The Protector (Tom Yum Goong) (2006, Dir. Prachya Pinkaew)
“You killed my father, and you stole my elephant!”
— Tony Jaa, The Protector
Every generation has its hero — every few years, that rhetoric looms at us from movie screens everywhere, as Hollywood presents its latest action hero toy for us to enjoy. The ’70s had Bruce Lee, the ’80s had the Governator, the ’90s had Jackie Chan. What do we have today? Vin Diesel? The Rock?
Try Tony Jaa. The hype machine has already revved up for the Thai martial arts star, hailed as “the new Bruce Lee,” with the U.S. release of his latest extravaganza The Protector (known in Thailand as Tom Yum Goong).
chopped a whopping 20+ minutes
The Protector (originally titled Tom Yum Goong)
Dir. Prachya Pinkaew Kham (Tony Jaa)
Madame Rose (Xing Jing)
Petchtai Wongkamlao …. Mark
Johnny Nguyen …. Johnny
Nathan Jones: TK (big guy)
Any doubts that Jaa is intent on inheriting Jackie Chan’s mantle are swept aside changing of the guard
A Jackie Chan movie was a Buster Keaton silent routine infected with the spirit of Gene Kelly; a Tony Jaa action sequence is an adrenaline rush of extreme sports rhythm, scored to head-pounding hip-hop rock (the Weinstein brothers slapped a RZA soundtrack over the original music, and for once, the change seems justified).
