I’m a big fan of martial art movies. Besides all the super power sword fighting chinese movies, I most enjoy bare fist fighting and bone crushing action movies. Martial art is not about hurting or killing people, it’s an art form to discipline oneself and for self defense.

I grew up watching Bruce Lee’s movies and he was my greatest idol back then. Then came more silver screen martial artistes like Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Zhang Ziyi and even our very own Malaysian Bond girl Datuk Michelle Yeoh. All of them came from different background but they share the common martial art most important rule … self discipline!

I myself took up Tae Kwon Do when I was younger. Then when I started working, I took up kickboxing for some health and self defense purposes. From then, I began to love boxing and Muay Thai.

If anyone of you is a big fan of Muay Thai, you’d probably heard of the name Tony Jaa (Phanom Yeeram) and the movie Ong Bak – Muay Thai Warrior. Now let me tell you something about Tony and his movie Ong Bak.

The story is about a sacred Buddha statuette called Ong Bak is stolen from a rural village and it soon becomes the task of a young man, Boonting (Tony Jaa, Phanom Yeeram), to track the thief down to Bangkok and reclaim the religious treasure. Along the way, Boonting must use his astounding athleticism and traditional Muay Thai skills to combat his adversaries. This is when the bone cracking scenes come into play. I was so impressed with his fighting skills and his acrobatic abilities, I was totally glued to the seat for the whole show. Tony Jaa did all the fightings and stunts by himself. No stunt doubles and no cables! I watched the movie for more than 10 times already. Believe me, you must watch how this fellow jumps over 3 different vehicles and then jump into a loop of barbed wires with a leg split! That’s not it, see his Muay Thai fighting skills, it is just goddamn awesome!

I got so addicted to the movie Ong Bak until I got suckered into watching yet another Thai action movie called Born To Fight. This movie has an entertaining value but not and never be as good as Ong Bak. A big let down.

It was a month ago that I found out that Tony Jaa is coming out in a new movie called “Tom Yum Goong�?. It is expected to become another mega blockbuster film with the budget of 300 million baht (Second highest in Thailand ’s film history, since “Suriyothai�?.)

TOM-YUM-GOONG is the story of a young man named Kham (Tony Jaa) whose life is turned upside down when an international mafia syndicate, based in Australia , captures his two beloved elephants and smuggles them thousands of kilometers away to Sydney . The two elephants are far more than mere animals to Kham and his father. They are part of his family and were being prepared to be presented as a token of devotion to his Majesty the King of Thailand. The only way Kham can possibly save the animals is by venturing into a foreign land for the first time.

As you can tell, this movie is made to reflect Thailand and Thai people. In ‘Ong-Bak’, they tell us about the art of Thai boxing and things that Thai people respected as holy. So in ‘Tom Yum Goong’, they are going to tell about the noble tradition and culture of Thailand , as well as the bond between Thai people that foreigners do not know.

It is also mentioned in their official website that Elephant and the art of Thai boxing, the two symbols of Thailand , are blended perfectly into the fighting movements of Tony Jaa. You won’t be able to blink when you see it. So this movie must be good!

I can’t wait to watch Tom Yum Goong. But unfortunately, I don’t think it’ll be showing here in Malaysia. I’ve checked with TGV, GCS and CinemaOnline websites but I don’t seemed to be able to find Tom Yum Goong listed in their ‘coming soon’ section.

Even if it’s not showing on the big screen, I will go get the DVD copy of it! I don’t care, I must watch this movie! Tony Jaa is da best!