Ong Bak is a very basic storyline pieced together to be able to showcase the amazing talents of Tony Jaa, and talents he has in vast quantities. Jaa is a stunning martial artist, he seems to be able to control every muscle of his body and perform some amazing stunts, as well as some of the most thrilling fight scenes I've witnessed in a very long time.
The stunts and choreography are what makes the movie, and the rest is a fair attempt at a story around it, and to be fair it's not bad it's just that the stunts and fight scenes are so good to watch that you are absorbed in waiting for the next choreographed sequence rather than the next moment of the plot.
From the amazing tree sequence at the opening you're hooked, and you can hardly fathom the work involved in choreographing the entire sequence, much less how these stuntmen (you have to presume they are stuntmen) survive the flips and falls. This carries through the brutally realistic fighting scenes in the underground fighting den, to the final buddha battle which brings together all the elements of the fighting you've seen previously and adds them into one big sequence between characters of equal skills.
The sequences, and Jaa, are superb, and the rest of the story is by the wayside.
The stunts and choreography are what makes the movie, and the rest is a fair attempt at a story around it, and to be fair it's not bad it's just that the stunts and fight scenes are so good to watch that you are absorbed in waiting for the next choreographed sequence rather than the next moment of the plot.
From the amazing tree sequence at the opening you're hooked, and you can hardly fathom the work involved in choreographing the entire sequence, much less how these stuntmen (you have to presume they are stuntmen) survive the flips and falls. This carries through the brutally realistic fighting scenes in the underground fighting den, to the final buddha battle which brings together all the elements of the fighting you've seen previously and adds them into one big sequence between characters of equal skills.
The sequences, and Jaa, are superb, and the rest of the story is by the wayside.