocky team of special soldiers, who is very nationalistic and hates that fact that Leena is half-Thai and Tim is a foreigner! Soon they discover a petrified forest and of course a real live Garuda who starts to kill them one by one, and finally manages to get up to the surface to create havoc in Bangkok!

The first big Thai movie shot with HD cameras, and it looks excellent. It probably helped a small movie to look bigger and even if some of the effects work less good it’s still a fun monster film with a lot of action and little story. The story is very straightforward and never really stops to do something unnecessary. There’s at least two love stories hinted, but they never take that final boring step to waste time on something like that when we just want to see action.

Monthon Arayangkoon is a creative director and gets a lot out of the small sets. The petrified forest is of course bigger, but much seem to be generated with CGI. The highlight is a cool showdown between the Garuda and one of the soldiers in a corridor, with some shameless nods towards The Matrix. When the monster finally roams the streets of Bangkok they even copies a shot from Emmerich’s Godzilla, when the monster is lifting a car up in the air and we see the driver from the inside falling to his death.

Much of the story around the action is focused on the nationalistic feelings that must have been a big issue at this time. In this movie it’s important for Thai’s and non-Thai’s to work together, when in later movies it’s became more common with evil foreigners who wants to hurt the Thai beliefs and traditions. A big deal is about Leena being a half-breed for example. I also have a feeling that the idea was to create a franchise from this movie, because the team has since earlier also fought against a Naga (which is seen in a flashback) and who knows what other creatures they could have been set against?

Garuda is a good movie, a lot better than some of the better SyFy channel productions out there and is worth a purchase on DVD.

James Band 007 (1980)

I knew instantly needed to own James Band 007 when I saw the awesome poster somewhere on the internet. Luckily for me, Ethaicd had a couple of copies left on VCD and I ordered it directly. And after I saw it I found an original poster for it on eBay, but that’s a whole other story. First of all, I love Bond parodies, rip-offs and homages from all over the world. Thailand had a couple of films similar to Bond since earlier, and even Jao Insee, on of Chaibancha’s Red Eagle films feels a lot like a Bond film. But James Band was obviously not just a rip-off, but a pure parody with everything a “real” Bond movie should have.

Thai comedian Thep Thienchai, famous for his less than beautiful face an toothless grin, plays a lazy tourist chauffeur, driving one of those rickshaw-style bicycle vehicles in Pattaya. One day the Thai James Bond hires him to take him somewhere nearby, but it’s upwards all the way and Thep just can’t drive fast enough – which the bad guys use and kills Bond! Well, before he dies he gives Thep his briefcase with gadgets and whispers to him to continue the mission and save the world. He quickly takes over the role of super-agent and somehow fools everyone that he’s the real Bond! One girl is convinced he has a rubbermask on, but fails to rip of his face! On an island sits this movie’s Dr Evil, played by veteran comedian Lor Tok, with his two stupid robots – R2D2 and C3PO! Yes, the Star Wars characters! He also has a lot of henchmen, one of them the legendary Pipop Pupinyo (which is famous for his bald head and big moustache). Will Thep succeed, or will Dr Evil use his death ray against more airplanes in the sky?

James Band 007 is a cheap and crude parody, but is surprisingly funny – even without subtitles! Shot in a Pattaya not destroyed by tourists, it has plenty of beautiful locations, fancy hotel rooms and chases and fights all over the place. With a budget being quite low the movie relies a lot on the presence of Thep Thienchai, whose rubber face was a popular sight in Thailand for many years. He died in 1994. With the comedy much being physical there’s also a lot of funny situations. My favourite is the lizard-head Thep wears on top of his head when he’s swimming ashore on the island. Clearly a nod to Goldfinger were Bond has a bird on his head, but this time the animal won’t stay quiet and Thep is finally forced to bury it under sand and rocks to stop it from revealing his presence!

