Vengeance of an Assassin

Released: November 14(Thailand), April 2015(USA)

Director: Panna Rittikrai

Rated: Not Rated

Run Time: 90 Minutes

Cast:
Dan Chupong: Natee
Nathawut Boonrubsap: Than
Chatchapol Kulsiniwootichai: Pod
Kessarin Ektawakul: Joy

Martial arts films have always been a staple of the action movie genre for decades.  When most people think martial arts or anything to do with martial arts, they tend to think of China.  Makes sense, that’s where kung-fu originates.  That’s also where kung-fu movies truly started.  The United States first got it’s taste of kung-fu and martial arts films when Bruce Lee starred in The Green Hornet during the 60s.  That show really put Lee on the map.  Bruce Lee is the man who really made kung-fu popular here in the States.  I could go on about the history of kung-fu movies, but I won’t.  Recently, with the release of Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior back in 2003, we started seeing martial arts films from other Asian countries outside of China and Japan.  Ong-Bak gave us a new martial arts superstar by the name of Tony Jaa.  While most critics would rightly criticize the stories and the acting in most martial arts movies from Thailand, the one thing they mostly agree on is that the action is hard-hitting, brutal and absolutely spectacular.  Tony Jaa himself has pulled off stunts the likes of which haven’t been seen since the early Jackie Chan days.  Most of these movies from Thailand center generally center themselves around the art of Muay Thai, or Thai Boxing.  It’s a brutal and powerful style that primarily utilizes elbows and knees.  We can thank Tony Jaa’s predecessor, Panna Rittikrai, for truly introducing movie audiences to the wonders of Muay Thai.  Vengeance of an Assassin is the latest and last release from Mr. Rittikrai.

Story?  What story?  You don’t watch a movie like this for the story, but I’ll address the story later.  What I will say is that Vengeance of an Assassin opens with one of the craziest action sequences I’ve seen this side of Ong-Bak.  Extreme soccer?  Oh, yeah.  It’s wildly choreographed with Dan Chupong performing really wild stunts along with Nathawut Boonrubsap(say that name five times fast).  It’s a dream sequence, but it’s completely nuts with no wire-work(that I’ve noticed).  You’ve got stuntmen jumping over boats, landing in piles of burning coal and kicking around a soccer ball while beating the living daylights out of each other.  THAT’S how you open an action movie.  The other action sequences are absolutely brutal.  There’s a fight scene where Dan Chupong is trying to protect a girl from a group of assassins in a garage, and he uses that environment effectively.  People are getting hit left and right with really heavy objects including a sledgehammer.  I haven’t cringed this much since Tony Jaa took on 50+ goons in Tom Yum Goong.  It doesn’t stop there.  Oh, no, the movie goes all out to thrill its audiences.  There’s a funny little fight scene with a Chinese doctor that’s amazing, but the real centerpiece of the film is the train sequence.  That is a scene that is completely bonkers.  It ends with some pretty brutal CGI, but it is very satisfying.  This movie absolutely delivers on the action.  You’ve got big explosions, gun fights, and fight scenes that are mind-blowing.  I recommend the movie based on the action alone.  But, we do have to address the story, which is……abysmal to say the least.

The film stars Dan Chupong as Natee, who becomes an assassin to discover the people who murdered his parents.  Along the way he saves the life of the niece of a local politician.  Than, played by Nathawut Boonrubsap, trains by secretly watching training videos until he becomes equally impressive as Natee.  It’s your basic humdrum assassination story that isn’t really all that great.  The acting?  It’s serviceable but it’s not exactly Oscar-worthy, or the Thailand equivalent thereof.  When the film slows down, it really slows down.  Thankfully, it doesn’t slow very often.  Any potential character development is eschewed in favor of major ass-kicking.  I’m not going to say a whole lot about the ending of the movie, but I will say that it is anti-climactic.  After all the awesome action sequences and stunt-work, the movie ends with a kind of a whimper.  It’s too bad, really.  The rest of the film is actually pretty phenomenal.  The direction by Panna Rittikrai is pretty solid, and he knows how to make things fun.  He leaves the stunts and fight choreography to his stunt team.

Vengeance of an Assassin is the final completed film by Panna Rittikrai, who passed away July 20, 2014 of multiple organ failure.  This man was a pioneer of sorts when it came to film-making in Thailand.  He was one of the biggest and well known actors and stuntmen in that country.  He leaves behind an incredible legacy of martial arts stars that include Tony Jaa, Jeeja Yanin, and Dan Chupong.  But he also leaves an indelible mark in the martial arts genre of movies that have raised the bar in terms of intensity and choreography.  Vengeance of an Assassin is quite the swan song for Panna Rittikrai.  The film has its…issues, but the action alone makes this movie worth watching as it reminds me more of Ong-Bak than anything else.  Vengeance of an Assassin gets a respectable 8/10.

RIP Panna Rittikrai(1961-2014)