Ong Bak 2

Martial Media, Culture and Other Arts Martial Media and Popular Culture
21

I just got this press release

Got this from a Magnolia rep.

Magnolia Takes U.S. Rights to Tony Jaa’s ONG BAK 2

BERLIN – February 10, 2009 – The Wagner/Cuban Companies’ Magnolia Pictures announced today that it has acquired U.S. rights to the Thai martial arts epic ONG BAK 2. The highly anticipated sequel to ONG BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR, a big success for Magnolia and one the most exciting new action properties of the last decade, ONG BAK 2 is directed by star Tony Jaa, and delivers even more impressive martial arts wizardry that its predecessor. The film was originally released in Thailand in December of 2008, and will be released theatrically by Magnet (Magnolia’s genre label) later this year.

“When we first saw the original ONG BAK, after picking our jaws off the floor, we knew we wanted to be in the Tony Jaa business. It put us on the map as a home for the best in genre fare, and helped make our genre label Magnet possible,” said Magnolia President Eamonn Bowles. “We’re beyond thrilled to be able to carry the franchise forward and continue our relationship with Tony, Sahamongkol, and the entire creative team involved.”

“We are exceptionally happy with the deal with Magnolia,” said Gilbert Lim, Executive Vice President of Sahamongkol Film International. “They did a wonderful job with the release of the original ONG BAK, and it feels great to be back in business again with ONG BAK 2. I am certain that the movie is in great hands.”

The deal was negotiated by Tom Quinn, Senior Vice President of Magnolia, with Gilbert Lim of Sahamongkol Film International. ONG BAK 3 is currently in production, and is slated for a December 2009 opening in Thailand.

About Magnolia Pictures
Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com) is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also include the Landmark Theatres chain, the production company 2929 Productions, and high definition cable networks HDNet and HDNet Movies. Magnolia’s 2008 slate included such critically acclaimed films as James Marsh’s Man On Wire and Tomas Alfredson’s Let The Right One In. Magnolia’s upcoming 2009 slate includes James Gray’s Two Lovers, The Great Buck Howard starring John Malkovich, Guillermo Arriaga’s The Burning Plain, documentary and festival favorite Food, Inc Michael Pollen and Eric Schlosser, Anne Fontaine’s The Girl From Monaco, Erick Zonca’s Julia and much more.

About Magnet Releasing
Magnet is the recently launched genre arm of Magnolia Pictures (www.magpictures.com) specializing in films from the vanguard of horror, action, comedy and Asian cinema, such as LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, the most critically acclaimed foreign film of 2008. Magnolia Pictures is the theatrical and home entertainment distribution arm of the Wagner/Cuban Companies, a vertically integrated group of media properties co-owned by Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban that also include the Landmark Theatres chain, the production company 2929 Productions, and high-definition cable networks HDNet and HDNet Movies.

22

The premiere is this Friday!

Only in Austin though…:frowning:

Here’s a press release I just got

“Ong Bak 2” will premiere internationally at the South by Southwest fest in Austin, Texas on March 13. Screening at SXSW Presents: Fantastic Fest.

The highly anticipated sequel to ONG BAK: THE THAI WARRIOR, a big success for Magnolia and one of the most exciting new action properties of the last decade, ONG BAK 2 is directed by star Tony Jaa, and delivers even more impressive martial arts wizardry that its predecessor. The film will be released theatrically in the US by Magnet (Magnolia’s genre label) later this year.

Any of you able to go?

23

Tony Jaa’s drunken style is cool…

http://www.martialdevelopment.com/blog/ong-bak-2-review/

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[QUOTE=GeneChing;922556]Only in Austin though…:frowning:

Here’s a press release I just got

Any of you able to go?[/QUOTE]

Frick frick frick! I wish I kept up, I woulda tried!

Apparently this week, there’s a video store in Austin that will actually HAVE it on DVD!! :eek:

25

from that review. ong bak 2 looks like garbage.

26

From that review:
“And since the film is basically one extended fight scene, this lack of dramatic tension is a serious flaw.”

??? Sounds like the ideal martial arts movie to me! No need to fast forward! Schweet!

27

i saw the drunken scene, was no impressed. saw the other one where it looked like he tried to do the traditional shaw brothers fight and came off more of a mocking.

you have to remember though i thought ong bak 1 was over rated and was garbage too. the protector (tom yung goon) i thought was good but thats about it.

tony jaa doesnt do it for me. the guy has skill and i will give him respect, but he is a trick master to me. not a martial artist.

28

Didn’t care for the first, doubt I will like this one.

29

Ong Bak 2

Calling this film Ong Bak 2 is the worst marketing move ever. As we’ve already read, this has nothing to do with OB except that it’s Jaa & Baa Ram Ewe. If they had titled it something different, like Tom Yum Goong or Pad Thai or Mussamun, that would have been so much better. As it stands, it may be damaging to Jaa’s reputation in Hollywood.

On the up side, there’s some great fights. Jaa’s choreography is still brilliant, still amusing, still fresh. Jaa plays with many different styles of fights, akin to the first fights of Chocolate (fight #1 the Bruce Lee fight, fight #2 the Jackie Chan fight). Here, Jaa works classic kung fu and samurai fights and even gives his own spin on drunken style, 3-section and rope dart. The fights are solid, fast paced, frenetic and very entertaining. Jaa got a good chuckle out of me on several occasions with his inventiveness in choreography. What can I say? I love to watch Jaa in action. He’s got the moves, no doubt about it.

