Fans of Martial Arts Films, Lend Me Your Ears
I’ll get to the point later, but I’d first like to discuss four martial arts films I’ve watched in the past four weeks.
Ong Bak 2 / One Man Army: I was disappointed. Seriously disappointed. Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong have raised the bar for martial arts very high, and I’m sure there’s not a single young male on this planet who hasn’t seen Tony Jaa kicking ass. Tom Yum Goong tore to shreds something called believability in the fight where Tony Jaa breaks the bones of 48 knife-wielding suited thugs, but oh were they awesome fights! And the one-take fight as he goes several storeys up in the restaurant won’t be paralleled for years and years and years.
But One Man Army. Boo hoo hoo. What’s missing? One doesn’t watch a martial arts film for the story. One goes to watch some solid fights. If there’s a great story and great characters in it, that’s a fantastic bonus (Jet Li’s Fearless). Everything’s all right as long as the fights are spectacular, but the fights in One Man Army somehow failed to excite me. I’d be stupid to say there aren’t some fantastic moments – I liked a ground fighting bit and a fight on an elephant – but it felt like the fights were made to display Tony Jaa’s skills with one weapon after another. I’m not a big fan of swordfights anyway.
So what was wrong? That brings me back to the basics – characters that we care about. There weren’t ANY in One Man Army. Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong at least had Petchtai Wongkamlao to provide comic relief. There’s NO ONE to care about in One Man Army. Tony Jaa isn’t going to win an Oscar anyday soon, nor does he need to try, but he spoke only five times, I think, in the entire film. In a lot of action films, the villain is usually a more interesting character than the hero. Not so here. Even the villain just evokes a haan, theek-hai-bhai reaction. When we don’t want someone to live and someone else to get bashed up, that emotional connect is just not there.
The fault would lie with the writers and directors. The story is credited to Tony Jaa, and the direction to him and his action teacher Panna Rittikrai. Between them, they paid attention only to the fights and none to the characters. Prachya Pinkaew (director of Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong) can’t be accused of subtlety, but he knows how to make the audience love or hate someone. Which brings me to
Chocolate: This is directed by Prachya Pinkaew. The best way to describe JeeJa Yanin, the heroine of this film, is as a teenage female version of Tony Jaa. She’s a good actress, too. Chocolate works. The action scenes are totally kickass, as one has come to expect from Thai action films. One might think that a skinny teenage girl might not pack such a wallop, but as the behind-the-scenes footage shows, an accidental kick from her foot to the head is not a pleasant sensation. If you liked Tom Yum Goong, you’ll probably like this too.
The City of Violence: My first Korean action film. What an experience. For most of its running length, it feels like a B-grade revenge action flick, albeit with A-grade acting and production. (Are there ANY bad actors in Korea? Maybe they threaten to have the North Korean army shoot down the bad ones. Kaash Bollywood mein bhi aisa karte.) The final fight rounds off a satisfying experience.
Taekwondo is the martial art most suited to films, with its wide array of dazzling, eye-popping kicks. I used to be surprised that I hadn’t come across a great Taekwondo film from Korea, the place of its birth. The City of Violence isn’t a martial arts film, but has two fantastic fights. The great thing about the Taekwondo in it is that it’s realistic to quite an extent, with some of the roughness one would expect in a real fight, and not the clean-cut dance movements of older Kung Fu films. Believability is another matter. I seriously doubt any martial artist, no matter how good, can take on 50 goons armed with knives, cleavers and swords. But if one allows for this in the context of the film, the fights are satisfying.
Ip Man: Out of these four films, Ip Man, a Hong Kong production, is the one that works as a great film on its own, without one necessarily having to be a martial arts fan to enjoy it. It’s a great story, the fights aren’t so bloody that you can’t watch it with your family, it has great acting and good characters, and most importantly for me, it’s about the martial art I practise! In fact, now that I reflect on it again, it’s one of the best martial arts films ever!
Here’s a surprise – Wong Kar Wai wanted to make this film, and he actually shot for six months. The whole story is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ip_Man_(film)
Ip Man, played in the film by Donnie Yen, is famous as Bruce Lee’s teacher. In the martial arts, he’s known as the man who brought out Wing Chun Kung Fu to the world. The film plays fast and loose with his life, but if you don’t really care about historical accuracy, it’s a great story. I might watch only the fights of Chocolate and The City of Violence again, but Ip Man is worth repeated viewing as a whole. One good compliment for the film came from a friend who’s not too excited about martial arts. (He believes in picking up a stone and throwing it, which, incidentally is what Wing Chun teaches too – use a stone if it’s around, or a stick, or whatever.) He said that he found the fights more practical compared to other films.
