Ong Bak: The Beginning

This is a far cry from the bone-smashing operatics of the first ‘Ong-Bak’ movie, as diminutive martial arts powerhouse Tony Jaa returns to showcase his great knack for hurting people in inventive ways – but this time he also chooses to reveal his utter wretchedness as a director. This spurious fourteenth-century prequel tells of Jaa’s exiled prince who joins a community of troglodytic bandits and is trained up as a multi-disciplined killing machine. But the usurper who slew his father is still at large, and it’s up to Jaa to avenge the sins of the past with the help of an impressive arsenal of blunt instruments. It’s sweet that Jaa thinks fans of his work would abide an unannounced five-minute traditional dance sequence right in the middle of the film, but outside the carefully orchestrated (though crushingly monotonous) fight sequences, this is over-directed and under-written trash.