O Protetor

In Bangkok, the young Kham (Tony Jaa) was raised by his father in the jungle with elephants as members of their family. When his old elephant and the baby Kern are stolen by criminals, Kham finds that the animals were sent to Sidney. He travels to Australia, where he locates the baby elephant in a restaurant owned by the evil Madame Rose (Xing Jing), the leader of an international Thai mafia. With the support of the efficient Thai sergeant Mark (Petchtai Wongkamlao), who was involved in a conspiracy, Kham fights to rescue the animal from the mobsters.

"Tom Yum Goong" has a silly, flawed and absurd story, where gangsters do not use guns, but sticks, clubs, rollers, bicycles, motorcycles or whips. Further, they just fight in sequence against the hero, one by one, to have their arms and legs broken. The criminal Johnny simply vanishes without any further explanation. However, the choreography of the fights is amazing and very realistic, making this movie a worthwhile entertainment. Tony Jaa is probably the successor of Jackie Chan and Jet Li, and I believe this movie could be less "serious" and have more humor like in Jackie Chan's films. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Protetor" ("The Protector")

Had the opportunity to watch Tom Yum Goong at a local cinema here in Bangkok on opening night. Expectations were high, and the movie fulfilled them in both good and bad.

The action was some of the best caught on film (do they still use film?) that I have ever seen. Panom "Ja" Yeerum again showed that with his background of Muay Thai, gymnastics and stuntman work, he can deliver action scenes that are graceful and brutal at the same time, and will have the audience picking up their jaws from the floor at times. They don't use gimmicks like strings or special FX, so everything you see him do is stuff he really does. Except maybe one flying knee where he literally flew about 5 meters into the guy so he must have been launched off something.

However, as good as the action was, the obvious comparison would be to Ong Bak (same lead, same director). And as amazing as TYG's action scenes were, they didn't have the raw power that Ong Bak delivered. I think this may be because of different stuntmen - in Ong Bak, a lot of the people that got beaten up were probably amateur Thai stuntmen or retired muay thai dudes (scene in cave, for example) who don't mind taking a very heavy kick or punch to make a few Baht and be in a movie. So the impacts were very hard and very real in Ong Bak, and it made the action that much more "in-your-face". In TYG, due to the action taking place in Australia and the higher production values, the stuntmen didn't seem to get beaten up as badly. Sure, it was still better than any other action movie besides Ong Bak, but not quite as raw and powerful.

Then... the plot. The plot has already been criticized by many, and obviously it is full of holes, unintentional humor (unless there really is an English-language news channel in Australia where the newscaster has a strong Thai accent?) and so on. But it was nowhere near as bad as Ong Bak. Ong Bak really is a "fast forward to the action scenes" type of movie, whereas Tom Yum Goong is a watchable movie in its entirety. The first 15 minutes have barely any action at all, but the elephant scenes and the beauty of rural Thailand were beautifully shot and the actors did a surprisingly good job - both Panom and the guy who played his father. It seems that Panom's acting classes have paid off. Now if only he can learn passable English, he'll really have a chance of becoming the next big thing in Martial Arts action movies.

The (intentional) comic relief was much better than in Ong Bak - Mum Jok Mok plays a Thai policeman in Sydney. How he got to be Sergeant there, we'll never know, but he has a few funny lines - most of which are much funnier to Thais or people who know Thai culture than to the international audience. Like the ".... oh, oh, oh - and Laos!" line. More laughs came from cameos like the Jackie Chan lookalike at the airport and Sek Loso drinking M150 on the street in Sydney. Not so much product placement as an inside joke ("go inter") for the Thai audience.

Getting the audience to cheer for the hero in an action movie obviously requires a nasty villain or a group of villains. Tom Yum Goong does well in this regard as well - both the Thai mobsters and especially their bosses in the Asian mafia in Sydney are an interesting, suitably detestable bunch. Also their "bodyguards", from the Capoeira guy to the three huge Caucasians in the end, are very good opponents for Panom "Ja" to beat up on. Furthermore, having the motivator be elephants (respected animals, and to Kham, family members) instead of a stolen head of a Buddha statue (like in Ong Bak) works much better, especially for non-Thai audiences. Good acting by the baby elephant in one early scene in the movie, by the way! Deserving of an Animal Oscar.

To sum up, Tom Yum Goong has a decent plot, a good cast with better acting than was to be expected, good cinematography, and of course, plenty of cracking, beautifully choreographed action that will not fail to impress any Martial Arts action movie enthusiast.

Highlights: Kham learning how to fight the Capoeira guy in a very well choreographed scene, and the bone-crunching extravaganza that was like Kill Bill Vol. 1's restaurant scene without the swords.

An excellent achievement in its genre. A whole lot of fun. 9/10.

There are parts of Tom Yum Goong (or, as we like to call it, WHERE'S MY ELEPHANT) that amateurish and distracting; especially in some of the camera work and editing. However, those are but minor nit picks in a movie that has some of the best fight sequences I've seen. One, in particular, stands out as it involves a continuous tracking shot of a huge mêlée involving a 4 or 5 story building and a long staircase that winds up all the floors. The entire sequence is one shot, with no cuts or edits. It's worth watching the movie through again just for that sequence.

The story is pretty basic, but really, what at we going to see? This is no Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, but it doesn't aim to be. The story is adequate to get you from one sequence to the next.

Tony Jaa is outstanding. His skills in the fight scenes are particularly astonishing given the overall lack of editing in these sequences. He's obviously doing all these things himself, and mostly in real time.