When I analyse why Ip Man works so well as a whole movie, I think it’s because it gets the basics right – solid characters, great acting, a story worth telling, high stakes, emotional connection and very good individual scenes. Apart from Ip Man and his wife and kid, there are 7 other characters with well-defined motivations, and never does it seem crowded. ( I guess I’m mentioning this because my Kung Fu script has 10 characters who all have parts to play, and I’m wondering whether they’re too many.)
A sequel to Ip Man has been announced, the release date being February 2010. This time Bruce Lee’s character will be there.
How About an Indian Martial Arts Film?
Chandni Chowk to China is the first thing that’ll pop into everyone’s heads at this question. People born in the early 80s or before may also recall Jigar, which is definitely worth a watch for reasons other than one might think.
Lovers of martial art films, would you please comment and show your support if you would like to see a good desi martial arts film. ‘Cause that’s what we’re trying to get made. I can’t promise the death-defying stunts of Jackie Chan or the gymnastic flexibility of Tony Jaa, but I can say the fights will be realistic and entertaining. No flying around, no wire-fu, no gore. The film will be something you can take your girlfriend, your little brothers and sisters, your kids and your parents to. There will be a few songs, but no dancing, sorry. (That’s in another script 
)
I’m shamelessly trying to drum up support here because CC2C will have scared producers away from the martial arts genre, which is a great pity, because I think a very decent film can be made for as less as 2-3 crores. And shoot me if just about every young-at-heart male isn’t interested in martial arts. I can see them lining up at the box office…Oops, I need to wake up.
So folks, once again, if you would like to see a proper Indian martial arts film get made, please comment below (for the benefit of prospective producers) and mention if you wouldn’t mind spending 80-150 bucks on a ticket to check it out.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
other than jigar and cc2c there was another lesser known movie of akshay kumar called ‘jai-kishen’. as the title suggests, akshay has a double role, one of them being blind but excellent in martial arts. it also had the hit song ‘jhoole-jhoole laal dum mast kalandar’
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tat aside, among the current lot i dont see any1 else carrying off the action image except akshay kumar. in the last decade, no hero has made a good action-hero entry in movies. the last time such a thing happened was when akshay-ajay-sunil shetty entered the scene.
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a proper martial arts film is very much needed, though not on the lines of jackie chan…more like bruce lee stuff. jackie chan though good is a bit gimmicky.
Jag saare naache dono hathon pe jahaan..Karate Karate!
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Dear Kenny, Have you not watched this historic marvel of Indian cinema ‘KARATE” in the year 1981. Mithunda and Aradhendu Bose lining up to do the honours.
Karate, man, Karate. I loved the film as a kid. One point though, Karate had Dev Mukharjee, Joy Mukharjee’s brother, who also directed the movie. Ardhendu bose was in cobra, a rehash of Enter the Dragon.
“the fights will be realistic and entertaining. No flying around, no wire-fu, no gore. The film will be something you can take your girlfriend, your little brothers and sisters, your kids and your parents to.”
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dunno y, it seems a fuckin difficult ’stunt’ to pull off in the first place. but if u promise this, i promise to queue up at the BO with my gang & some more. count me in buddy!
We can make an Indian martial arts flick. BTW there was a Kannada version of 7 Samurai, called Ondanaondu Kaaladalli , which made effective use of local Indian martial arts techniques.
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But i feel we could make a martials art flick using local Indian martial arts too. Why not something with a Kalaripayattu backdrop? SRK’s Ashoka did use this in the battle scenes. Or something like the Varman technique, Kamal uses in Indian. Or the Silambam or stick fight popular down South? Thefre is a lot of potential there.
In Ong Bak 2 every aspect of the film is left incompete.
Ip Man is a cool trailer.
For me nothing can beat that Thai movie “Born To Fight”….only if bollywood can create even 1% of those action sequences.
Kenny I’m a big fan of martial art films & keep watching as many as I can.Saw Ong Bak-2 with a lot of hope but it was very inconsistent.Most probably the reason for the same has to be Tony Jaa’s alleged disappearance midway through the film shoot due to some differences with the producer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ong_Bak_2
Another recent martial art movie that I saw happens to be a Thai movie again-
The Bodyguard -2 directed and starring Petchai Wongkamlao.Again that had some decent stunts but overall was a disappointment mainly due to the shoddy dubbing & some bad editing.
