Looking at movies from inside the blinkered bubble of the Hollywood hype machine, or broadening our scope to the wider realm of international prestige films, it’s easy to forget that many of the most exciting aspects of movie-making have much humbler beginnings. Classic wuxia and crime thrillers of the 1980’s were the foundation of a Golden Age for Hong Kong filmmakers like John Woo and Wong Kar-Wai who’ve been tremendously influential in world cinema. It’s taken a couple of decades for the stylistic sophistication of those influences to filter through and become seamlessly integrated into the American movie vernacular, but these are the roots of The Departed and the terrific Hong Kong sequence in The Dark Knight.
Thai cinema is seeing the genesis of its own Golden Age, with highly regarded filmmakers like Chatrichalerm Yukol and Apichatpong Weerasethakul bringing international recognition to a Thai New Wave. While it’s interesting to compare the scale and scope of emerging national cinema movements to look for parallels across geographic boundaries, it would be hard to find a talent to compare to Thailand’s Tony Jaa. (Though there are the inevitable comparisons to Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan). I was surprised yesterday to learn Tony has already been handed the director’s reigns and seems to be experiencing some of the creative conflicts usually reserved for our more elite filmmaking divas.¬† There’s a current budget scuffle over the sequel to Ong Bak that only amounts to a couple of million dollars (which would pay for about 2 minutes of The Dark Knight). I feel a lot of affection for the guy (er, if affection is the word I’m groping for), and this Tony Jaa quote is quite sweet:
“There are so many problems. I went away to focus on the artistic angle of the film. I make this film not with the number and figures in mind, but for its artistic quality. I invest my effort in it with almost spiritual devotion.”
Tony had disappeared from the set of Ong Bak 2, and apparently went to the jungle to meditate before resurfacing this week. Variety and Rope of Silicon both picked up the story, and having significant connections to Thailand myself, it’s hard for me to shrug this off.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf42Nr5u6Ig[/youtube]
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