The robots are another very odd detail with the film. Build with more primitive materials than the original, and also very stupid and the R2D2 also seem a bit to horny! They also have a tendency to get into fights with each other, or just behaving very badly – much to the annoyance of Lor Tok! James Band 007 also takes a nasty turn when he’s so warm in the 007 clothes that he starts to kill the bad guys, with knife and gun and once – poor Pipop – with crushing a head! It’s not really bloody, but way more violent than other comedies I’ve seen that spoofs James Bond.

The soundtrack is filled with stolen tracks from a lot of Bond films and also has a more pop-ish, disco-esque version of the Star Wars theme! I don’t think there’s any original music in the whole movie, which only makes it even more entertaining.

James Band 007 is a colourful, funny and totally mad comedy which still works great! I would love to see a DVD release someday, not that the VCD is bad – it’s very good – but I would like to see it in even better quality!





(Thanks Chanchana for the screenshots!)

Black Killer (1990)

How do you review a movie were you have no idea what the story is about? Trying to avoid the story and focus on everything else I guess. Black Killer is one of those Panna Rittikrai movies I have on VCD and I finally took time to watch it. Released in 1990, this is when Rittikrai kinda slowed down his own fighting and released his students more and more. He focuses more on less stunt-oriented fighting and even some more acting. In Black Killer he runs around in his classic outfit, stone washed jeans jacket, a mullet and with a gang of kids around him – on of them Tony Jaa, as you can see down below.

But like in all of these movies some sinister types are sneaking around, that includes three ninjas! They seem to been sent out by another main baddie (with a beard, as usual) who’s looking for a woman who might have some important documents with her – or maybe that’s two different storylines, can’t tell. Sorry. What Panna and his kids do I have no idea, but they visit a blues rock concert (probably guest starring some famous singer) and slowly gets involved in the story. Everything leads up to the typical big fight with blood and stunts.

Black Killer must have been a small hit at the time. Not that it’s especially original, but it has a great pace and goes from action to action, some comedy in-between and then some more action. The story is all over the place, but it’s clearly that the filmmakers aim for a wide audience and tries to include everything that can lure people to the outdoor cinema. The only thing missing is something supernatural, or? Well, there’s a scene were two older men either uses magic on each other or imagining that they’re killing each other, because knifes appears in hands and blood spurts all over the place. And then they are alive again!

The action? It’s not bad, but it’s quite ordinary and even if it’s not in the jungle (were everything is free and they don’t have to break something) they clearly stays away from more dangerous and painful stunts. The full contact-hits is lesser also, but the fights has energy and always tends to be quite bloody! I mean, we have ninjas with swords here! One poor sucker gets both his arms and his head chopped off! The final fight is more violent and has more advanced stunts then the rest of the movie, which is a common thing. Always save the best for last.

The VCD from Lepso Studio is in quite good shape and is recommended for collectors of obscure Thai cinema.

Lumpoon Daeng (1988)

The original title is ลำพูนแดง, which means Red Country. I have no idea what this refers to, if it’s just a poetic form of blood or if it has something to do with the evil communists that always was the baddies in these movies. I doubt it’s the last, because here we have something that looks like a very typical countryside action story with legend Sorapong Chatree as the good guy and (I think) Rith Luecha as the bad guy.

I’m not totally sure about the story, but think it’s like this: Sorapong gets his hands on a Buddhist amulet, obviously a very sacred one. Suddenly he can’t be hurt buy guns and becomes a helluva fighter. He’s shot and shot, but no scratch on his body! This is of course fine until the day he tries to save a girl (Duangduen Jithaisong) from get kidnapped. He and the girl’s sister (or friend) chases them but it ends with her getting fatally injured and the baddies gets away! She dies and the police of course think he’s guilty to the kidnapping! So he’ll have to prove that he’s innocent by saving the other girl and killing all the bad guys!

