Hong Kong-styled, fantasy wirework merges with the latest Thai-branded martial arts action in the crazed action comedy DYNAMITE WARRIOR. It stars Dan Chupong, a former member of Tony Jaa’s stunt team, who emerged as a credible action star himself following the release of BORN TO FIGHT in 2004. It also stars Thai action king Panna Rittikrai in an unusual role as a Thai boxing warlock with a particularly bad case of sunburn.
A devotee of Hong Kong action cinema, Rittikrai once starred in his own low-budget action movies before gaining worldwide acclaim as action director of ONG BAK. A skilled martial artist and daring stuntman, Rittikrai would perform all his own skilled fight sequences, often with friends and family as fellow cast members. This gradually built up a loyal fan base among local audiences. Rittikrai’s dedication to his craft has certainly paid off financially in recent years but the genre entertainment he has championed in Thailand is not as strong as it should be.
A look at DYNAMITE WARRIOR suggests that without the hands-on direction of Rittikrai or producer and ONG BAK director Prachya Pinkaew, Thai action cinema is still struggling to define itself in a way that remains true to its culture while entertaining foreign audiences with fresh and palatable.
The film’s premise, conceived by writer-director Chalerm Wongpim puts Chupong into the role of a fictional 19th-century folk hero named Jone Bang Fai. He’s a former monk on a mission to find his father’s killer, a cattle rustler that Jone Bang can only identify by distinctive tattoo scarring on his chest. While searching for the killer among buffalo herders in Northeastern Thailand, Jone Bang uses his Thai boxing skills and a massive arsenal of rockets to battle rustlers and return stolen cattle to their rightful owners.
Jone Bang’s heroic deeds come into direct conflict with a young lord named Waeng (Puttipong Sriwat). Waeng possesses a distinctive cleft lip, slurred speech and a wicked plan to wipe out the country’s cattle herders and force farmers to buy his newly imported tractors.
At this point the movie is already absurd because of Wongpim’s deranged script and direction. He’s just lobbing crazed action and a freak show’s gallery of characters at the viewer. It reminds me a lot of the Wong Jing school of filmmaking. Picture LAST HERO IN CHINA meets ONG BAK, with hundreds of giant bottle rockets flying in every direction.
Jone Bang literally mounts a giant rocket and rides it through the air like a surf board. At other times he launches dozens of smaller rockets at his foes. He’s even mounted rockets on a wagon, thus making it the world’s first rocket-powered vehicle. Where he procures the means to craft these explosive devices remains a gaping mystery.
Like a Southeast Asian Dr. Evil, Waeng is this gibbering, cackling freak who is always covering up his cleft while he laughs menacingly. He hires an even crazier character to lead his assault on the herders. Somdej Keawlue is a burley Thai version of “Jaws” from THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. He’s missing the metal teeth and is probably shorter but Keawlue’s character has a ravenous appetite that turns him into raging, cannibalistic bull. His “horns” are giant curved clubs that he uses to batter victims into oblivion.
The whole movie is a build up to a wizard’s duel, loosely reminiscent of the Taoist battle at the end of Sammo Hung’s SPOOKY ENCOUNTERS. Jone Bang initially sides with the wrong battle mage, thinking that Nai Hoi Sing (Samart Tipthamai) is the murderer. Waeng pretends to be a victim of Nai Hoi Dam’s (Rittikrai) evil deeds and tricks Jone Bang into aiding Sing’s rival Nai Hoi Dam (Rittikrai), a hideous scab-covered hermit with an attractive daughter (Kanyapak Suwannakoot). She takes a romantic interest in Jone Bang yet serves a more practical purpose in his quest.
I used to think that Hong Kong movies that had characters tossing dog’s blood on each other to ruin their magic was zany. Wongpim outdoes them all by requiring the use of virgin’s menstrual blood to spoil a spell caster’s magic. Sing’s daughter becomes the reluctant donor and later comes to regret it when Jone Bang’s life is at risk.
The action is heavily dependant on elaborate wirework and selective cutting. Rittikrai is not credited as the action director (Somjai Janmuntri is), however the excessive money shots, double takes and slow motion moments betray his considerable influence.
I was one of those critics who saw the excesses of ONG BAK for what they were. In that film Rittikrai and Prachya Pinkaew repeatedly went too far in their effort to gain attention with every sequence. Thai action filmmakers haven’t learned to tone it down. They’re actually getting worse. Virtually every action shot in DYNAMITE WARRIOR is treated like its coolest thing since Jackie Chan slid down a light pole in POLICE STORY. Thailand’s film industry needs this type of pandering, excessively self conscience approach to shooting action like their country needs military coup d’etat’s as effective means to root out political corruption.
In addition to wizardry that allows Dam and Sing to toss their opponents around like rag dolls, there are a couple of possessed henchmen working for Dam who become pawns of both wizards. One takes on characteristics of a monkey and the other assumes the fighting posture of a tiger. I don’t know if this comes from local folklore, but it is quite similar to the possession seen in Hong Kong movies involving Taoist fighters. Even the spiritual kung fu used to supposedly toughen skin against bladed weapons and bullets is similar.
Chupong is the straight man through all of the film’s nonsense and honestly the movie wouldn’t be anywhere near as entertaining without all the goofballs around him. He’s a handsome fellow with exceptional athleticism and screen fighting ability. Yet just like BORN TO FIGHT, his dialogue is minimal and his presence overshadowed by the gimmicks that Wongpim surrounds him with. Even Chupong’s costume reduces his identity since he frequently covers his face with a scarf.
I will say the stunt work, as always, is first-rate. Chupong performs all or most of his own stunts and puts his all into them. The wirework is decent but there isn’t anything here that Hong Kong movie fans haven’t seen already.
Setting aside the overdone slow motion effects and some clipped editing; I actually like the general approach to the fight choreography and presentation. Character movements are clean and precise. The effects of blows and cuts are satisfying. The Muay Thai knee blows are overused though and should have been broken up by a greater diversity of attacks, especially on the part of Chupong. He displayed a very well-rounded fighting style in BORN TO FIGHT that I was missing here.
The soundtrack is another detractor. Apart from a decent vocal number, the music for this movie is a Frankenstein’s nightmare of patchwork synthesizer riffs, driving electric guitars and folk tunes. It changes awkwardly at every turn and never sounds natural or complimentary to what’s happening on screen. If you want to hear how not to score a movie this is a shining example.
Had the filmmakers trimmed out the “begging for attention” shots, mixed up the fighting moves a bit more and glued the action scenes together with a better script and acting, DYNAMITE WARRIORS could have been great instead of being average. I’m all for quirky “out there” filmmaking but the strange brand of humor and cultural references in this film are too to localized and discordant at least for this critic to appreciate. As a long-time student of Hong Kong cinema I see many familiar elements, but nothing that’s indigenous suggests this is anything other than a floundering and somewhat desperate attempt to capitalize on the ONG BAK phenomenon.
by Mark Pollard
