There was a time when Chinese martial arts films ruled. It was from these films that others took interest in martial arts and brought them into US and European films. The Japanese brought excelled at Samurai films and those too were given a western flair. But both of these oriental disciplines are falling in decline when it comes to martial arts action by the country of Thailand and its rising star Tony Jaa. And Panna Rittikrai, who directed Jaa in two of the ONG BAK films, has assembled a cast of martial arts stars for his newest film BK: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT.
Critics of the film are quick to jump on the fact that the film has the smallest of plots and that the acting is atrocious. Since I don’t speak Thai I would say that I can’t condemn the acting. Face it; there is much that is lost in translation. As for the plot, sure it’s rather simple but many martial arts fans are seeking action as opposed to story and they won’t be disappointed here.
So the simple story is this: a teacher has assembled groups of martial arts schools into a contest. The winner has the chance for the entire team to be taken to Hollywood to star in his next big production. We, the viewers, know that something isn’t right from the get go. A cigar smoking bad guy named Mr. Snead keeps pushing the teacher to get things going and if he isn’t involved in something illegal then you haven’t noticed many bad guys in movies.
A team is selected and goes out that night to celebrate. They get a little bit rowdy and a little bit drunk and almost find themselves in a fight with the caterer and his crew. But things settle and they enjoy the rest of their night. The problem is when they wake in the morning they discover they’ve been drugged and taken somewhere.
The setting seems like an abandoned set of buildings, mostly factories. The group wanders a bit until they’re attacked by someone driving a heavily enforced car. Herded to a special building, they find the “teacher” waiting for them. Standing by him is the caterer. The teacher informs them that they are now part of his production, a fight between two opposing forces. The caterer is an expert martial arts fighter whose team will take on this group to see who is best. To make sure they perform, he kidnaps one of the girls from the team, a love interests between two of their best fighters.
Back to Mr. Snead. From a luxuriously outfitted trailer, Mr. Snead is hosting a party of extremely wealthy gamblers who will bet on the outcome of the fights they will witness. The stakes are high and eventually they move from simple fights to battles to the death, all the while betting on who will win.
So there’s the set up. The plot. Incredibly simple and yet before the movie ends we discover a traitor in the midst of the good guys and a more dangerous combatant than we expected from the bad.
But it’s not the story here. And there is no way to describe the fight sequences in detail. But they are there and there are tons of them, everything from a Jason Voorhees killer with an axe to a cross dresser who’s more deadly than you’d expect. The fights are non-stop action and the sort that leaves you amazed at the stamina of the combatants to be able to run and fight like this for nearly 2 hours. Then again, it’s only a movie. But an action packed one at that.
No break out stars are seen here and director Rittikrai states in the extras that what he wanted to do was make a spectacular action film that would feature not one but a number of martial arts stars to be together in one film. He accomplishes what he set out to do here with each member having their own special scenes throughout.
If you’re looking for a movie with just action, little plot and enough great stunt work to hold your interest then you won’t find many movies that will foot the bill like this one. It’s unrelenting action from start to finish and might possibly result in being the first exposure to one or two more Tony Jaa like stars.
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