Something like that, sorry if it’s not correct, but I can seriously not find any other storyline to fit in to the movie! At first the VCD looked like shit, but after a couple of minutes it became quite good, which helps a lot when you watches a film without subtitles. As usual this is Sorapong Chatree’s show and he’s just fabulous. He has a strong screen presence and handles all kinds of action very well. Here he has to fight and shoot his way through a lot of baddies, with a lot of chases and explosions around him. The action is good, not bad at all. Squibs are plenty and the stunts are quite good to.

This is also a good example of how local traditions and folklore is weaved into the story without much hoopla. Sorapong just have this power because of this amulet, and in the end he takes it off to be able to fight the bad guy without cheating. That’s it, nothing more is analyzed around this. I remember myself being in Thailand wearing an amulet which caused a lot of interest at some old men. “Can we buy it?” they asked and then told me how someone experimented with hanging these on people and then practiced shooting on them! If they survived I have no idea, but this amulet was obviously good to protect against bullets and knifes! Sorry for the sidetrack, but I love it when the filmmakers don’t makes such a fuzz about small details like that.

Lumpoon Daeng, in the end, is a good action movie with lots of stuff for us fans of older Thai action.

Crocodile (1981)

If you wanna gaze into the face of insanity, Sompote Sands has the eyes to look into. Mr Sands had a dream, a dream to introduce Tokatsu and Kaiju to Thailand. He started of with a couple of crazy-ass monster movies, some of them with “stolen” footage from Kamen Rider and other Japanese TV-shows. These movies are a chaos of wild action, strange comedy, blood and rubbermonsters. The complete lack of storyline is actually relaxing and you don’t even need subtitles to be entertained. Somehow, in the end of the seventies, he decided to shoot a more serious monster film, Chorake (IMDB states that this was a south Korean monster movie, Agowa gongpo, directed by Won-se Lee – but I doubt that, but who knows?). This was later bought by the infamous Dick Randall who did a re-edit, dubbed it to English and slapped some generic western names on the poor Thai actors. The result became… Crocodile!

Nat Puvanai is hunky Dr Akom, who loses his whole family in a brutal crocodile-attack. He soon focuses his entire existence on finding the crocodile, finding a friend in Tanaka – a rough fisherman and hunter. At the meantime the crocodile grows larger and Larger and LARGER and soon he’s almost some damn Godzilla-version of a croc, literary crushing a couple of tourist-infested villages! Akom, Tanaka and a irritating journalist goes out at sea for a final showdown…

The story is very thin and it’s hard to understand what the fuck is going on. From the beginning it feels like a typical giant monster movie with a high body count and lots of action. The last half is almost identical to Jaws, with the three men against the shark… eh, crocodile. It took me a while – around seven to eight years – to actually watch the DVD, mostly because the quality was less than stellar. During these years I’ve seen movies in almost unwatchable quality, so this time it felt like Avatar in comparison! I haven’t seen Sands original cut, but I think this could be the better version, because I have a feeling the original movie probably was a bit longer (and believe me, this movie does not have to be longer) and with more focus on melodrama, and it already have enough of that.

The highlight is of course the monster action, and the two big set-pieces (probably shot at the same time, because the same people are showing up as victims) are two villages getting torn apart by the huge croc. This is entertaining as hell, with nice and primitive miniatures getting crushed and blown to pieces, lots of extras trying to escape collapsing buildings and more than a few western tourists spitting blood while trying to get out of the water. The effects might not be of the highest quality, but the energy is there and those scenes are filled with action and stunts!

One fun detail is that legendary ADR editor and voice actor Nick Alexander can be heard as one of the characters. I think this is the first time I've heard him in a movie outside Europe.

Crocodile was a lot more fun than I thought all those years ago when I began to watch it and I’m happy that I finally got the idea to give it a new try. Fun creature feature for us fans of Thai trash!

