tom yum goong/ tony jaa in the protector

[pete]

so last summer this thai movie came out, starring tony jaa, about how a dude lost his favorite elephant in thailand so he tracks down the elephant in australia and battles a nasty Chinese syndicate that steals and eats exotic animals.  he fights his way through all sorts of villains--s and m leather freaks, extreme athletes, giants, anti-buddhist cult members...etc. etc., and he screams "Where is my elephant" quite frequently.  but the stunts are pretty insane.  that tony jaa, he can jump high and he can break bones.  this is a really really fun movie, with a four-minute long steadicam shot of tony jaa going through like 100 guys in a hotel, fighting giant wrestlers and other strongmen with broken bones, smashing people with halogen bulbs, and dislocating like 100 guys joints.  it's pretty insanely fun.

the american trailer, which speaks nothing of him and his lost elephant.

clips from youtube

[Fernando]

Odd, just yesterday I was thinking about Tony Jaa and that I was in need of a flick of his, these links will do for now, thanks pete.

This looks like it'll be a great insane ride, Jaa is the fucking man, just hope this one doesn't take too long to get here.

[MacGuffin]

Exclusive: The Protector's Tony Jaa
Source: ComingSoon

Last year, ComingSoon.net spoke to Thai action star Tony Jaa about his debut feature film Ong Bak: Thai Warrior, which was released in the U.S. after success in his homeland and at various festivals. At the time, Jaa and director Prachya Pinkaew had already started filming their second feature Tom Yum Goong in Australia with much of the same team from "Ong Bak," and we learned that Jaa was playing Kham, a young man who has to recover his family's prized elephants when they're stolen by an Asian gang.

It's quite amazing what can happen in the space of just one year, because on September 8, the movie will be released in the U.S. by The Weinstein Company, under the title The Protector with the help of noted martial arts fanatic Quentin Tarantino and with a new score by Wu Tang mastermind, The RZA (Kill Bill). Even more significant than the wide release for the movie is the fact that Tony's name is being prominently featured on all the posters and advertising for the movie, fully realizing how many fans Jaa had made from "Ong Bak."

"I've experienced a lot of good changes in the last year, through all the movies, and the change has been for the better," Tony Jaa told ComingSoon.net on his second trip to New York. "I've had to work a lot harder, but I'm proud that I now have fans in America, people ask for my autograph, and also people in Thailand are now waiting to see how well the movie does in America."

"There are a lot of things that I had to adjust to, like the time change," Jaa admitted about the Australian shoot. "My body had to adjust to being in another country. The Australians seem to be a little stricter in terms of making sure that production was on time. It was more expensive obviously to film there and they're also stricter about the safety precautions and about licenses. But it was better, because we had a bigger budget and we had opportunities to do those things." Jaa and director Prachya Pinkaew also deliberately tried to bring in more of a culturally diverse cast, including stars from China and Vietnam.

Jaa explained how his style had changed for his second movie. "The action was a little easier because we had a bigger budget, and we were able to hire martial arts specialist from all around the world, specializing in wrestling and Capoeria. There's an emphasis on a heavier, more action-packed Muay Thai with more (simulating of) breaking of bones and then there was also the traditional Muay Thai fighting with elephants."

Even though Jaa's character takes on a number of different martial artists, he denied that those fights were meant to show how much better Muay Thai is. "The intention was really to present various forms of martial arts," he said, smiling, "not necessarily to say that Muay Thai was the best, but to actually increase exposure to other forms."

One of the most amazing scenes in the movie is a four-minute one-take action sequence that has Jaa fighting his way up a four-story restaurant full of thugs. Looking a lot like what Tony Jaa video game might be like, it's amazing since it's something that has never been done before. Essentially, the handi-cam used by the sole cameraman for the scene could only hold four minutes of film in its magazine, so Jaa had to hit every mark for his entire run for the shot to work.

