Kung Fu Tony (Ong Bak 2 Promo Reel)

It's pretty unanimous that Ong Bak brought martial arts movies to a whole new level of brutality and realism. The script was awfully crap, but no one seemed to care once the ass-kicking got started. It's all because of one guy - Tony Jaa. From practically a nobody, or more accurately, just another extra, Jaa achieved grand martial arts status, and the term "international action superstar" became permanently attached to his name.

At the time when a movie could have Tony Jaa playing a character chasing down the bad guys who stole his Tamagochi and I'd still go to see it, his follow-up Tom Yum Goong wasn't as spicy although it was essentially equally brutal and action-packed.

Now the guy has gone and directed an Ong Bak sequel himself. And Ong Bak 2 looks mightily impressive, judging from the promo reel exclusively available at Twitch here. It has nothing to do with the first movie's storyline, and it seems the only things both movies have in common are Tony Jaa and elephants. But it's basically about a young boy rescued by a group of martial artists of different disciplines, and who is destined as The One who will unite all the martial arts of the world. Or something like that.

It does seem to be the trend these days of mixing different forms of fighting in one movie, much like what Donnie Yen has been doing. So in Ong Bak 2, Jaa does muay thai, kung fu, samurai swordfighting, and more.

In case you missed the link above, once again here's the promo reel exclusively at Twitch.