Aussawin Darb Gaiyasid (1970)

From the first of October 1970 to the fifth, the same year, just under a week, Mitr Chaibancha was in Hong Kong and Taiwan and shot one of the few foreign (or co-productions) movies in his career. A couple of days later he was back in Pattaya and did the final scenes in Golden Eagle, the first movie he produced and starred in at the same time. As we all know, that final take was the take that led to his death and he left behind 266 feature length movies in fourteen years and 18 (!!!) unfinished productions that had to be shut down or re-shot because of his death!

I don’t know the original title of Aussawin Darb Gaiyasid, but most of the cast seem to be Chinese – and the only actor I can identify is the great and awesome Kien Shih. The female lead is played be a Thai actress in this version, but I heard that it was a Chinese actress doing the part in the Hong Kong version. Anyway, because I watched it without subtitles and it has a lot of story and characters it was kinda hard to follow. But what we have is the traditional love story, two enemy families and one of them owns a salt mine. Chaibancha plays the son in one of the families and seem to be fighting a lot with another dude, maybe someone from the other family. In one sequence I get the idea that one of them has some kind of psychic powers, because he can move heavy objects. Maybe making them magnetic. Yeah, that’s about it.

I’ve been trying to decipher the Thai Wikipedia about this movie with the help of Google Translate, and after Chaibancha died the director also brought in another actor with a similar face and body to shoot rest of Chaibancha’s scenes. I didn’t notice this when I watched it, so either it was very little or the other actor had very similar look.

Even if I didn’t understand a friggin’ word of the movie I enjoyed it immensely. The action was more or less non-stop with a lot of fun and bloody sword-fighting. Maybe because of the print quality, it had a very nice gritty feeling. Especially those scenes shot outside of the studio, around beautiful Taiwan. Cool angles, some smart use of handheld camera and lots of energy. Sure, it might just be the result of the low budget and fast shooting schedule, but it still looks and feels very impressive.

Mitr Chaibancha impresses in the only serious role I’ve seen him in so far. After all the tongue-in-cheek action flicks from Thailand it was cool to see him in such a meaty, blood-soaked, part.

The Thai DVD from Triple X is not bad at all. Anamorphic widescreen and, I think, uncut. The print is quite rough, but for us that appreciate these kind of movies it just makes it even better.

Hotel Angel (1974)

Long before Chatrichalerm Yukol directed overblown historical epics was one of the best and most interesting directors from Thailand. He specialised early in realistic gritty dramas about everything taboo in Thailand: drugs, prostitution and growing up in a harder and cynic world than before. Gunman (read my review here, the 1983 crime-drama is one of the best Thai movies I’ve seen and also has Sorapong Chatree in one of his finest roles. But Sorapong did also star in a supporting part in this interesting drama, Hotel Angel. It’s really about Malee (Viyada Umari) a country girl that follows her boyfriend to Bangkok – but get dumped instantly by him with out money and are forced to work herself out of debt. Sooner or later she finds a place at Hotel Angel, a bordello where the emotionally very unstable pimp Thone (Sorapong Chatree) calls the shots.

Malee starts writing letters home to her father, with money, pretending to have succeeded as a dressmaker. For ever bath she earns, her father builds a house luckily unaware about his daughter’s new job. But Malee wants out of her profession and become a real dressmaker…

Hotel Angel is a very well-made little movie which becomes even better with the amount of real locations and sleazy adventures in the bordello. It’s a Thai movie, so it does not show much of course, but you can feel the dread. Like a fuck-factory, young and old, good and bad. Sorapong Chatree is phenomenal here, and is totally crazy – and incredibly good-looking at the same time. One second he bitchslaps his way through the room and seconds after he breaks down in panic disorder. He plays a very manipulative character, very nice and caring but still a raving psychopath.

