The Tony Jaa movie thread

Ricochan38 · Post by **Ricochan38** » 03 Nov 2004, 08:05

I heard now that Tom Yum Goong will have the premiere in BKK in february 2005.

This is not part 2 of Ong Bak by the way, tony ja said they will make a part 2 of that maybe next year or so..

I also found the info here about TYG ;

Filming from june to december 2004

Directed by
Prachya Pinkaew

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Prachya Pinkaew screenplay

Cast (in credits order)
Phanom Yeerum .... Kham (as Tony Ja)
Petchtai Wongkamlao .... Inspector Mark (as Mum Jokmok)

Nathan Jones .... Bodyguard
Johnny Nguyen .... Bodyguard

Plot Outline: A young fighter named Kham must go to Australia to retrieve his stolen elephant. With the help of a Thai-born Australian detective, Kham must take on all comers, including a gang led by an evil woman and her two deadly bodyguards.

Release dates for Tom yum goong (2005)

France 2005
Hong Kong February 2005
Thailand February 2005

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 04 Nov 2004, 00:11

It might be worth mentioning in this thread that Tony Ja did some doubling for Mortal Kombat (which is the sole reason I bought Ong-Bak in the first place). In retrospect, MK totally kick started Ja's career.

Ricochan38 · Post by **Ricochan38** » 05 Nov 2004, 07:46

yes thats true, and they also asked him to play a part in the next mortal kombat, but i dont think he accepted it, because he is too busy already..

Limited Edition Slag · Post by **Limited Edition Slag** » 05 Nov 2004, 10:01

[quote][i]Originally posted by Ricochan38[/i]

This is not part 2 of Ong Bak by the way, tony ja said they will make a part 2 of that maybe next year or so..

[/quote]

ALthough not an official sequel to Ong Bak, ive read Tony Jaa is playing the same character from Ong Bak.

Limited Edition Slag · Post by **Limited Edition Slag** » 05 Nov 2004, 10:20

[quote][i]Originally posted by BiscLimpkit[/i]
It might be worth mentioning in this thread that Tony Ja did some doubling for Mortal Kombat (which is the sole reason I bought Ong-Bak in the first place). In retrospect, MK totally kick started Ja's career. [/quote]

Yeah he doubled Robin Shou. Ive got an old TKD magazine with an interview with US stunt actor JJ Perry. The interview contains a few behind the scenes pictures and you can see Tony Jaa and a few other thai stuntmen in one of them alongside JJ:ninja:.

Limited Edition Slag · Post by **Limited Edition Slag** » 05 Nov 2004, 14:26

itting the Big Time-Tony Jaa's death-defying stunts-Article
Hitting the Big Time
Tony Jaa's death-defying stunts—and disregard for bodily harm—make him the new Bruce Lee
Monday, Oct. 18, 2004
When Tony Jaa's film producer met him for the first time, she thought he was "ugly" and "couldn't act." His image consultant now says Jaa is "uncool" and is urging him to get a new haircut. His English teacher despairs that two years of lessons have yielded little more than a rudimentary grasp of the language. Listen to his minders long enough, and you may start doubting the buzz that Jaa is Southeast Asia's long-overdue answer to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan.

Until you see Jaa in action. In a cavernous room on the third floor of a stunt training center in Bangkok, Jaa bobs on the mat like a gymnast lining up a run to the vaulting horse. At the end of the room, a crew member holds aloft a cushion that stands in for a human head. Jaa hurtles down the runway, launches himself like a missile, flips in midair and brings his right foot crashing down on the cushion. The kick sends the cushion—and the unfortunate guy holding it—flying across the room. Jaa lands on his feet and smiles.

In Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, the stunt man-turned-actor leaps across boiling oil, ballets above an array of tuk tuks and beats up anyone foolish enough to challenge him. The insane inventiveness of the stunts—done without special effects, wirework or apparent concern for Jaa's life and limb—has turned into box-office gold in Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and even France, where the film found a fan and international distributor in action auteur Luc Besson. Besson recut the film and secured a U.S. distribution deal with Magnolia Pictures. Expectations are high that Ong Bak and Jaa will break big in North America when the movie is released in February.