There’s some crazy elephant stunts too, but not stuff that hits you right away as astounding. You have to step back and think about it for a sec, then you realize that it’s a crazy stunt because a mistake and Jaa would be trampled to death by elephants. The elephants don’t seem to be abused. The Thai say they love their elephants. Jaa was raised with them. At least that’s what we were led to believe in TYG.

The story is completely predictable from scene one, told from the middle at the beginning, then back to the middle, then the end. The kid they got to play the young Jaa looks uncannily like Jaa. The beginning and the end have all the fights. The middle has this interlude of classic Thai dance, which is interesting if you like that sort of thing, but might be lost on most martial arts fans. It stars the Thai-Richard-Kiel from Dynamite Warrior as a villain. He’s entertaining. But the story is very uneven. Perhaps some of that is a result of Jaa’s debacle during filming. I’m inclined to write it off more so to the general nature of the martial arts genre.

Maybe it would have been better with better subs. My version had fantitles, which only marginally mapped onto the flick. There were scenes where there’s no dialog and the titles are scrolling like mad, scenes where there’s lots of dialog and no titles, and many moments that leave one wondering if they are even the right titles for this film. The fantitles provided extra entertainment, but I’ve got odd tastes. I will see it again with proper subs someday.

OB2 is a throwback to classic martial arts films, where it’s all about the fights. There’s an attempt to have a story in the middle, but that’s really a wasted effort. The film would have been stronger had they just stuck with the fights and skipped so much plot development. The killing blow is that people might expect another OB or another TYG. OB2 is not either. I felt the production value was the best of the three flicks, but the worst so far as a film overall. OB was fresh because it was first and offered a great depiction of Bangkok. TYG had that phenomenal single shot fight scene. OB2 will be seriously hampered by a deceptive title. Nevertheless, I’d rather watch a fresh Jaa flick than a new Seagal…that being said, I don’t think I need to convince anyone here to see it or avoid it. The true martial arts film fans won’t be able to resist a new Jaa flick.

30

Any word on when OB2 will be released?

When will OB2 be released?

31

I’m always late to the party, but I just watched Ong Bak 2 over the weekend.

I have to agree with Gene in that, other than to glom onto Ong Bak just by name, to try to attract viewers I guess, the title makes no sense. Ong Bak was the buddha statue in the village of the first movie. I’m not sure how that correlates at all to this film. But on second thought hardly anyone would remember that and would just know implicitly that Ong Bak whatever = Tony Jaa.

Nonetheless, as quirky as this movie was at times, I was really entertained. It took a little bit from the beginning to get the action really going, but there were a lot of fights and some really creative choreography. Having watched a bunch of Thai films before, I only expected some thread of a cohesive story, much less original or compelling. I think most people watching this film will be in the same boat, that they just want to see some really cool fight scenes and stunts.

One part did leave me scratching my head a little, when some bird like freaky character jumped into the fight and totally pwned Tony Jaa’s character, then basically jumped on the big elephant and rolled out. I was like WTF? Then I was like “whatever” and kept watching.

In any case, a keeper for anyone’s collection in my opinion. To sort of have an array of different styles was cool too, gave it a slight Shaw-Brothers-ish vibe to me.

32

I bought Ong Bak 2 and I love it.

33

Ong Bak 2 trailer

Didn’t know if anyone posted this as of yet.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/07/03/epicly-awesome-french-trailer-for-tony-jaas-ong-bak-2/

34

The movie is already out on DVD. I got mine on ebay for $9.99 plus shipping. You can also get a slightly more expensive version for $19.00 at hkflix.com. That way you can watch it before it hits theaters in the US.

35

Dragonzbane76, search before posting

We’re already talking about Ong Bak 3.

36

haha to lazy to search through posts… but thanks… :slight_smile:

37

there is a search function at the top of the forum in the blue user action strip.

38

[QUOTE=brothernumber9;929604]I have to agree with Gene in that, other than to glom onto Ong Bak just by name, to try to attract viewers I guess, the title makes no sense. Ong Bak was the buddha statue in the village of the first movie. I’m not sure how that correlates at all to this film. But on second thought hardly anyone would remember that and would just know implicitly that Ong Bak whatever = Tony Jaa.[/QUOTE]
My dvd arrived in the mail today and I just finished watching it.

The Buddha statue is shown at the end of the movie, along with a bearded Tony Jaa. I’m assuming it plays into the third movie coming out later this year.

I don’t want to give anything away, but I pretty much guessed the ending regarding his adopted father.

39

I used my computer to see the “root” file on my Ong Bak DVD. The title is Eastern Masters. Maybe they used OB2 for the westerners who were familiar with Ong Bak. They did something similar with King Boxer aka 5 Fingers of Death which sounds a lot more enticing than King Boxer.

40

Opening Oct 23, but it’s going to be pretty limited

It’s been available on VOD since Sept 25th, but you’ll only get a quick shot to see it on the big screen here in the states.

Opening

10/23/2009
Berkeley, CA: Shattuck Cinemas 10
Pasadena, CA: Playhouse 7 Cinemas
San Francisco, CA: Lumiere Theatre 3
West Hollywood, CA: Sunset 5
Aiea, HI: Pearlridge West 16
Honolulu, HI: Kahala Theatres 8
Cambridge, MA: Kendall Square Cinema
New York, NY: Village East Cinemas
Philadelphia, PA: Ritz 5 Movies
Seattle, WA: Varsity Theatre

11/13/2009
Albuquerque, NM: Guild

11/30/2009
San Diego, CA: Hillcrest Cinemas

12/11/2009
Iowa City, IA: University of Iowa, Bijou Theater