But the finest performance is by Viyada Umari, who are in almost every from of the movie. Naïve in the beginning, but her character is growing by experience in every scene and for once she’s learning something. Her feminist stance is also very interesting, learning to be very independent and strong though she’s been fooled into something very stupid and dangerous. The first half of the movie is the most intensive: impressive action (fights mostly) and very colourful characters. After one characters death in the middle it kinda slows down and changes the focus on Malee’s determination to create a new life. This could be a disappointment for those expecting the whole movie to like the first half, but it’s still a great drama with some excellent acting.

I can’t even imagine how controversial this movie must have been when it came, because some subjects are even taboo today in Thai cinema! One scene, a brutal beating, is inter-cut with real demonstrations and burning cars (I don’t know from which incident), which reminded me of the works of Thunska Pansittivorakul, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Tiwa Moeithaisong.

Hotel Angel is out on a fine DVD in Thailand. Widescreen, non-anamorphic, and with burned-in English subtitles. A must have for collectors of older Thai movies, you who are fascinated by some extremely cool seventies fashion and those who just want a good different melodrama.

Bangkok Knockout (2010)

Do you remember kung fu-movies from the eighties? They always ended with a spectacular fight inside a warehouse or a factory. Panna Rittikrai’s latest movie is more or less that for ninety minutes. I’ve been a long time fan of Rittikrai, both his über-low budget VCD-masterpieces to his later work with the awesome Tony Jaa. During later years he’s always been in the background, doing the stunt- and fight choreography for tons of fun action movies from Thailand. With the exception of the absurdly violent Born to Fight (starring Dan Chupong) he’s stayed away from big mainstream directing. Until now. Bangkok Knockout is very similar to Born to Fight, but with lower budget and less blood – but don’t worry, it delivers!

A group of hopeful fighters, stuntmen and athletic actors gathers for an audition. It’s an American production and behind it all is a bearded, rude, cigar-smoking Farang. So all the good guys gets chosen, invited to a party… and next day they all wake up in a big industrial area (with never-finished houses, garages, warehouses etc) after been drugged! They never tried out for a movie, but for a deadly game where rich foreign fuckers bet money on their survival against a gang of ruthless killers! Let the action begin!

Like Born to Fight we first have to suffer thru around half an hour of pointless character development before the fun can begin. It’s actually quite similar to BTF, with a small gang of heroes forced to fight killers in a secluded area – but this time the movie ends with the fight on and around the truck. The cast is young and cute, but most of them seem to be skilled fighters and handles the action very well. The only stand-out performance is living legend Sorapong Chatree, who looks almost too fresh for being 60+ years old. He don’t have much to do, but is always a welcome guest in any Thai movie. Panna Rittikrai, who looks f**king brutal, acts as one of the bad guys and is fantastic. He even has a fight, even if he doesn’t move around much, mostly blocking hits and breaking one or two legs. The worst performance is from one of the western actors, he sounds Russian and he can’t act his way out of a wet paper bag.

But the action, you ask? First of all, it’s not as creative or innovative as in Chocolate or Raging Phoenix. This is more balls-to-the-walls brutal action, with quite straight-forward fights with a lot of neck-breaking stunts. It slowly gets more and more spectacular the further the movie goes and offers a lot of fights. It won’t change your world, but I guarantee you get entertained. My favourite scenes is has quite little fights. It’s with a mute, tall killer with an iron mask and a big axe, like a Jason Voorhees! He’s impossible to take down and even fights being totally on fire! Except this you’ll get action with motorcrosses, a truck, different fight-techniques, a car or two and in-between some stupid Thai comedy. The only really bad thing (and I don’t count a thin storyline bad, it’s just a frigging action movie man!) is the extremely homophobic depiction of one of the bad guys, who are so stereotypical that it leaves a damn bad taste afterwards. This is a common thing in Thai movies, but here it’s a bit too much even for me.