Jaa, whose real name is Phanom Yeeram, grew up in Thailand's rural northeast, a region most notable for its poverty and, in the early 1980s, the occasional mortar round fired across the Cambodian border by the Khmer Rouge. "Some days we'd be sitting down to dinner and the mortars would explode in the village, blowing out our windows and doors," Jaa says. He escaped these grim realities by viewing the films of Chan and Lee on outdoor screens at temple fairs. "It was powerful for me to watch," he says. "What they did was so beautiful, so heroic. I wanted to do it, too." Jaa practiced in his father's rice paddy or, when bathing the family's elephants, by somersaulting off their backs into the river. "I practiced," he says, "until I could do the move exactly as I had seen the masters do it."

At 15, Jaa sought out the Thai stunt coordinator and low-budget action director Panna Ritthikrai, who took him on as a protégé. He went to a gymnastics college and soon found work as a stunt man in local and international films, including 1997's Mortal Kombat 2. Then he and Ritthikrai started devising their own stunts inspired by muay boran, a more elegant and traditional form of Thai boxing that resembles kung fu. Jaa traveled the countryside talking to the few remaining old masters of muay boran, rediscovering more than 100 long-abandoned moves. Ritthikrai and Jaa filmed the actor's best stunts and showed them to Bangkok director Prachya Pinkaew. The filmmaker was dazzled but had problems getting backing for a film with Jaa in the lead role. "Thai audiences are not used to seeing people from the northeast in the lead," says Sita Vosbein, managing director of Pinkaew's production house, Baa Ram Ewe. "They think people with dark skin are uneducated and ugly. They are always cast as bad guys." When the film was a hit, Jaa felt accepted at last. "I have never been so proud," he says. "I've been fighting discrimination since I was very young. For people to appreciate the beauty of the ancient art of boxing, instead of focusing on what I look like or where I come from, was what I had always dreamed."

Now Jaa is so busy filming his second movie, Tom Yum Goong, in Thailand and Australia, that he has no time to improve his wardrobe, his hairstyle or his English. "Bruce Lee couldn't speak Thai," Jaa says. "And I loved him, anyway."

http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/ ... 68,00.html

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 05 Aug 2005, 20:40

I figure this should be bumped.

Info on Tony Jaa's third film called "Sword" with thanks to LD -

https://www.bulletsnbabesdvd.com/forums/ ... .php?t=786

memetic wrote:Brad, are you still going to see this in Thailand in August?

September but yes if it's still playing (regarding "Sword").

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 05 Aug 2005, 21:07

I don't remember seeing a Tony Ja movie thread around here... weird...

Here's the latest Tom Yum Goong trailer:
http://www.tonyjaaonline.com/videos/tyg ... ly2005.wmv

Wasn't "Phanom Yeerum" called "Tony Jaa" instead of "Tony Ja" ?

memetic · Post by **memetic** » 06 Aug 2005, 01:55

Limited Edition Slag wrote:ALthough not an official sequel to Ong Bak, ive read Tony Jaa is playing the same character from Ong Bak.

I've seen a bit of the beginning of this movie, and it seemed to be a different character... growing up in a different village with his "elephant friend".

EDIT: Just realised how old your post was.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 Aug 2005, 12:04

Tom2681 wrote:I don't remember seeing a Tony Ja movie thread around here... weird...

I did bump it from the first page and also bumped it 9 months

Tom2681 wrote:Here's the latest Tom Yum Goong trailer:
http://www.tonyjaaonline.com/videos/tyg ... ly2005.wmv

Thanks, it's a pity it doesn't work!

Tom2681 wrote: Wasn't "Phanom Yeerum" called "Tony Jaa" instead of "Tony Ja" ?

There is no way he was born Tony Jaa and I doubt he's known as Tony Jaa in Thailand so I suspect it's his original name.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 Aug 2005, 12:07

I guess he won't be going to Hollywood any time soon:

"His English teacher despairs that two years of lessons have yielded little more than a rudimentary grasp of the language."

Thais on the whole do find it very hard to learn English. It's not surprising if you consider Malaysia (for example) is an ex-colony and they speak it on a daily basis anyway.

Great!

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 06 Aug 2005, 12:47

There is no way he was born Tony Jaa and I doubt he's known as Tony Jaa in Thailand

No I meant:
I know his original name was Phanom Yeerum.
But when he changed it, did he become Tony Jaa or Tony Ja ?