I would love to see an Indian true blue martial art flick.Akshay Kumar is someone who can pull it off well.Not really sure if any other known face can really look convincing enough though.Maybe a newcomer can pull it off better.
@Kenny…would definitely check out Ip Man…looks like a good one..Donnie Yen was good in Flashpoint and Hero too…
@Ratnakar..Ondanaondu Kaaladalli is one of best movies ever made in that genre..perhaps only one..another movie is ‘Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha’ which has equally exceptional martial art sequences..both these use Kalaripayattu as the backdrop..
There have been umpteen number of ‘not so good’ malayalam movies which have been made with Kalari as the backdrop…the notable amongst them being ‘Thacholi Othenan’, ‘Mamangam’ and ‘Aaromal’…Of late, like all of Indian cinema..no one has looked into the details of this genre…
Aromalunni…is the name of the 1972 malayalam film..which is not a recommended wath though..I mistyped it as Aaromal.. :-)
city of violence had really cool action. story was pedestrian, but still loved it. been waiting for chocolate ever since i saw the trailer a few months ago. i will pay and watch ur martial arts movie if it has kickass ass-kicking.
I love the fact that in Korean action flicks women really kickass. The action seqs dont seem to discriminate men n women.
And they dont seem staged just for the heck of the women there……
The elaborate song sequences of south movies in the 80s were no less acrobatic than martial arts. i remember one in which the male and the female are positioned on the opposite dials of a giant clock and in the subsequent frames they depict the 12 hours of the day.
@ Vishal…
HAHAHAHA…dude get a video of that…wanna see it
@ Param
How could I forget Born to Fight! One of the best! Very unbelievable, but still loads of fun.
@Indraneel
No, I haven’t watched Karate. Sounds worth a watch though.
@Magik, dabba
Thanks! Eggjackly what I’ve been hoping to hear. I need to get this word to prospective producers.
@ Sethu
Among mainstream heroes, Akshay Kumar’s the only one. But 2-3 crore mein tab picture nahin banegi
@Arthi
I’m looking forward to watching My Wife is a Gangster.
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Thanks to all who’ve expressed your support! In some small way, this might help tilt the scales in favour of our film getting made.
Vishal, i rhink u talkin @ that song starrin rajnikanth n gautami; on the clock n then they keep changing positions..it was a hit..its crazy stuff..those were the days then…
Kenny, i dint mean on the lines of MWIAG..its no grt shks…
@ arthhi,
Please post the link or the video of the same!
Kenny-san, if you have a script/concept, mail it across. Will try and do my two bits
boundscriptmotionpictures@gmail.com
The Rajnikant -Gautami song is Ding Dong Ding from Panakkaran
( Irandum Ondrodu ondru senradhu ding dong ding,ding dong)
@ Kenny- yes I know Akshay would make the movie big budget, thats why I suggested a new hero – so you are game right?
@ Ram- yes a lot of Mallu movies in the past have used Kalari & Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha was probably the last notable one. I think we also saw Thacholi Varghese Chekavar & Kadathanadan Ambadi after that , but not great at all.
oye kenny.. am there first day first show man. am yet to watch a desi film where the fights didn’t look cartoonish and fake. i’m sure yours will pave the way for many more in this genre. last i remember bharat bala was planning to make a film on kalariyapattu.. here’s hoping that one happens soon too.
Pazhassi raja is also based on some martial arts and so is Bharat Bala’s ‘19th step’ *ing Kamal hassan and Mohan lal.
However none are going to be like a martial arts movie of the orient. The action choreography is a visual delight and the ability to infuse humour in the midst of an intense action scene is in itself a separate talent – probably genetic.
All said and done – Kenny consider this as my vote for you – to those deaf producers who cannot understand the action starved Indian marial art film fan.
hey striker – Arun’s movie won some award in NJ – is it true?
VIVA IPmaaaaaaaan !!!
Arjun Sarja, a trained Karetaka, as a teenager had acted in a few(3 or 4) movies in Kannada where he showed his Karate skills, most of the moves were genuine.
See puTTaNi Agent 1-2-3, simha da mari sainya etc.