"It's something that I've thought about for a long time with my instructor/teacher/mentor Panna Rittikrai," Jaa told us when asked who came up with the idea to try this. "It was a quite challenging scene, 4 minutes non-stop action. They were able to finish it in 8 takes, but we were only able to do two takes per day, so it took a long time. It took one month to prepare everything before it was even filmed; every step had to be perfectly choreographed. Everything had to be filmed within four minutes, we couldn't mess up at all. The first couple takes we couldn't use, because we were up to the third floor, they were doing fine up until then, and I was about to throw someone out the window, then I realized that one of the safety features wasn't on, so I had to pull the guy quickly back. As for another take that went bad, there was a great take, we were up to the fourth floor, and I was about to say something, and the film ended, so we couldn't use that one. It was really challenging. The 8th take was the best one."

Jaa explained how another amazing action scene in the movie was shot, one in which he faced all sorts of extreme sports fights on skateboards, bikes and other vehicles. "The scene with the bikers, the skateboarders and bladers was actually filmed in Thailand, and it took about two weeks to prepare. We hired people who had those skills and worked with some stuntmen for that scene, too." It looks like they must have shot it with five cameras, but Tony said that they only used two and then used editing to make it look like more.

By the way, if you've been reading this far, you did read that part about "breaking" right, since in one scene, Tony's character gets into a fight where he's seemingly snapping arms and legs like dry twigs, and it looks far too real to be movie magic. "Basically, it takes a lot of practice," Jaa explained. "You have to be very familiar with what's going to happen, the motion, the counts. The stuntmen have been trained so they're very familiar in terms of knowing how to receive the action. There were some people that were hurt in the process, but nothing too serious."

Jaa told us that The Weinstein Company has not asked him to tone down the violence, which is probably a good thing since they're also involved in the production of Jaa's next film, Ong Bak 2, which he will also be directing. "That's one of my new roles, in addition to starring in the film," Jaa told us. "It's going to showcase a new type of Muy Thai, which will incorporate Muy Thai and Khon, a type of traditional dancing, and there will also be new traditional weapons that will be used. In terms of the weapons that can be used, it can be sticks, spears with a sword at the end, and traditional swords, as well. There's going to be emphasis on the script, and of course, the action scenes. It's predominantly going to be filmed in Thailand, because I feel that there are a lot of really nice area in Thailand that haven't been shown in film. We're still considering using international locations, but I think it will mainly be in Thailand."

So far, no one has offered Jaa a job directing action in their films, so it may be awhile before he's following in the footsteps of Sammo Hung or Corey Yuen, but earlier this year, director Brett Ratner expressed interest in Tony appearing in his upcoming three-quel Rush Hour 3, which will reunite Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. Tony's agent, who was sitting nearby listening intently to our interview, said that Jaa's involvement wasn't going to happen. "Brett Ratner was very interested in getting Tony to act in 'Rush Hour 3,'" he confirmed, "but we had to reject the offer, because the timing wasn't right because Tony's directing his next film 'Ong Bak 2.' But if there is an opportunity that they'll be able to work together on something, then Tony really wants to do it."

In the meantime, The Protector opens on Friday, September 8.

[MacGuffin]

Tony Jaa's first major film, Ong-Bak, took America completely by surprise last year. Now Jaa is back in The Protector, in which he takes his signature martial art--Muay Thai--to a whole new level. Jaa achieves seemingly impossible stunts like flipping off of the foreheads of elephants and kicking the crap out of dozens of people using vicious elbow and knee hits. He also inspires great emotion for the elephants that his character is trying to rescue. With the help of a translator, Jaa and I were able to speak when he hit New York City for The Protector promotional tour.

Daniel Robert Epstein: What did you want to do with this movie that you weren't able to with Ong-Bak?

Tony Jaa: The Protector is obviously a bigger production with a bigger budget. We are trying to gain more international exposure with an international cast as well as filming in Australia. We tried to improve the action by introducing new and interesting movements from Muay Thai. One of the interesting scenes was the one with four sets of stairs which we did all in one shot. That was filmed with a Steadicam and had to be done within four minutes, so it was very challenging to get everything right. Also again I did not use any stuntmen or wires.

