Tiger Blade

Seua khaap daap (aka - The Tiger Blade) is a fast paced martial arts and gun fight action film set in modern day Bangkok. Yosthana ("Yos") is a smart young "Special Agent" who uses technology, a magic sword, guns and a healthy dose of martial arts skill to vanquish dozens of bad-guys, some of whom are protected by magic. Along with a team of sometimes comical special agents they chase and fight the henchmen of notorious rebel Commander "Kao Yod". Plot holes and twists are plentiful but the well scripted action scenes and high (for Thailand) production values make the film enjoyable. Don't expect as slick a film as a modern Hong Kong production and you won't be disappointed. Think more like along the lines of an early 90's Jackie Chan or Chow Yun-Fat action movie and you'll be thoroughly delighted.

*Note - The version I saw contained some sort of fuzzy pixelization censorship of a) cigarettes when in someone's mouth but not in their hands, and b) guns when pointed directly at someone in the same frame. Bloody scenes of bullets striking heads and chests, a body exploding, and faces being punched were not!?!?! …go figure.

Finally, this film contains no nudity but it is filled with violence, a bit of sex and a sexual assault. I don't have kids but I would think this warrants PG-13 treatment.

When Tony Jaa burst onto the scene in 2004, his motto was "no wires, no computers, no special effects." Sadly, the new Thai action films haven't tried to maintain that idiom. Newer films like DYNAMITE WARRIOR, MERCURY MAN, and this one are closer to Hollywood action flicks with lots of editing, wire work, and CGI effects. This film has a few interesting action moments but they all get ruined by those factors. The end result isn't nearly as thrilling as Jaa's work. Another thing I found funny is that the titular weapon - which is considered so important - isn't even used in the finale.

Special Agent Yosthana is on the trail of Commander Kao Yod, a political prisoner who has broken out of prison. Yod and his gang are planning something big (the audience isn't allowed to know until the last 15 minutes) and use black magic to protect themselves from bullets. To combat this, Yosthana procures the Tiger Blade, a mythical sword that can kill the seemingly impervious villains.

On a side note, this is the first film I have seen under Thailand's new censorship laws. They blur out any image of a gun being pointed toward someone's head or a cigarette in someone's mouth. You can show the gun or cigarette being raised. Hell, you can show someone get shot in the head. Just don't show the gun pointing towards the head. Very strange! It makes for an interesting scene at the end during a four way stand off where the screen is almost just one big blur.

The Tiger Blade starts with a great kick off and manage to hold that throughout the entire movie. The story might not be that clear but actually it doesn't matter. You just go with the flow and accept the holes in the story which are filled in with great action scenes. It's Thai and of course you're thinking about Ong-bak but The Tiger Blade does use wire work and probably stunt men but it does't mean the action would be less. The direction is good and it shows that the greatest attention went to the action aspect. Would that bother? The story of Ong-bak isn't also that great. Just forget the story, tolerate the acting performances and you're settled for a good action ride. It deserves your attention when you loved Ong-bak and the Russian Night Watch because it's a perfect combination of those two.

"The Tiger Blade" ("Seua Khaap Daap") is essentially an action movie that is completely and utterly devoid of a coherent storyline. Wait, let me correct that, devoid of a storyline all together.

Throughout most of the movie the audience is given various action sequences that seems to make no sense in a coherent red thread, and actually seems like they were action sequences just for the solely purpose of being action sequences. Fair is fair, and I will say that some of these action sequences were actually good enough to look at, but that doesn't make it up for a complete lack of proper storyline.

The acting in the movie, well, it was just equally devoid as the storyline. It seemed that the actors and actresses were equally baffled about the lack of story, and as such had very little to work with.

And people say action movies are mindless, well I guess those people are quite right in regards to this particular movie.

For a Thai action movie, then "The Tiger Blade" seems rather pointless and less than half-hearted. There are far better Thai action movies available, and I can't think of a reason for recommending this movie to anyone, except if you have absolutely nothing else to watch and just want to see some random action and violence sequences.

Tiger Blade is one of the worst action movies I ever saw... The plot is non existent, it's so full of holes that I lost interest about 10 minutes into the film. So, at least there are good fight scenes ? No. Special effects are cheap. It's all a rehash of previous films, notably Matrix, but with inferior quality.

Everything sucks in this movie ! Lousy acting, totally boring, this flick is an insult to the viewer. Avoid !

Sometimes the absence of a plot is preferable to a really crappy one. Take the Doom video games, for instance. Who cares why you're there as long as there are aliens to shoot ?