Trailer for Thai actioner ‘The Sanctuary’

  • Print this article!
  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter
News | Film News | by Mark Pollard

THE SANCTUARY

A trailer is out for THE SANCTUARY, writer-director Thanapon Maliwan’s second feature film after the action comedy BRAVE (2007). Both star up-and-coming martial arts actor Michael B. who started out as a stuntman working under action director Panna Rittikrai in ONG-BAK and BORN TO FIGHT.

THE SANCTUARY is a co-production between Las Vegas-based Birth Tree Entertainment and India’s Infinity Filmed Entertainment. Birch Tree specializes in martial arts action and has so far produced or co-produced four other related films including BRAVE, HIGH KICK GIRL, HONOR, and THE PROCESS starring Ernie Reyes Jr.

A young Muay Thai warrior is accused of stealing a holy emerald that his master appointed him to protect. Now on the run from the police, he must retrieve the emerald from the mafia in order to prove his innocence and return the emerald to its holy place.

Michael graduated to action director and star in 2005 with the action drama DEK-DEHN and is now looking to join the ranks of Thailand’s top male action talents including Tony Jaa and Dan Chupong.

According to Twitch Film, THE SANTUARY started out as another movie called DEAD END which ran into a literal dead end financially until its re-launch with Chinese-American actor Russell Wong (ROMEO MUST DIE) added to the cast.

A year ago Variety stated that THE SANCTUARY was going to be an English-language film co-starring British martial arts actor Gary Daniels. With Daniels nowhere in sight in the trailer, I’m guessing he was replaced by Wong at some point.

I still feel sorry for Wong after his BLASH SASH TV series fizzled. He’s been cast in a lot of action roles for projects that have turned out to be stinkers. There aren’t a lot of successful Asian actors working in Hollywood and it seems like they have to leave the country to find decent work. Look at Daniel Wu, Donnie Yen, Conan Lee, Johnny Tri Nguyen, and the list goes on.

It looks like Wong has a solid fighting role in this movie. Honestly, I like his moves in the trailer more than the over-stylized, slo-mo stuff the other fighters are displaying. There seems to be way too much dazzle and not enough substance, which has consistently been the problem with Thai action cinema. I’d love to be proven wrong though. Mike B. looks like another genuinely talented screen fighter.

Source: Twitch Film

Tags: , , ,

  • Print this article!
  • Digg
  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • Reddit
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

  • Anonymous
    Perhaps it was placed in error, but "The Eagle Path" clip is embedded in this link rather than The Sanctuary clip..
  • Darrin Kemp
    The diferance between Russell Wong and the other asian talents that you mention is that they can fight and Wong cant. Period.
  • Wudawg
    Nice to see Russell Wong in an action movie. But I have to wonder what's going to be stolen in the next Thai action flick?
  • danmye
    Like Lee, Chan and Pops, there "can only be one" Tony Jaa.
  • BruisedLo
    i thought it was DEAD END... and it is lol. sad, really sad, that they couldn't even get the movie out, and now its a different title.

    hope robin shou joins russell wong on that boat back to the east, where all the action films are at. i don't think its just the asian actors here who go look for film work in asia, its americans too. didn't gary daniels, ray park, mark dacascos, nathan jones, etc. etc. went to HK or thailand to do movies? martial art action movies are more popular in asia, so i'm guessing more work there.

    man i wonder if michael b. and them are embarrassed, that first they had the dead end trailer out like long ago... and we never heard about the movie again until now. some of the old dead end footage are in this trailer lol.
  • noretreatnosurrender
    The trailer doesnt look so bad, the guy at 1 min 30 looks pretty good. Mike b vs russel wong looks quite good
  • drunkentaichimaster
    This movie gonna have some great action sequences.
  • STDthaGreat
    It looks like Ong Baak lite, but should still be a good flick. I hope the slo-mo was just emphasized for the trailer and there won't be that much in the actual movie.
  • dac1138
    as long as the quality of the fights is there I don't mind that it's derivative. Brave was a mess but once the action kicked in it was pretty high quality, lot's of nice high falls and some good combat. this film still looks to deliver more and better fights than almost any studio summer flick, so more power to them.
  • John
    Man these Tony Jaa wannabe movies are starting to annoy me. Do something fresh and original. Tony busts his ass to make these well planned amazingly choreographed films, then these hacks come along and just copy all of his moves. Not cool.
  • sowutifmahsnsux
    lol, that is A LOT of slo-mo. the martial arts look decent, but do they bring anything to the table we haven't already seen from Tony Jaa?
blog comments powered by Disqus