Born To Fight

Today I decided to go back to Thailand and watch Born To Fight, a movie released in 2004 that I copped around the time Ong Bak came out, but never got around to watching until now. Born to Fight stars Dan Chupong, who played the Crow Ghost in Ong Bak 2 & 3 and was directed by Panna Rittikrai (Ong Bak 2 & 3).

Born To Fight follows the traditional formula of most Thai Action/Martial Arts films in my opinion; shitty storyline with a few good action/fight scenes.

Chupong is Deaw, a cop who looks like he's 18 and involved in the arrest of a major Thai drug kingpin (referred to as "The General") at the beginning of the film. During the arrest his partner is killed, and then Deaw decides to take a trip with his sister, who is a Taekwondo champion.

The trip stops at a small village where Deaw, his sister, and the various other athletes are giving out things to the poor people of the village. Everything is shiny and happy until a heavily armed militia come in and start wrecking shop.

After a few minutes of shooting, yelling and ranting in Thai we soon learn that the militia are taking the village hostage and are demanding The General be released from prison. They take over all the computer and news transmissions in Thailand and demand he be released or they will kill the village on national television.


Deaw, who plans to escape and come back with help, also finds out that these dudes have other plans. He sees that they have a nuclear missile and plan on blowing up Bangkok. WTF?!?!

Deaw, inspires the villagers and his athletic friends to rise up, fight their enemies and save Thailand.

I am trying to give as brief as a plot rundown as possible, because their really wasn't any. The first 45 minutes of this movie was really horrible.

The last half of the movie is semi-entertaining, because you get to see a few of the athletes (who are really Thai National athletes) strut their stuff. Here are a few clips:



(look at the little girl at the 7:50 mark....one of my favorite parts.....)




(Wait for the 5:19 mark, the one legged dude is kind of nice!!!)

Deaw then fights off one of the Militia (played by the dude was injecting himself in Ong Bak) who is about to launch the nuclear missile (Oh No!). The fight is pretty entertaining, and the missile is redirected to land into the water instead of in the city (Yay!).




(I don't think anyone is going to be eating seafood in Thailand after that explosion....)

I was ready to dish out a horrible review for Born To Fight because so many things were wrong with the film. The story line was cheesy, acting was horrible, the score sounded like the start menu to Street Fighter put on repeat for 90 minutes. When the action did start, it was pretty entertaining. The way they intertwined gymnastics, soccer, rugby, etc. into the fight scenes was kind of cool. Chupong does not have great fighting skills when he is on the ground, but the dude does some pretty nasty flips. I give him credit for that.

I give Born to Fight 2 1/2 Fists. It's unique fight choreography saved what very well could have been a terrible film.

Eight Diagram Pole Fighter--Buddha's Name Be Praised!!!

Peace & Blessings everyone.....another late review......busy weekend....my sincerest apologies....
I went to my DVD Connect and was going to cop something new to review, but didn't see anything worth getting. So I decided to go back to the classics.

Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (also known as Invincible Pole Fighter) is a classic Shaw Brothers film (directed by Liu Chia-Lang) starring Gordon Liu (of Enter the 36 Chambers fame). In this film Liu plays the 5th of 8 brothers in Yang family, a group of well trained soldiers who are known for their service to the government. They are soon betrayed by Pan Mei, a government official who is conspiring with the Mongolian Army. Peep the first scene right here, with the action starting up around the 2:20 mark.



In this epic battle scene 4 of the 7 brothers are brutally murdered as well as their father. The 4th brother is taken prisoner (and strangely never mentioned again), the 6th brother (played by Alexander Fu Sheng, who tragically died during filming) returns home and goes insane, while the 5th brother takes refuge in the Ching Ling Temple.

The monks at the Temple refuse to take in the 5th brother at first, due to his anger and blood soaked past as a solider. After seeing his martial arts skills (particularly with the quarterstaff), the monks decide to let him stay. Here is a scene where 5th Brother begins his training with the monks. The training starts around the 2:57 mark.



The elder monk does a superb job of showing 5th brother how to to take out the wolves, a skill that comes in very handy later in the film.

As the traitor Pan Mei and the Mongols search for 2 Yang Brothers that they failed to murder, they wind up killing a senior monk from the temple and taking a Yang sister hostage. This leads to 5th brother wanting to leave the temple to get revenge. In this scene, 5th Brother proves to the Abbot that he must leave the temple to save his sister.




5th Brother finds Pan Mei and the Mongols, which leads to a gruesome final fight scene. 5th brother and his sister are severely outnumbered, but the monks from the temple (along with the Abbot) come to their aid. When 5th brother questions Abbot coming to fight and breaking the temple's rules, he replies with the classic line "We're driving away wolves." The monks proceed to take out the Mongols like the wooden wolves they trained on.




After the traitor Pan Mei is dealt with accordingly, 5th Brother bounces from his family and the Ching Ling Temple, stating "I have no home now."

Great fucking movie!!! I give Eight Diagram Pole Fighter 5 Fists. It is a grim and angry film that avoids any humorous elements that were common in many of director Lui Chia-Lang's offerings. The fight scenes are well choreographed and quite bloody, especially the brutal finale. Gordon Liu plays one of his most memorable roles, and Alexander Fu Sheng is missed in the final scene. If not for his tragic death, he would have been side by side w Liu in the classic final fight! Eight Diagram Pole Fighter is a must see for all true Martial Arts film lovers.

BRINGING BACK THE CLASSICS! THE MYSTERY OF CHESS BOXING!

Peace & Blessings my people......I'm on a three week streak and for the first time in this blog's history, I am posting on a Saturday morning!! Let me pause real quick and brush my shoulder off......Ok now back to our regularly scheduled program......

For this week's review I decided to bring it back to the classics. The Mystery of Chess Boxing is one of my personal favorites. It is also internationally known as Ninja Checkmate. Why it is also called that has always confused me. There is not one ninja or one piece of Japanese fighting style in the whole movie. My only guess was that ninja movies were starting to gain popularity and they were trying to ride that wave.

Instead of going over the whole plot line this week, I'm just going to focus on a character in this flick that to me goes down as one of the greatest villains in cinematic history. He goes by the name of The Ghost Faced Killer.


Played by Mark Long, Ghost Faced Killer is without a doubt the best part of this movie. Traveling the land looking for several clan leaders who conspired to kill him, The Ghost Face Killer spares no mercy on his enemies. Before he attacks them, he always throws his trademark "ghost faced killer plate" to let them know some real shit is about to go down.

Here is a video clip of the first part of the movie. At 2:33 in you will see The Ghost Faced Killer approach his first victim. Peep his laugh while he is choking dude out. Classic material! He also whoops another dudes ass using the 5 elements style around 4:53 in the clip.




Anyone who appreciates a good villain in movies can't front on Ghost Faced Killer. He goes through this movie straight fucking people up like a Chinese Dee-Bo!!!

But, like 99% of most movies, the villain usually meets his demise at the end. Ghostfaced Killer meets up with Lee Yi Min (played by Ah Po, who does his best Jackie Chan impersonation) and his teacher Chi Sue Tin (Jack Long). Student and teacher team up, using double horse style (Chinese Chess Reference) to defeat The Ghost Faced Killer in what goes down as one of the best fight scenes in Martial Arts movie history.



I give The Mystery of Chess Boxing 5 Fists. Great fight scenes with a great villain make this movie one that you have to put on your "must-see" list. I also give this movie props because it helped create this:


and this: