Raging Phoenix

I greatly value originality in any story or flick. When I see something I've seen before, I recognize it and it's somewhat off-putting. This flick has a lot of martial arts that's unique but that's not the half of it. This is a martial arts flick with amazing, unique locations. Best of all it has a unique and original story line. One of the sets appears to be an abandoned hotel at the beach that was demolished in Thailand by the tidal wave. Another set is a labyrinth of tunnels and sewers. That's not all. This movie has atmosphere to spare. The characters are also original but I will not reveal anything about the unique, original story line.

Having bought this movie solely on the reason because JeeJa Yanin was in the movie, and I was amazed with her performance in "Chocolate", so I had high expectations for this movie.

I must admit that it was somewhat of a struggle for me to fully sit through this movie to the end, because it had a tendency to drag out the story in a seemingly endless spiral, and took forever to go almost nowhere. The storyline was adequate enough, women getting abducted by Thai gangs, but drained of their pheromones to make a perfume? What? Are you kidding me? The story went horrible awry when that was revealed. Up until then, the movie was actually bearable.

The fighting scenes in the movie were well choreographed and well executed. There was lots of fast-paced, adrenalin-fueled action in the movie. And Thai movie makers really got a knick for this, and this movie is another dent in the belt.

That being said, then a lot of the movie, including the fight scenes, were rudely interrupted and tainted by a horrible attempt to add comedy to the movie, in the forms of the characters Pigshit and Dogshit, pardon my French, but they were actually named this in the movie. They were dreadful to look at and worse to listen to, with horrible lines and bad comedy. The movie really suffered from this approach to film making.

If you have seen "Chocolate", do not set your expectations up after that standard, because this movie is inferior to that movie by far, and inferior to the first "Ong Bak" as well. Sure, there are nice fighting scenes, but it is far from enough to carry the movie.

And what was up with the gang members jumping around on pogo-stilts? That was really lame. Who fights with such toys strapped to their feet? Come on... And the whole feeling to the underground lair of the gang was way out of proportions. Where would such a place be found? The complexity of its built, the depth in which it was found, and how would no one know of its location? Sure it looked somewhat nice, but it was too much.

For a Thai movie, it was very mediocre. Trust me, there are far better Thai action movies available. "Raging Phoenix" (or "Deu Suay Doo") might be worth a look if you are a big fan of JeeJa Yanin, but otherwise not really worth the time unless you got nothing better to do.

OK i have to admit i am generous when i give an 8, because i was to other movies as well a couple years ago. I know when i watch a martial arts movie to not look too much at the story, more on the fights. But since i started to go back on martial arts around 2 years ago and started my collection(which is now over 300 movies) i find the same problem going on with every THAI martial arts movie. To the Tony Jaa's to the unknown's. The fights are always very impressive, but the story is always CRAP !!! This movie is no exception. Some could say the initial synopsis is not that bad, gang abducting womens and heroes going after them. But where TAKEN(with Liam Neeson) succeeded in that department, this movie does not, going from one weird thing to the other and so on. The heroine training is pretty good and the initial plot seem pretty find, its later it become like "whatever". At least the fight are VERY impressive and well choreographed so you never get bored and always stay in the movie. But i would wish sometimes the Thais would learned that a good yet simple plot of a movie is the best way to showcase awesome martial arts. You don't need fancy stuff, you don't need weird stuff, you don't need stuff the audience would be like "huh....ok" . With Thais movie, its always the same thing, either a relic has been stolen and the hero goes after it, or its supernatural stuff. I don't know, maybe they should check the simple, yet effective formula of the US movies of the 90s. Hero got his ass kick, go back and train to a master, come back and kick the ass of the bad guy. I don't know... sometimes in martial arts the simpler plots work best, if you have good fighting to display and i can assure you this movie has.... Please people from thailand... leave the supernatural out of the martial arts movie... we don't wanna a cross over between star wars and bloodsport... we want just good ol martial arts.

JeeJa Yanin has had an auspicious start to her martial arts movie career. He first film Chocolate (2008) was a solid martial arts film that showcased her ability and allowed her to downplay acting by having her being mute. She gets to talk in this film and is generally fine with her acting abilities, but her strong points are still her martial art abilities. JeeJa is the most exciting female martial artist in cinema right now. While that might not be saying much, I do find her fun to watch. Much like Tony Jaa, I feel with the right script both could do much more than with the material they are currently given.

