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I don’t think Ong Bak 3 is going to find an audience that receives it well, no matter how much I want it to. This film is the third instalment of a trilogy that made Thai martial artist Tony Jaa popular and eventually led him to quit filmmaking only to retreat to a monastery. It’s a very shaggy dog. It’s drenched in sweat, lacks clarity, is full of flashbacks, and is arguably the most violent of the Thai contemporary martial arts movies that the United States has received so far. But that’s what marks the Thai approach to fighting films: wild and decadent in their inspiration.
Most of Ong Bak 3’s breathtaking disappointments are excusable because the film, for the most part, exceeds expectations. The movie’s outlandish delights are incremental the experience is a headache-inducing, to say the least and the more you watch, the more you graduate to a different headspace where the melting deaths, black pumice stone caverns, the film’s violent idea of medicine as the culmination of violence, the ever-present mini temples overflowing with gnarled tree roots and skulls, and the tranquil Buddha statues shambling all over the place start to impress you as they horrifically stun you. Let it not be said, that Jaa, who had to co-write and co-direct Ong Bak 3 with Panna Rittikrai (known for Born to Fight and The Bodyguard) because he had an emotional breakdown and squandered every penny he had trying to make Ong Bak 2, is not in total control to be remarkable.
Ong Bak 3 picks up at the end of Ong Bak 2 and at first appears to be a mix between The Passion and Tony Jaa: Tien (Jaa) is mercilessly being beaten by the local evil tyrant Chernang (Sorapong Chatree), the king who, in the earlier film, killed Tien’s family right in front of him. In this installment, Chernang has managed to capture Tien whose head he fed into a wall and has beaten him to the point where both his hair and face are doused in blood. Still, Chernang does not feel especially at ease. He is ever so fearful of the curse that has haunted his head ever since he poisoned the king before him. An evil that has been lurking ever since the last film in the form of the Tony Jaa evil clone, or more accurately, the ‘evil’ Tony Jaa. That’s right, there are two Tony Jaas in the film: Tien and this black-toothed demon who is Tien’s doppelganger and is the living embodiment of his darkest past.
Helped by healer monk Master Bua, and her family friend Tien, Primorata helps Tien break away from his past long enough to deal with his enemies.
Jaa’s presence on the stage, along with the absurdity of the scenario presented, is outrageous. When he depicts an elephant by keeping his arms straight and slamming them down powerfully to the floor as if he were twice his size, one would believe that the windpipe of a heavy was in the grasp of a beast, believing him to be a tiny Thai guy. He gives Ong Bak 3 the sort of conviction and severity it so desperately needs to keep it consistently fascinating, but in a way that is utterly bizarre and impossible to gauge. The fact that Tien fights now with the aid of a community certainly makes Ong Bak 3 much richer, thematically, than Ong Bak 2. Instead of That film’s breathtaking jaw-dropping solo dance scene, this one has a sweet duet that accentuates Jaa’s body instead of his dance partner’s, of course.
Petchtai Wongkamlao, widely known for his comedic persona, nearly manages to steal the spotlight from Jaa and his bone-crushing grace. However, Ong Bak 3 is still Jaa’s from start to finish, and it’s amazing witnessing the freedom he possesses in tramping everything in sight. Additionally, this film has some of the most confounding bone-crunching sequences I have ever laid eyes upon, and this mystifying third entry in the film series definitely earns the title for the most perplexing and action-filled movie I can anticipate this year.
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