Raging Phoenix

RAGING PHOENIX, a high-kicking Thai martial arts film, marks Jeeja Yanin's follow-up to her outstanding debut, CHOCOLATE. While proving to be a mildly entertaining movie with some great fight action to recommend it, it's an inevitable disappointment to those of us weaned on the likes of ONG BAK and WARRIOR KING, as it just doesn't hold a torch to the calibre of those two movies – or, indeed, Yanin's aforementioned debut.

The problem with this movie is pretty much everything aside from the action: the characters are cardboard-thin, the plot is shallow and the script is completely stupid. By the time we're introduced to the storyline of the villains harvesting the tears of their victims, you'll be rolling your eyes and saying "oh please". In addition, the acting is strictly drama school, and that includes Yanin; none of these guys would make it in a film requiring real performances.

Good news, then, is that the action is what this film is all about, and it lifts what could have been a debacle into something pretty entertaining; no WARRIOR KING, certainly, but something to be enjoyed at least once. The dance-infused combat sees Janin and her anarchist rebel friends battling a series of nefarious villains, and it inevitably builds up into a massive battle in the bad guys' lair (a ridiculous CGI underground chamber).

At the end, Yanin finally meets her match – a hulking Amazonian fighter by the name of Roongtawan Jindasing, a real-life bodybuilder and judo expert. The resultant fight takes in multiple locations, some exquisite camera (the bridge scene in particular) and goes on for about half an hour without ever getting dull; seasoned action director Panna Rittikrai ensures he gets the maximum mayhem for his money.

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.

I wasn't expecting much from JeeJa Yanin's original film ("Chocolate"), but her physical talents were showcased in spectacular fashion and won me over despite the shortcomings in terms of scriptwriting. That film grew on me more and more after repeat viewings, but there still was room for improvement in the pacing and storyline elements. Enter "Raging Phoenix", which not only avoids a sophomore slump for JeeJa, but actually surpasses "Chocolate" in total entertainment value.

One way it does this is to allow JeeJa to express her camera presence and charisma. This was surprising to me personally, because her previous role in "Chocolate" was so introverted and robotic that it was essentially impossible to determine whether or not this girl could steal a scene without beating someone's brains in. In "Raging Phoenix", however, she really cuts loose during the opening half as she jokes around, engages in some funny dialogue, and participates in some light-hearted fight scenes involving drunken styles of martial arts. That one-vs-many boat brawl is – now wait for it – a boat-load of fun. JeeJa exhibits a natural likability that her fellow countryman Tony Jaa severely lacks. Don't misunderstand me, because I am a fan of Tony's films, but he has some serious limitations as all of his screen presence is earned through his (phenomenal) physical skills. JeeJa, on the other hand, portrays her character in a way that is very endearing. In other words, I'd love to have her as a younger sister. This charm is a major reason why this film is so entertaining. When the action scenes are bridged by good "non-action stuff", that's a huge plus.

The mood gets more serious when the kidnapping plot line is fleshed out more, but even here the film stays attention-grabbing with an interesting twist involving drug dealing. Now, I'm not saying that the script is incredibly strong. It's not going to win any awards in that realm, nor is it as strong as more dramatic action films like "Kill Zone" (2005), but it does build anticipation for the finale and establishes characters a bit more than usual. In addition, "Raging Phoenix" one-ups "Chocolate" by introducing a very strong lead antagonist during the latter half (played by Roongtawan Jindasing – Asian Pacific Women's Bodybuilding Champion). This lady is one tough son-of-a-gun who proves incredibly difficult to take down, which automatically makes things a bit more exciting than having JeeJa beat down random stuntmen the entire time.

Which brings us to the action scenes. There are some one-vs-many scenarios early on, but that shifts decisively towards one-on-one and two-on-one battles afterward, which results in some outstanding fist-a-cuffs. The "purists" need to stop complaining every time wires are used. I'm getting sick and tired of their whining, especially regarding movies like this that use wires effectively. The cavern hideout finale lasts a solid 30 minutes, and Roongtawan Jindasing hands out a great deal of damage to JeeJa and her buddies. It escalates to the point of making one's hairs stand on end, especially when JeeJa gets her second wind and slugs it out in EPIC fashion. That sequence must be an instant classic (at least in terms of girl vs girl mayhem). Heck, this entire film is an instant classic.

If you liked "Chocolate", you need to see this. If you didn't like "Chocolate", you need to see this anyways. It's truly an excellent action film, and quite possibly the best girl fighting movie ever made.

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.