Spirit Warrior

I like Tony Jaa, his skill is so impressive. I saw the DVD box for this and thought it was another Tony Jaa film. I was wrong. When he finally shows up his skill is shown once again but then ... poof ... he is dead and this crappy movie carries on. The cover has Tony Jaa, the synopsis has Tony Jaa, I really thought he would be in this more.

I will say this for the film though: I thought they did a pretty decent job with the obviously low budget they had. The weapons were cool and I could only tell they were not real during the close up shots. The fighting was pretty good but I guess I went in expecting to see Tony Jaa going ape all over the screen and ended up seeing a low budget Thai film with so-so action.

Stuntman-turned-film sensation Tony Jaa stunned the world with his gravity-defying stunts, Muay Thai kickboxing and acrobatics in the hit movies, ONG-BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR and THE PROTECTOR that would earn him U.S. acclaim and a possibility to become America's next action star.

SPIRITED KILLER was another unknown action movie from Thailand that featured loads of stylized fights along with the amazing skills of a then-unknown young Tony Jaa and the talented Panna Rittikrai who choreographed the stunning fights for ONG-BAK and THE PROTECTOR.

However, Jaa is not the star of this film and the advertisement on the box cover was material from Tony Jaa's first two films that were patched together to capitalize on his new founded fame in America. He has a small role that finds him displaying what would later make him famous. Rittikrai plays the title role and reveals himself as a respected martial arts star in Thailand. The film is set in the jungles of Thailand where an unstoppable killer (Rittikrai) goes on a rampage under the control of a voodoo priest. A group of travelers (who are seemingly stuntmen protégés and martial artists including Tony Jaa), search for hidden treasure only to encounter this essence of evil and engage in combat while they try to flee out the jungles. Of course, this was structured to have non-stop martial arts fights (staged by Rittikrai) to give action lovers a reason to watch the movie. As the star, Rittikrai highlights his impressive martial arts skills and weaponry. Jaa's screen time lasted a couple of minutes but it allowed him to engage in combat against Rittikrai with some amazing acrobatics and kicking techniques.

Even though the film packed loads of martial arts action, it suffers with dents and holes that include poor dubbing, a lame story and even a reused musical score taken from the 1994 Jack Nicholson film, WOLF. First, you see a voodoo priest giving villagers brew that supposedly extends their youth and makes them immortal but instead, it kills them instantly. The witnessing survivor and the remaining group of villagers beat up the priest and knock him into a lake. Next, a traveling bunch drives through the jungle and finds a mysterious man standing in the middle of their path without any explanation. The man stares at them and eliminates them one by one with martial arts while chasing the remaining survivors around the jungle with superhuman speed (with the help of MTV-style fast motion camera tricks). The priest returns to unravel more trouble for the villagers.

The only great thing you'll probably get out of this film are the expertly choreographed fight scenes and the impressive combat specialties of Panna Rittikrai who's engagement in martial arts, swordsmanship, nunchukus and the staff were phenomenal enough that it will appeal to fans of Bruce Lee's movies and classic gems like HERO, KILL BILL Vols. 1 & 2 and BLADE. Tony Jaa's short screen time is worth checking out just to learn what he was already capable of as a young newcomer. The only bad thing about the choreography is the fact that it resembles Hong Kong action to closely instead of the formula used in ONG-BAK and THE PROTECTOR.

The film's cliffhanger ending will have viewers come up with their own conclusion in the aftermath, at least until a sequel is made. If a filmmaker decides to helm a sequel, I hope that it has a better script with a bigger budget, better character development and improved set pieces. In the meantime, the movie is worth watching if you want to witness the talents of the two skillful Thai experts but do not expect it to be another ONG-BAK or PROTECTOR-style movie.

This Thai martial arts film was released in the US as SPIRITED KILLER. The DVD capitalizes on Tony Jaa being in the film, but he is only in it for about 15 minutes. Regardless, the film is still worth watching if you want to check out some insane Thai fighting. Panna Rittikrai, Tony Jaa's mentor and trainer, reprises his role as a killing machine under the spell of a local black magic priest (this is actually the fourth part of a series). The film is basically like the Chuck Norris vehicle SILENT RAGE set in a forest. The killer is unstoppable and just beats people over and over. Nothing more, nothing less. The real reason to watch it are the brutal, full contact fights. This is standard for Panna titles and these guys really beat the hell out of each other. Jaa looks quite young but displays that unique flair that would eventually make him a worldwide superstar (watch for the scene where he does the splits...ouch!). The English dub on the DVD is so goofy that it only adds to the enjoyment of the film.

I have recently been introduced to two of the best martial arts movies ever - Ong Bak and The Warrior King aka The Protector. I saw this film in the shop for a decent price. On the cover there was a huge picture of Tony Jaa. On the back it went on: "Tony Jaa, Tony Jaa, Tony Jaa..." which made me believe Tony Jaa was in this film, doing his thing. I bought the film, and was bitterly disappointed.

Although the film was made on a tiny budget, you can't deny that there is a lot of action in this film. Unfortunately, most of the fighting is second-rate, but there is a lot of it. There is very little dialogue, and almost constant hand-to-hand, and sword-fighting. On the whole, though, the film is very, very cheap.

The biggest disappointing factor of this film is the fact that I couldn't find Tony Jaa in it. I know he must be in it somewhere, as other reviews state that he was there near the end, but where?? Once again, we've been had. In a similar way to Jackie Chan headlining a film in which he has a one-minute cameo (like Michelle Yeoh's Supercop), the box design is nothing but false advertising. This film was re-released once Tony Jaa had made a name for himself, and was credited as a Tony Jaa film. That's like saying that The Warrior King is a Jackie Chan film because he appears for five seconds at Sydney Airport.

Judging this film as a normal film, and not a Tony Jaa film, however, it is still a very poor movie, and not even worth bargain bin prices.

I saw this more than a decade back n i will never forget my experience with it. I had bought the dvd from a pirated dvd store for 50 rupees. Today being Sunday, i was shuffling my dvd collection n i noticed Spirited warrior dvd. Will never revisit it for sure. I went into flashback n thought about writing a review. The dvd cover had Tony Jaa n the synopsis sounded solid action/horror set in a forest. Read some positive reviews on imdb. Everything was misleading. The acting, direction, editing, everything was horrendous. The production value was nada. Even the martial arts fight scenes r boring. Regarding Jaa, well he is ther for few mins only n that abrupt ending was the icing on the cake.