Brad wrote:-Here's the latest Tom Yum Goong trailer:
-Thanks, it's a pity it doesn't work!

That's okay, I have another source.

Just need to find it again.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 06 Aug 2005, 12:55

Hurry up then, will ya!

Can't wait to see it. 8)

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 06 Aug 2005, 12:58

*Kicks Hussain in the head Muay Thaï-style*

I'm downloading it from a P2P network.
Then I'll upload it somewhere.
Then I'll post the link.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 06 Aug 2005, 13:27

That's the one:

Latest trailer, July 2005:

http://www.tomyumgoongmovie.com/images/ ... -large.mov

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 06 Aug 2005, 15:19

Bad news everybody...

The Weinsteins have bought US rights to Tom Yum Goong. Expect it not be released until 2010, with 20 minutes cut out and a revamped MTV style soundtrack.

Hopefully someone else will have UK rights.

http://www.twitchfilm.net/archives/003013.html

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 06 Aug 2005, 15:26

They should hire Eminem to dub Tony Jaa's voice so they can release a dual-dvd pack with the US version of Volcano High.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 Aug 2005, 15:30

Merci

Tom2681 wrote:But when he changed it, did he become Tony Jaa or Tony Ja ?

I think Tony Ja is a mistake/typo.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 06 Aug 2005, 15:40

I think Tony Ja is a mistake/typo.

Then fix the name of this bloody thread !

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 Aug 2005, 16:14

Okay but only because you asked so nicely.

BiscLimpkit wrote:The Weinsteins have bought US rights to Tom Yum Goong. Expect it not be released until 2010, with 20 minutes cut out and a revamped MTV style soundtrack.

To be fair they are getting better. Look at Hero and Shaolin Soccer.

Sure Hero could have been better but considering Disney used to immediately mean only a dub they're getting there.

Tom2681 wrote:Latest trailer, July 2005:

http://www.tomyumgoongmovie.com/images/ ... -large.mov

Cheers, Jeez that server is utter crap. It's taking an age (40+ minutes) to download that trailer. It's only 20Mb.

EvaUnit02 · Post by **EvaUnit02** » 07 Aug 2005, 08:07

bradavon wrote: To be fair they are getting better. Look at Hero and Shaolin Soccer.

Sure Hero could have been better but considering Disney used to immediately mean only a dub they're getting there.

The Weinsteins left Di$ney remember? I don't imagine their practices towards Asian films would've changed though.

IronMonkey · Post by **IronMonkey** » 07 Aug 2005, 10:04

BiscLimpkit wrote:Hopefully someone else will have UK rights.

I'm almost positive that Premier Asia have the UK rights to Tom Yum Goong, which is a good thing!

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 07 Aug 2005, 11:06

Hmm I hope so.

Some of their releases have been the shorter international version...

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 07 Aug 2005, 11:56

I'm sure Tom Yum Goong is owned by Premier Asia too.

No Bisc only 2 out of 16 Premier Asia DVDs are the International version and those 2 only have International versions because some Hong Kong marketing type decided they should (both had cut HK versions long before the PA DVDs arrived).

So lets change the record hey!

Don't get me wrong I suspect if other International versions existed they'd use them but 2 out of 16 isn't to bad. Two films is hardly a trend PA are setting.

Of course we could add the changed music for Ong-Bak but the film is not cut and compared to the International version it has to be vastly better. Even so that makes 3 out of 16 Premier Asia DVDs which aren't 100% the Director's Cuts *

That said these are martial arts flicks (the Tony Jaa films) and strangely Premier Asia like changing those. I say strange as they don't with their Hong Kong Legends range. I suspect because the HKL films are much older and very much loved the way they are.

* You can't blame HKL for the cuts to Ichi the Killer or Bichunmoo.

EvaUnit02 wrote:The Weinsteins left Di$ney remember? I don't imagine their practices towards Asian films would've changed though.

Oh yes. That would figure now someone else is running Miramax.

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 07 Aug 2005, 13:55

Premier Asia definitely has the rights for "Tom Yum Goong".

And Brad, how do you count 16 PA DVDs? Do you coubt them including the 2nd discs coming with each release, lol? Because personally, I count 9 DVDs they have already released.