Bangkok Knockout (aka BKO) will turn some people away for being very thin, a bit cheap and very uneven as all of Rittikrai’s work as a director. Personally I was very entertained by it and just loved the fights and stunts. Because in the end, that’s the reason for the existence of BKO: kicking the ass of brave stuntmen, nothing else.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)

I have to admit, I’m an arthouse-junkie – if it goes outside the typical arthouses that shows french dramas about nothing. On Ninja Dixon I always write about negelected movies, exploitation, weird stuff from around the world, seventies cult and so on, but very few times about experimental movies. But with Apichatpong Weerasethakul it’s different. His Mysterious Object at Noon is one of my favorites, an experimental mix between documentary and improvised drama (with touches of sci-fi, but expect not special effects). Uncle Boonmee is on the same scale of oddness, but in a totally different visual style.

Uncle Boonmee is dying of kidney failure. He’s walking around on his farm talking with his sister-in-law and waiting for a young relative to help him with the illness in the evening. During dinner his dead wife appears and soon his long lost son finally comes back in the form of a ghost monkey, a nature spirit with red glowing eyes. This starts the process of Uncle Boonmee last trip to death as he remembers past lives as well as future ones…

This sounds straight and forward, but it’s not. Apichatpong has created one of the most hypnotic movies I’ve ever seen. The camera is in 99% of the takes completely static, focusing on sometimes irrelevant situations, which of course never is irrelevant. Everything has a meaning in Uncle Boonmee. It’s slow and builds its story on thick atmosphere and low-key acting. Apichatpong said that one of the inspirations he had for the visual style of the movie was the old Thai TV-soaps that was shot on film. Static cameras, slow acting (because the actors didn’t have time to learn the lines and had people behind the camera whispering to them what to say) and monster/demons with red lamp-eyes trying to scare the audience. Everything is here, but it looks and sounds gorgeous, with a fantastic wall of jungle sounds over the pictures. The monkey spirit looks great to by the way, like a kind Naschy-werewolf.

I won’t even try to decode the movie, even if I have my ideas and theories. But it’s something that you, me, have to see again and again to fully understand. The static camera forces us to listen, to look and to concentrate on every detail in the scene. No movements to distract us from the hypnosis. Even really weird moments, like the ghost monkey entering the house or the catfish having sex with an ancient princess seem completely natural, something we accept to the fullest without even analyzing it.

It just feels stupid to really try to explain Uncle Boonmee, its one of those movies you should experience under total concentration, either alone in the darkness or together with someone who can appreciate this kind of movie. Let yourself be hypnotized by Uncle Boonmee, let yourself be drawn into his last days of living.

The Lost Idol (1988)

IMDB claims The Lost Idol is from 1990, but according to one of the actors it’s made earlier – so that’s why I choose something that differs from what the mighty database says. But anyway, The Lost Idol is a quite well-budgeted Thai action-adventure movie with a fun cast consisting of Erik Estrada, Sorapong Chatree, Krung Srivilai and German big guy Christoph Klüppel. Estrada was forced to take this job when he needed money, and found out he could go around the Screen Actors Guild with taking a job in Thailand. He’s not in top-form here, but still manages to be a capable hero.

The year is 1975, Erik Estrada leads a stranded group of US soldiers to safety in Thailand. On the way they take shelter in an old temple and find a golden statue. They bring it with them, but hide it in a cave to go back later to get it. But one of them, a greedy Lieutenant (James Phillips) kills them all, but Estrada gets away. Estrada finds his way to Thailand, hooks up with a female farmer and falls in love. Many years later Phillips is back in Thailand to try to get back into Cambodia to get his golden statue. He gathers a group of mercenaries, forces Estrada to join them, and goes back into the war zone…

The Lost Idol is an ambitious action movie with, it seem, a bigger budget than usual. The attractive cast of both Thai superstars and good westerners adds to the international feeling. But in the end it’s a typical jungle-action movie with a lot of explosions and a high body count. Philip Chalong tries to make it as a big and Hollywood as possible, with large scenes of carnage, beautiful jungle scenery and even some shots I think is in Bangkok. I also appreciated the use of minatures (and in both those scenes they fall apart in a nice spectacular way). The stunts are wild and as usual they save the best for last, when Sorapong and his Cambodian rebels attack the Cambodian military camp. It’s a scene which goes on forever, and I’m grateful for that.