One minor note that I found amusing, though it might only be funny to fans of the movie BABE, the name of the production company is "Baa-Ram-Ewe"

I have watched this movie several times and have come to a number of conclusions. The first is that 90% of the North American audience knows nothing about Asian films and more to the point, martial arts. Several other IMDb members commented on the repetitiveness of the movie, comparisons to Jackie Chan/Jet Li and its use of Kung Fu.

First of all martial arts flicks will always be redundant to some extent since there are only so many ways to pick a fight, but stories do vary as does the quality of action. Tom Yum Goong is very similar to Ong Bak in its simplistic story and the noble feeling that surrounds Tony Jaa's character. Mind you in this movie Tony is much more violent and brutal to his enemies. His sorrow at the loss of the elephants is a big part of his rage and the simplicity of the story left lots of space for action. Perhaps left simple for international appeal or for the simple fact that a simple, pure story would be more poignant. Anyway, if you go to a martial arts flick looking to pick it apart and analyze the acting skills then your a fool and should never leave your American Hollywood watering hole.

As to comparing Tony Jaa to Jackie Chan or Jet Li, are you insane?! Both Jackie and Jet are in their forties. Both are from China and went through actual training schools and academy's as well competitions. Wu Shu, Crane, Drunken Boxing etc... These are the styles these men made famous. Jackie built his comedic style from the ground up with his amazing acrobatic abilities, fighting skill and on screen charm. Now I'm not a Jackie Chan fan by any means, but credit where it is due. Jet Li was one of the youngest Chinese National Tournament winners ever and blew people away with his Tai Chi and Shaolin style Kung Fu.

How does this relate to Tony Jaa? It doesn't at all and thats the point. Tony was very poor growing up in Thailand idolizing Bruce lee in the movies. He earned every break he has in his own way, and built his style accordingly. This movie is so amazing because it not just Kung Fu and Karate for the thousandth time. Tony is a master of Muay Thai Kickboxing, which he uses 80% of the movie. Now you don't even need to know anything about fighting to notice the difference between karate (or other styles) and Muay Thai. Through the diversity of his fighting style as he battles people who using everything from crane style Kung Fu to Capoeira, you understand why comparing him to others is unfair. While he has trained in similar martial arts its obvious that he is unique. He is in the best shape of his life and just now coming into his prime. His screen presence, skill and experience mean he could be as big or bigger than Jackie or Jet in the next ten years. At the very least he is going to be a major Thai action star for years.

Also people keep in mind this is a Thai movie. Hollywood wouldn't even have finished the credits before they ran out of money if they worked with the same budget. More International success will give Tony Jaa access to a bigger budget, more talent (ie writers, language instructors, studios etc..) and allow him to grow. Its easy to bash but look at the low budget flicks Jackie Chan or any other martial artist made when they where twenty and you'll see that this movie is much much better than most.

Remember it all just opinion people, everyones got one. PacManPolarBear

I've never been a BIG fan of Thai movies (eventhough I am Thai) that is, until I saw "Ong Bak". This was why I had high expectations for "Tom Yum Goong". There was tremendous HYPE in the Thai media just before the movie opened so as you can imagine, it didn't get good reviews from the critics (ah ...expectations, it changes everything). Feedbacks from the general public were pretty much MIXED. Some liked it a lot and some didn't like it at all. Don't get me wrong, everyone thought that Tony Jaa was absolutely amazing! some of them just didn't like the story.

In my honest personal opinion, I thought the movie was much BETTER than Ong Bak in terms of action sequences and fight scenes. The story I had to admit, was a bit weak. But come on, what are you really paying your money to see ... story? OR fight scenes? If the answer is the latter, I guarantee that you will enjoy "Tom Yum Goong". If you thought Tony Jaa was great in Ong Bak, you haven't seen anything yet. In "Tom Yum Goong", Tony goes all the way to show you how talented he really is! Muay Thai, grappling, gymnastics, weapons, etc. You'll also get to see what happens when a Thai Boxer (Muay Thai stylist) go against other martial arts like Tae Kwon Do, Wushu, etc. Some of Tony's new moves in this movie are ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!!!! and I can't emphasize on the word "STUNNING" enough. There are scenes in this movie which reminded me of 2 of my favorite Bruce Lee's movies: GAME OF DEATH and FIST OF FURY.

Personally, I think the problem ISN'T with the story NOR plot BUT with EDITING. There will be some parts in the movie where you may get a bit confused because some crucial scenes were cut out. I have heard (in a TV interview with the Director) that initially, the final cut was 30-40 minutes longer than the theatrical version. The Director got commented by several industry experts after the first screening that the movie was TOO LONG and he had only 5 days for editing before the Gala Premiere. Also, you need to know a bit about Thai culture to understand some of the rationales behind the story line (eg. Why was the elephant so important that Kham had to risk his life, traveled to Australia and fight all these gang members just to find it ... certainly NOT because the elephant was a beloved family pet,I can tell you that!).

I hope that by the time the movie hits theaters in the US and other countries, they would have re-edited the movie. Columbia Tri-star has already bought distribution rights to this movie and I am sure that all you Tony Jaa fans outside of Thailand will definitely get to see this great action flick SOON. If you LOVE Martial Arts movie, this is a DEFINITE "MUST SEE" Film for you!

**DON'T BE FOOLED! That's only a Jackie Chan Look-alike ... the often mentioned scene with Tony Jaa running into Jackie Chan really ISN'T Jackie, just a look-alike. The guy is a Thai shop owner who apparently got noticed when he did a TV commercial for a real estate company call Noble House. In that commercial, he talked about how he was able to entertain people who passed by his shops by portraying himself as Jackie Chan. The title of that commercial was "BE MORE THAN JUST YOURSELF". You can check the End Credits if you think otherwise.