The Kick

The title says it all. Or better said, all the positive aspects. The script is just too silly. The family makes decisions that endanger themselves and the youngest kid all the time and whenever things go their way, it's just due to plot armor. Don't even bother with any dialog, just skip from one fight scene to the next. Oh, except for the kitchen fight scene; skip that one. I came back to this review to lower one star because of that scene.

Moon is a Taekwondo master migrates from South Korea to Thailand with his five family members.

One day, Moon's family encounters a group of treasure thieves on the street, and are soon involved in a fight with them. With their impressive martial art skills, Moon's family is able to defeat the thieves and take back the stolen treasure. Pom, the leader of the gang, is the only one to escape and threatens revenge.

Moon's family becomes more popular in the public eye, not knowing when or where Pom will get his revenge.

The actions scenes are top-notch as always you see in any Prachya Pinkaew film. However, this lacks in the story and screenplay part. The comic relief is an advantage amongst the fast paced punches and kicks. Special mention to Tae-joo Na (Tae Yang), Kyung-suk Kim (Tae Mi ) and Jeeja Yamin (Wawa from Chocolate -2008, she has already impressed with her martial arts skills).

It really creates havoc when comes to fights and will keep up you engaged if you really love these kinds of films.

You need to watch it to the credits and you will know the real hard work of these actors.

Recommended for all action lovers. My Vote 6/10

Sadly, THE KICK is another Thai martial arts film that ends up disappointing rather than exhilarating. Don't get me wrong, I love and adore the first quartet of these Thai films I watched: ONG BAK, BORN TO FIGHT, WARRIOR KING, and CHOCOLATE are all fantastic little films that I can happily watch over and over again. But everything else that has come since has been a disappointment.

Even with ONG BAK director Prachya Pinkaew on board, and martial arts choreography from old timer Panna Rittikrai, THE KICK is an underwhelming film. There's a storyline about the hunt for a priceless and ancient kris (a type of eastern dagger) but the main narrative is bogged down by the antics of an unlikeable Korean Taekwondo team who really drag things down. The reason for their inclusion is that this film was part funded by South Korea, who obviously wanted a slice of Muay Thai for themselves.

The problem with this is that we get the likes of Tae-joo Na occupying most of the screen time. This Korean actor's acting is poor and his martial arts is little better, and the bit where he does a hip hop dance to beat up the villains is a huge embarrassment. At least the reliable Petchtai Wongkamlao (THE BODYGUARD) is on hand to bring some laughs, and the fantastic JeeJa Yanin (CHOCOLATE) stars in support as another fighter. But they really should have focused the story on Yanin alone and concentrated on doing great choreography and extensive fight scenes and then this would have been something special instead of weak and generic.

When I happened to come across the movie by sheer random luck, I was rather thrilled, as the cover looked appealing and the mixture of action/martial arts and comedy is just great, so I bought this movie right away. It does help a lot that I am a massive fan of Asian cinema to begin with.

"The Kick" is, however, not really standing out in the Asian market of movies, as there are far better movies out there. That being said, don't get me wrong, because I am not saying that "The Kick" is a bad movie, far from it, it is just doesn't stand out in a market of action/comedy movies.

The story is about a Korean family who honor the ancient Korean martial arts of Tae Kwon Do, who live in Thailand. They end up getting mixed up in a web of abductions, crime and gangsters, as they are forced to steal a national Thai treasure if they want to have the youngest family member returned to them after being abducted.

"The Kick" has a good variety of characters. Characters that are well portrayed on the screen and all have very different traits, characteristics and personalities. And thumbs up for this, because they really managed to put together a good group of people to portray these colorful characters. In that aspect, then "The Kick" really does impress.

However, it is the overall storyline that sort of drags the movie down and fails to stand out with a lasting impression. And that is a shame, because there is a lot of nice things to the movie. If you enjoy martial arts, then there is a good display of that in the movie. And personally, I found it to be a really nice treat to find JeeJa Yanin (playing Wawa) in the movie, but also hats off to Kyung-suk Kim (playing Tae Mi) and Tae-joo Na (playing Tae Yang). As much as I don't like dancing, then Tae-joo Na managed some really impressive jumps, spins and fighting in general.

"The Kick" is sort of a martial arts movie for the entire family, as it is not overly violent, but has elements for all ages in the movie. There is action, martial arts and comedy. This could very well be considered a Korean / Thai version of a Jackie Chan movie.

A family of South Korean martial artists are on their way to a tournament when they inadvertently get involved in a plot to steal an ancient knife that is priceless but, if I had to put a price on it, I'd say it was worth about US$33million. Anyway, hailed as heroes for their intervention, the family find themselves the target of the gang when they come looking for revenge.

Having been really impressed by Jija Yanin Mitananda in Chocolate I had sought out other films with her in it – and the trailer for this one looked very good indeed. The reason for this is of course but it is full of clips of great physical feats and thankfully it is representative of the film in that it does have plenty of action and much of it very impressive. The skills of the main cast members is impressive and there are a few very well choreographed sequences. Problem is that the film itself is pretty poor and, while some of the action compensates for this, it really isn't what they deserve. The plot is weak and makes almost no sense. The delivery of the comedy is poor and the use of music is roundly terrible – particularly a fight sequence where a character "dances" his way through the villains. There are lots of things like this and it hurts the film – and I felt it even more when the really cool move or sequence came along to remind me what it was capable of.

In terms of performances it is hard for me to judge because I watched a dubbed version. As with Chocolate I did love Yanin – she is stunning but physically her abilities are amazing, she really needs a film that can support her. Wongkamlao was pretty funny here – previous films I have not always liked him but here he worked as comic relief. Korean Lee is a decent villain if you ignore that his character's motivations make pretty much no sense but his bodyguards were good. The rest of the family are mixed but I liked the son, daughter and mother characters – the father and cute kid I could have done without.

A weak film then, but one that contains some great physical sequences – so good in fact that they really deserve a film that is better than this one.