Year: 2009
Plot: "A violent gang is abducting women around Thailand. Sanim and his friends, having had loved ones abducted, have joined together to break the gang of kidnappers. In a botched kidnap attempt, Deu is saved by Sanim's crew. After learning their unique martial arts style, Deu helps lure the gang into an epic battle to save the women across Thailand."
So I would like to start with the movie that has caught my attention lately. That movie is of course Raging Phoenix staring JeeJa Yanin. I am aware that some find this movie boring and such, but I have a hard time figuring out why.
This is a martial arts movie, with apparently bad wire work, though I haven't noticed it. Many have claimed that this is a bad movie because of a poor story-line. Again, I do not see this. Sure the whole perfume idea is quite out there, but the story as a whole is really good. Mostly I have found that it is guys who really hate this movie. The movie really comes down to the fact of if you can connect to Deu or not. If you can connect to her character, this is a wonderful movie simply because you care for her and want her to succeed. If you don't really connect, I can see how this movie might be a little lack luster to you.
I definitely connected with Deu, and loved this movie. For me it was really hard not to care for her. She lost her father (previous to the movie), her mother wasn't around, she got kicked out of a band, and her boyfriend was cheating on her. Given all of that it is hard not to want things to get better for her, at least for me.
So I should probably talk about the fight scenes since this is a martial arts movie. Like I mentioned, people have talked about horrible wire work in this movie. I really haven't seen it. I suppose it is because I was more focused on the characters because I got attached, rather than how their bodies looked exactly during certain moves. I was not on the look out for this even after hearing about it before seeing the movie. I really couldn't see a point during the fights that looked like bad wire work, but maybe I just wasn't paying attention.
I really did enjoy the fighting scenes. They are really unique. It is not too often that a person can break dance in the middle of a fight and not look completely crazy. The dancing seems to fit rather well into the story and fights. Being that the characters are pretty much drunk through the entire movie, it isn't too hard to believe that they wouldn't be fighting in a traditional way. Because of the way that they fight, it comes off as rather humorous for most of the movie. It is only at the latter half of the movie that they completely abandon this light-hearted style and turn to more brutal fighting.
I have to say that my favorite fight scene is actually the one Deu fights on the beach after suffering another abandonment. It is rather pretty to watch with the spray of the water around them. Though that scene is rather brutal, I still found it rather beautiful to watch.
I have one more thing to mention about this movie, and that is the special effects. Many people have critiqued this movie mostly because of the few scenes when special effects are used. I do not understand this critiquing. I have watched plenty of Asian movies and know that their special effects aren't very good. The fact is that most would rather do the things the practical way rather than using special effects. This is why when they do use special effects, it looks rather crappy. To be able to not take those scenes as simply crappy effects, you must understand why they aren't done well. I find that I can easily excuse the poor effect because I know that all the other stuff is done in practical ways.
I rather enjoyed this movie. It is one of my favorite martial arts movies (I have an affinity to this genre). Though I wouldn't say that it is better than one of my many favorite Jet Li movies (simply due to the weird perfume idea), I still place it in the same category (good martial arts movies). I also have to say that I like the idea of a woman being the best martial artist out of a group of men that comes into play in this movie. A girl has got to love that, after all, women are usually the damsels in distress not the hero.
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