It’s not without plasma either, with the camera-lens getting stained by blood several times during the action scenes. I also love how they include a nice, old-fashioned, fist-fight aboard a helicopter in the end. Feels like one of those old spy movies from the sixties!

Erik Estrada, a guy I like a lot, is not always with us here. In some scenes he’s visibly not that interested and just don’t give it all. It borders to just amateur action, but here and there he shines – especially in the action scenes. Sorapong is good as usual, but Krung Srivilai is a bit wasted in his part as one of the mercenaries. But at least he shoots down a helicopter before he dies. This was also Christoph Klüppel’s first movie. Later he did more or less the same thing in Mission Hunter 1 and 2, but in a bigger part. More about him later here on Ninja Dixon.

The Lost Idol is not a serious movie, it even has some comedy (in one scenes they shoot a hole in a door, in the shape of a man), but its worth seeking up for all of you that appreciates Asian jungle-action and lots of exploding guard towers!

Soo Lui Laek (1989)

I’ve picked one movie from my VCD-collection, something according to ethaicd is titled Soo Lui Laek. If this is correct, or even the year, I have no idea. But it’s another of Panna Rittikrai’s early movies, produces in the backwaters of Thailand with a cast of his typical stuntmen and some other guys I haven’t seen before.

For once the story was extra hard to understand, but I what I could understand it’s a about a failed robbery where Panna Rittikrai, maybe, gets his hand – without knowing it – on the jewellery and then at least two gangs of criminals tries to find out what happen. But really, I have no idea. That just what it seems to me when watching the film.

These movies can be a bit of a Russian roulette when it comes to entertainment. This falls perfectly in-between being just boring and having some decent action. There’s a lot of fights and most of them is pretty good, but lacks the imagination of some of other movies also starring Rittikrai. People fly thru the air, lots of direct contact, but never becomes special enough to remember. The body count is high after all, but that’s about it.

If you want to see a pedestrian story with average fights, see this one. Just don’t except a new Gerd Ma Lui or 2 Nuk Soo Poo Ying Yai (aka Thai Police Story), or even an explosive action-fest like Mission Hunter 1 and 2.

Red Eagle (2010)

Last year it was forty years since Mitr Chaibancha fell to his death from a helicopter during the production of Golden Eagle, the movie that became the last sequel in his franchise about Thailands most popular crime fighting drunk. What more fitting is to unleash a new Red Eagle-movie to the unprotected audience of Thailand and the rest of the world? An audience with little or none relationship to either Chaibancha or Red Eagle, which is of course the best way to do it. Because Wisit Sasanatieng’s Red Eagle is one insane, crazy, wacky rollercoaster (I once promised to never use that word in a review) of a movie, and I loved every friggin’ minute of it, even if it was far from perfect.

The year is 2013. Liberal party leader Direk Damrongprapa (Pornwut Sarasin) and fiancée Vasana Tienpradap (Yarinda Bunnag) is protesting and leading a demonstration and campaign against corruption among politicians and other leaders. They’re fighting against a nuclear reactor that’s gonna be built in Bangkok, but three years later and Direk has himself become a corrupt prime minister and an enemy of his former fiancée. During these years the corruption has gotten worse and the crime rate is thru the roof – then suddenly Red Eagle arrives, a masked crime fight that kills, Kills and KILLS! He’s a former task-force member, hurt both inside and outside during a jungle mission and is now addicted to morphine and revenge. A secret organisation, Matulee – maybe connected to some certain corrupt politicians – is sending out their best killer, Black Devil, to kill Red Eagle and take control over the city… but he’s not that easy to kill, that old eagle…


