FB: Fighting Beat

Initially I was lured in to watch the 2007 movie titled "FB: Fighting Beat" from the movie's cover. Sure, I hadn't heard about the movie at all prior to sitting down to watch it, but it being a Thai action movie was definitely more than enough to make me have an interest in watching it.

The storyline, as written by Kulachat Jitkhachornwanich, wasn't really a grand cinematic masterpiece. I mean, the entire storyline and plot was just so simplistic that you could have watched the start of the movie, left and come back to watch the ending and you wouldn't have missed a single thing. So director Piti Jaturaphat was left with precious little to work with in terms of making a proper action movie.

As for the martial arts and fight scenes in "FB: Fighting Beat", well they were for the most parts actually quite alright. Though there were some scenes that were poorly executed by the participants as they carried out the choreographed action sequence. Those scenes just didn't have a natural flow to them at all.

"FB: Fighting Beat" is a movie that requires absolutely nothing from the audience. You just sit back and watch the action, no thinking required. But even for an action movie of this type, then "FB: Fighting Beat" just didn't really manage to make itself outstanding, as there are far better Thai action movies out there.

I sat through the entire movie, and I found myself to be mildly entertained. This is hardly a movie that I will be sitting down to watch a second time, as the storyline barely had enough contents to support the first viewing. My rating of "FB: Fighting Beat" settles on a less than mediocre four out of ten stars.

I enjoyed this movie, partially because of its length, and partially because of just a lot being extremely right with this film. Firstly some perspective, the film seems to be made for teenagers and/or early twenty-somethings. It is extremely dumbed down and the bulk of it is quite superficial. It has almost the exact formula of a bad slasher movie but just with kicks to the face. I believe any negative reviews will likely fail to acknowledge that they are not in the right mindset or not the right audience.

The story is straightforward; foreigners decide to buy the bar the main characters work at and use force when they are refused. It's just at about 80min. so that really is just enough story frankly. Despite that being the main plot, there is a subplot, and this is the best part of the film, about the main character dealing with his father's death and ultimately meeting his killer(and of course fighting) again.

The significance of this is that the move has the theme of learning to deal with the consequences of one's actions, and always being in the state of mind where right choices can be made. This crops up several times in the story and had this been a straight two hour drama, this would've probably been the weightiest martial arts movie in recent film history.

On the technical side, there is practically no budget and very little script. The actors do a fine job at acting, but there just isn't much acting to do, so everyone wears as little clothing as possible. Everyone.

The movie could've been a little subtler with the music, as many of the accompanying shots were dramatic and impressive. This was an extremely well shot movie in places. Fight choreography was fantastic. The fights tended to be balanced with both parties getting equally injured and lots of tension in the fights.

The movie is an odd mix of two distinct approaches, and while I would have preferred a straight drama as I think it would've be great at it, I can't fault it for being what it is, and it is what is very well. This movie is well worth the eighty minutes.

Not the best movie. Don't expect to see it as Ong Bak.

Fighting Beat is about a group of Bar workers who hustle Foreigners of their money by throwing kick boxing fights. But then, a group of Foreigners decide to buy the bar, by force.

So the bar workers must use their real muay thai skills in action in hopes of saving the bar.

Its not the best plot. It finishes to fast and a lot of it takes time to make sense. The fight scenes are amazing and the comedy works very well into the movie. Not a fan of how the music is placed.

Overall. 5/10