South Indian Film Industry had quite a few Karetakas(I know definitely about Kannada Film Industry) like Tiger Prabhakar(initially as a villain later as hero) and other guy who dies in a car accident, whose name I not recalling, he was known for his chocolate hero roles which occasionally had him fight(Which always used to be Karate).
yup Kenny it (Born to Fight)was and still is loads of fun…..it is played a lot on different movie channels these days and i always watch it every time i catch it playing, what an adrenalin rush this movie provides……so much so my wife too has developed an affinity to this movie
VPJ, yup.. it’s true. here’s the link:
http://sify.com/movies/fullstory.php?id=14880468
go for it kenny. arthaat uske liye jaaiye!
I agree about Ong Bak 2. Anyone who hasn’t seen “Karate” can view some clips here:
http://www.martialdevelopment.com/blog/bollywood-martial-arts-movies/
Hi Kenny
What’s new with Sankalan? Last time around you told me that they were going to announce the three winners. Did you make it? I hope you did.
Thanks
great stuff bro…..I wanna make one too! Give me ten years
@ Rohan
No I’m not in the final three. But the other 9 also can make the final pitch which is in a couple of weeks or so. I’m hoping public support will help my presentation.
@ Chris
I just saw it!
OH GOD!! OH GOD!! OH GOD!! OH GOD!! OH GOD!! OH GOD!! OH GOD!!
Watching Ong Bak 2 is a terrible mistake in anybody’s life….what a waste of time!!!
Chocolate is a good find.
Regarding desi MA flick, I do not think any bollywood hero can pull that off…Akki is getting older, he would not suit such roles any more. Kamal Hassan declared making some kind of “Crouching Tiger..” based on South Indian martial arts, but I think the project is killed. While you can find many chinese martial arts school in many Indian cities, our own marital arts (things with bamboo stick in south and east region or the martial arts in Kerala) is nearly lost. A film or two actually can make help those arts.
BTW, @Kenny, did you see the the test hero goes through during the begining of Ong Bak 2? The third fight actually involved wrestling.
Yep, wrestling and groundfighting are an integral part of a fighter’s arsenal. From what I’ve read, most fights go to the ground, so knowing these is indispensable.
Actually Jigar was relaeased in the early 90s. Trivial, I know.
Go for the martial art film. Also please include the Indian martial arts.
[Editor note: One line of your comment (unsubstantial accusation against persons) is deleted as it had violated the comment policy of PFC. Please take care of such mistakes in future]
I would defintely be up for a desi martial arts movie or even a decent action flick which there hasn’t been in a while.
(Unless you count Ghajini which I know there aren’t many fans on this website)
One main problem is you don’t have any decent action heroes anymore. you would need to poll the public on who would be acceptable and which actor would have the patience to train and get buff and toned..we don’t obvisously want shamefull moob display as done by our dear Bobby deol as the chubby boxer in Apne.
What ever happened to Manmohan desai’s DUS, wasn’t that going to be the action film to end all action films?
But that was the day when Sanjay Dutt and Salman Khan were buff (…………..).
Just a couple of tips from a movie buff:
No more wires: Matrix is having a 10 year anniversary this year… nuff said deepika padukone.
Don’t imitate shaky cam fights a la Bourne Trilogy- it’s getting played out and the quick cuts don’t make the fight itself impressive however do try close range fighting but in longer takes and wider shots so we can see the choreography.
Please don’t put any parcours in it. Akshay Kumar (tashan) and Imran Khan ( kidnap) killed it and spit on it’s grave.
( PS why does Akshay always spread out his fingers so wide when he’s jumping???- does he believe it makes him more aerodynamic?)
If you are looking for an old wise sensei type character you should go with Danny Denzongpa, but not the way he was used in Asoka.
a movie i liked in the 80’s was stone cold with Brian bosworth an FBI agent going undercover in the Hell’s Angels altough the problenm you would come across is that indian bikers can not look cool however badly they try as proven in Ghulam and josh. ( Deepak Tijori as a biker- i still crack up at the mental image…)
Ps you are right about Jiggar, amazing movie, except for the 90’s rape plot…
Yunus, you and I think horribly alike! No wires! Definitely not!
No shaky cam fights! I’ve already discussed this in one of my earlier blogs. I didn’t like the action in Bourne Ultimatum, Batman Begins and Quantum of Solace. For me, there’s no point in showing a fight if you can’t see who’s hitting whom and how.
I haven’t seen either Tashan or Kidnap, but I’m interested more in creating fights, not chases. So parkour is unlikely to be there