Friday, 4 June 2010

Better Than Chocolate? – A Review of ‘Raging Phoenix’

Following the Worldwide success of ‘Ong Bak 1 & 2’, ‘Warrior King’ and ‘Chocolate’, the latest martial arts spectacular from Thailand, ‘Raging Phoenix’ is released on DVD this month. Jija Yanin made such an impression in her explosive debut film ‘Chocolate’ she was dubbed “the female Tony Jaa (Star of ‘Ong Bak’)”. So I was really interested to see if her second starring role in ‘Raging Phoenix’ could repeat the excitement and intensity of that debut performance.

Jija Yanin stars as Deu, a down on her luck drummer thrown out of her band for fighting with an audience member. Her situation does not improve when she is the victim of an attempted kidnapping by the notorious Jaguar Gang only to be rescued by Sanim, a martial arts master who along with his own gang of misfits agree to train Deu in the ways of Mayraiyuth, an obscure drunken fighting technique. Together they uncover the Jaguar Gang’s plan to kidnap young women and extract their pheromones to create a rare aphrodisiac for the black market. Once her training is complete Deu and her new friends attempt to bring an end to the Jaguar Gang’s evil plan.

Ok, so the plot is pretty ludicrous but in a film like this the plot is usually secondary to how many fight scenes can they fit into the running time. In an interview with director Rashane Limtrakul on the DVD he states that his intention with this film was “to create a new kind of martial arts movie” and there is no denying that the dazzling array of martial arts on display here is extremely impressive and offers something that has not been seen before. He has managed to combine many different styles and techniques from Muay Thai and Drunken Boxing to more unusual forms such as B-Boy Dance fighting (a combination of Break dancing and Kung Fu) and Trickz (a blend of Karate, Capoeira, Tae Kwon Do and Gymnastics). The fight sequences, of which there are many, are expertly crafted and I particularly liked the fact that many involved long takes with minimal editing showcasing how well the fights were choreographed.

In addition to the martial arts, the film also incorporates a number of relatively new urban sports into the mix. Firstly, Parkour or Free Running, it was fairly inevitable that Parkour would find a place in the world of martial arts as the two sports have many similar characteristics, namely discipline, efficiency, speed and spatial awareness. Another excellent sequence near the beginning of the film sees Deu and Sanim caught in an ambush by a Powerbocking gang wearing modified bocks with bladed edges. Powerbocks originated in Germany and are essentially spring loaded stilts. This fight scene delivers some spectacular action and is really innovative and entertaining.

Director Rashane Limtrakul makes excellent use of stunning locations, in particular a beach training camp where Sanim mentors Deu in a beautifully shot training montage with sweeping camera moves, sharp editing and lens flare from a permanently setting sun. The use of slow motion during key scenes throughout the film emphasises the fact that there were no stunt doubles used and all the actors are doing their own stunts, a philosophy that has made Thai action films stand out from the crowd since the release of ‘Ong Bak’ in 2003. However, the use of wire work which was absent from ‘Ong Bak’ was very obvious in places and made some of the action a little less impressive but at least there was no CGI enhancement apart from wire removal.

This Special Collector’s Edition DVD is released through Cine Asia and is presented in a clean, crisp anamorphic widescreen transfer as you would expect for a recent film. The only soundtrack option is the original Thai version in Dolby Digital 5.1 with clearly presented English subtitles which may alienate the Steven Segal crowd but really it’s the only way to watch a movie of this kind. In addition the disc features around 40 minutes of interviews with the main cast, director and action director as well as B-roll footage of the action scene rehearsals. These extras are fairly standard and do not really offer much substance which is a little disappointing. I was also surprised that there was not an outtake reel, the staple of any good martial arts movie since the 80’s.

Overall the film proves that Jija Yanin is one to watch. She shows here as she did in ‘Chocolate’ that she is a world class martial artist giving Tony Jaa a good run for his money in the action stakes. If you like your martial arts movies to be fast and inventive then I would recommend ‘Raging Phoenix’, just forget about the plot and enjoy the action.

(This review originally appeared on the 'Obsessed With Film' website, I am posting it again here in case you missed it!)

Here is the link if you want to see the original:

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