Red Eagle is not even close to being anything connected to the word “realistic”. This is very over-the-top, almost science fiction when it comes to absurdities. The director, Wisit Sasanatieng, is no stranger to this. If you’ve seen Tears of the Black Tiger you know what to expect and that he just does not care about logic or some kind of sense in what’s happening. In one scene a character defends himself against five bad guys with automatic guns, only protecting himself with a frying pan! He also takes out one character with throwing fried food on him from ten meters away! And this isn’t even Red Eagle himself, but one of the cops chasing him! Red Eagle prefers cutting people to pieces with his über-advanced sword, shooting a lot of people in the face and fight on the top of falling elevators!

The action is more or less non-stop. But make no mistake, this is not even close to the style that Panna Rittikrai, Prachya Pinkaew and Tony Jaa created. Red Eagle is normal Hollywood-style fighting and editing, lots of wires and digital effects. The whole movie resembles a comic book, with strong colours (not even close to Wisit’s earlier movies though), weird angles, crazy action set-pieces and personalities that’s bigger than life.



It’s a unique movie, even if we make the Hollywood-comparison, and it’s a lot more gorier, bloodier and violent than the normal superhero-movie from Hollywoodland. Heads and arms fly, blood spurts from every part of the body, a face is flattened by a frying pan, squibs (both real and CG), cuts and bruises. Not for children, which I’m sure we all are grateful for. Wisit Sasanatieng knows that Red Eagles is over-the-top, and he knows that it’s an absurdly commercial movie for the biggest audience possible. That’s why he takes the time to poke some fun at product placements (he really takes a lot of time to show Red Eagle buy and drink some kinda energy drink), the Thai censorship (for example, sometimes texts can show up on the screen with warnings – for real, and during a violent scene involving a smoking man the text claims that smoking can cause death…) etc.


Red Eagle is an intelligent, extremely violent and very silly action movie. Ananda Everingham is excellent in the lead, and has a lot of interesting characters around him. He clearly fills Mitr Chaibancha’s shoes without a problem. I’ve heard it became a flop in its homeland, and it’s a pity because the ending is a real cliffhanger and I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to see a sequel to it.

Mission Hunter (1989)

The sequel to Mission Hunter was released on a nice looking DVD in the US as Battle Warrior, with Tony Jaa’s face all over the cover. That’s not a bad b-movie, Jaa has a small part and it has some excellent jungle-action. At first I was suspicious about the first movie. No one seemed to have seen it and I had that strange feeling that it would be a much weaker movie – and the second part is quite weak to be honest…

After forty minutes I almost gave up. A lot of people talking, joking (in Thai, with no subtitles of course), some very minor action-related scenes, all in the city. Gathering a team of experts or something, including this huge German guy with an impressive moustache and Panna Rittikrai with a mullet from hell. Then they go in the jungle and the German guy show his dick to one of the Thai guys, one of the female members seem to take a shit in front of her team mates and similar high standard comedy.

So… what was there to expect? Well, 45 minutes of mega-action!!! Yes, it’s true. After meeting some terrorists or something in the jungle, our heroes gets involved in a fuckload of action. Shootings, explosions, fighting… and then they arrive to the jungle camp, and it goes totally over-the-top. I’d never seen so many huts being blown to pieces, lots of stunts, gory and bloody squibs, some crazy fighting and much more. This is low budget, but it’s so damn spectacular in that low budget way that only Asians can do it.

It’s always fun to see older movie with Rittikrai because he and his team always tries out a lot of stunts and gags that later is made with perfection in the new movies. The truck-gag in the beginning of Born to Fight is in one of the earlier movies, so the chase-scene that Tony Jaa did in Ong Bak (in the streets, jumping over and under dangerous objects) You will recognize a lot of stuff here, but a bit rougher – and sometimes crazier.

I have no idea what the story really was in this movie, but I know that the last half was brilliant! Something for everyone that enjoys Backyard Asia-style movies!