DRE:I understand that you've been doing martial arts around elephants for a long time. How did that start?

Jaa:I've been exposed to elephants since childhood. I grew up raising elephants and I actually have two elephants, one is named Leaf and Flower. In order to film with the elephants in the movie I took one week to acclimate myself with the elephants so that they would know my scene and my voice so they would be familiar with me and not be scared while filming.

DRE:Are elephants as nice as they are in the movie?

Jaa:A lot of the older elephants actually have experience in Thai movies. With the smaller younger elephants, it was a little hard getting them on the set so I would actually take a banana and lure them onto the film set.

DRE:Was that Jackie Chan in the airport or not?

Jaa:It was not Jackie Chan. That was an intentional look-alike.

DRE:Have you ever met Jackie?

Jaa:I did have a chance to meet Jackie when Jackie came to Thailand to make a movie but that was before preproduction on Ong-Bak.

DRE:How was it dealing with the different fighting styles in the movie?

Jaa:I wanted to offer a different type of martial arts to the audience incorporating capoeira, wrestling, all these various forms of martial arts. The martial artists that you see are specialists in their field. They were carefully selected and they all have experience with filming. They were very easy to work with.

DRE:There're a lot more bone breaking scenes in this movie than there was in the last one. Why was that important?

Jaa:I wanted to show the extremes of Muay Thai and it also showcases Muay Thai elephant, which is a very old style of Muay Thai.

DRE:I read that there's a video game for The Protector.

Jaa:It's a PC video game which you can buy it in Thailand. I'm not sure if it's available here. I haven't played it.

DRE:I'm 6 foot 3 inches. If I was to lunge at you, what would be the first thing you do?

Jaa:Run away. I'm too fast for you.

DRE:I read that Brett Ratner wanted to put you in Rush Hour 3.

Jaa:Brett did not speak to me directly. He spoke to my manager. I happened to have a project in Thailand in the works so the timing didn't work out but it's definitely something that I'm interested in.

DRE:Would you like to be in American movies?

Jaa:I'd like to do some type of co-production between Thailand and the United States. If it's a good script and a good team, I'd definitely be interested.

DRE:What is Ong-Bak and The Protector director Prachya Pinkaew like?

Jaa:I have a great relationship with the director. I feel Prachya has a better understanding of the martial arts now. He basically saw the opportunity to market Muay Thai to both the Thai community and the international community with movies.

DRE:Did you hurt yourself doing The Protector?

Jaa:During the whole production, there were no deaths or broken bones. The worst injury that I suffered is that I tore a muscle when I did a jumping scene. We had to stop production for two days. I basically compare it to any injury that you may receive when playing sports.

DRE:How'd you like shooting in Australia?

Jaa:Going abroad was a great experience for me. It had its positive side with international exposure as well as more things that we had to work with in terms of complying with laws. The Australians are stricter with sticking to production schedule. It was just a good experience overall.

DRE:What is your next movie, Sword, about?

Jaa:That has been changed to Ong-Bak 2 and it's currently in preproduction.

DRE:What's the plot of Ong-Bak 2?

Jaa:Ong-Bak 2 is a period piece. I'm actually going to direct as well as star in the film. It's my first time as a director and it will feature a new type of Muay Thai using traditional weapons and new action scenes and moves. Wait and see.

DRE:What made you decide to direct?

Jaa:I have an image in my head of the action of various styles and martial arts. I actually wanted to project that to the viewer so being a director was the most manageable step to make.

DRE:I understand that you're going to be doing something at the Muay Thai School tomorrow. Is Muay Thai done properly at these schools?

Jaa:Muay Thai in Thailand and here come from the same foundation. The difference might be the environment in which they're practicing and the equipment that can be used. Old Muay Thai really concentrates on the meditation aspect so the spiritual awareness and will-power and inner strength is a big part of it. Muay Thai for films is quite different on its own. Ong-Bak was really the first film that accurately documented the use of Muay Thai, so it's evolving.