Raging Phoenix succeeds on the action scenes but ultimately fails in the plot. JeeJa is Dea a confused slightly erratic woman down on luck with choosing boyfriends, removed from the band she was playing in because of attacking that boyfriend during a performance and of all the luck she is now targeted to be kidnapped by a gang called Jaguar who target specific smelling women who will be harvested of their pheromones to sell on the black market as a sex aphrodisiac. That just sounds silly doesn't it? Wait it gets better. She is saved by Sanim (Kazu Patrick Tang: Bangkok Adrenaline) a practitioner of a martial art called Meiraiyuth who is part of a group of marauding good guys who have lost their significant others to this nefarious gang. These include three others named Pig Poop (Nui Sandang), Dog Poop (Sompong Leartvimolkasame), and Bull Poop(Boonprasayrit Salangam) NOTE: I modified the names for IMDb. She then becomes their student in learning this martial art to use in destroying all of these kidnappers and in search of the head of the serpent of the gang played by Thai/Indian bodybuilding champion (and once was part of the Royal Thai Police) Roongtawan Jindasing in her first movie appearance. Of course she has to survive the training which involves imbibing much liquor and getting beaten up.

The first fight scene is partially impressive. I love the use of modified powerisers the bad guys have which are like a pogo stick per leg but longer and built with blades. I was skeptical at first, but it came out quite creative and entertaining. I would love to have those, though I would probably kill a few people while learning it and potential decapitating myself.

While the use of wires to accent the fight scenes is overused, they do help create an aesthetically pleasing martial arts style in Meiraiyuth. It is a mixture of drunken boxing, Muay Thai, break-dancing and Capoeira. While it may not always be advantageous to throw in a dance move while beating someone up it is impressive here. One problem that occasionally comes up is that when doing extremely flexible moves at impossible angles the impact of the blow comes off as very soft and the overreaction of the opponent is forced though I have seen this issue in many action films (as well as the mysterious blow that completely misses the person yet that person is blown over by the wind of the punch or kick).

But besides the plot I have one other issue that annoyed me. Some of the CGI use is pretty bad. This is especially evident when they are trying to break into the lair of Jaguar. At its worst is when they initially break in and fall or "slide" down to the lower depths. They basically looked like they were moving their arms and legs while the background is changing. The bridge fight scene is also hurt by this where much around them looks like they are in a computer game from the mid 1990s. When you watch something as impressive as the few fight scenes you wonder why they resorted to this phony graphics manipulation.

I have to admit I had a fun time watching this movie. The story is not as solid as Chocolate (though better than Ong Bak 2) and like many Thai action films they feel derivative (or homage) of other successful Asian films especially ones from Hong Kong. The incorporation of Meiraiyuth reminds me quite a bit of drunken boxing and it is impossible not to think of Drunken Master. Early on the manipulation of Deu's body as a weapon by Sanim certainly reminds me of its use in Dirty Ho, but a few Jackie Chan films as well. The film seemed to completely forget the drinking part of the art in the later part of the film.

I have the Magnet R1 release. It has two main extras: a "Making of Raging Phoenix" and "Behind the Scenes of Raging Phoenix." The "Making of Raging Phoenix" (11m.53s) is in Thai/French with removable English subtitles. It is a fun extra though you wonder how/why the director Rashane Limtrakul spent a year writing the script. Patrick Tang speaks French in the extra. The "Behind the Scenes of Raging Phoenix" (10m.35s) is pretty much showing them practice the fighting scenes (and some drum training) to a Thai(?) rap beat. However like in the end credits of a Jackie Chan film you get to see mishaps and the dangers of this type of film when JeeJa Yanin hurts her neck and gets put into a brace. And to top it off it has the international trailer (3m.34s) of this film and various trailers "Also From Magnolia Home Entertainment." There is an English dub and the English subs do not appear to be dubtitles though many of the sentences are the same.

This is the second film of the supremely talented JeeJa Yanin, who starred in Chocolate a couple years back. Chocolate was like a trumpet blast followed by the announcement: "We now present to you the next great martial arts star, JeeJa Yanin!" Raging Phoenix is a perfect follow-up. Yanin plays a punk band drummer who is kidnapped by a ring of white slavers. A group of young men who have had women in their life harmed by these people save Yanin and train her in the martial art of Thai drunken boxing. Like most martial arts movies, the plot is pretty negligible. It's actually kind of weird, because it begins as the same kind of gritty realism of Chocolate but eventually veers into a more fantastical landscape where the villains are abducting women to extract their tears, which they make into a perfume that drives men crazy. Or some such nonsense. Who cares? The bottom line is that Yanin kicks every ass that anyone chooses to hand to her. And she's super freakin' cute while doing it. I'd probably rank it below Chocolate, but I'd say it's about at the same level. If you liked that film, this is a no-brainer.