Tuesday, August 22, 2006

If you like Martial Arts movies, read on...

So a few posts ago I wrote about Mr Bruce Lee. He's still bad ass, but get ready for the next generation.

So Jackie Chan is getting old and has broken every bone in his body multiple times. Jet Li is about to stop doing martial arts films. Reportedly, "Fearless" is his last movie of that genre.

The other night I watched a movie I'd been wanting to for a while, "Ong Bak: Thai Warrior." This movie had a gentlemen in it who is the future of Martial Arts Films: Tony Jaa.

This dude is amazing. He has a good onscreen intensity and some hardcore moves. Hardcore I say! "Thai Warrior" has some footwork in it this is just astounding. It's the kind of foot work that would make Capoeira fanatics drop their jaws. Here's the kicker. No wires. This movie is very bare bones grass roots Martial Arts. Its not the elegant ballet that a Yuen Wo Ping would create made famous by the Matrix, Kill Bill and Crouching Tiger. Its more like a club with some real Poppers and Lockers on the floor. Its still beautiful and takes skill, but its more immediate and on the same level with every one.

So Tony was the stunt double in the Mortal Kombat movie for Robin Shou (Liu Kang). I saw a piece of a documentary the other day that Shou directed. I need to see again. Its about a school in China that you enter when you're 14/15/16 to become the elitist stunt martial artists in the world: The Red Tousers.

Again, no wires. Check out this clip. The man is simply jumping. This is all his own athleticism. I really got to get in shape. Any shape. I don't even have a shape. I'm just a skinny amoeba. I don't even know how I'm typing.


7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Saw you at Stand Up tonight - 2nd time I've seen you and you killed again. MEMORABLE shee-it, you dig? (Can white people say that?) Well, I didn't - just wrote it is all.

SO, seeing that martial arts clip jazzed me. Things I thought about whilst watching.
1.) This guy is hot
2.) Too bad he's not American or he could have been on "America's Got Talent".
3.) He's probably a hot dancer who can do freakish things with his body; yeah, that's it. He's a dancer who can leap and bend and split and freaking jump like a cat and he thought, "How can I showcase myself? I can jump through hoops. I KNOW! I'll do a martial arts flick and flip my way through it. They'll love me in America. I can move there and become an honorary citizen and audition for "America's Got Talent"! I've always wanted to meet David Hasselhoff.
4.) Baron Vaughn is funny. Man, he's talented.
5.) I just started a blog on blogspot - maybe I'm as talented as Baron Vaughn.
6.) Impossible
7.) I've actually forgotten my password to Blogger and feel ashamed so I'll write lengthy, perhaps slightly banal comments on Baron's blog.
8.) I'm a new Baron fan.

Anonymous said...

I just saw Tony Jaa's newest film, THE PROTECTOR, and it's nutzoid. I think they're translating it for the States this fall or winter. The movie is about him trying to recover his kidnapped best friend. And that best friend just happens to be a baby elephant. I love this man.

The thing I really like about him is how he does all that Jackie Chan stuntwork but he has Bruce Lee's scary intensity. When he's actually fighting people onscreen he makes me nervous. Elbows and knees.

Anonymous said...

Yowza. This cat is amazing. What a break dancer he would be.

Abbi Crutchfield said...

Tony Jaa just gave me a new way out of getting attacked in an alley. I just hope the rapists listen when I say, "Cut!" Oh, and let's give the hilarious sidekick his dues for attempting every stunt and then failing with Stooge-quality.

Frank Bell said...

yeah man... dude is fekin' insane! and this "new" movie thats out with him in the states, "the protector" is actually a year old. i've got it on dvd under the original title 'tom yum goong' sooo good. you can borrow it if ya like. kick ass.

JakeGould said...

The only thing that could have made that cooler would hvae been him doing all of that but with a Faberge Egg in his hand.

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