Martial arts superstar Tony Jaa returns in Ong Bak 2, an unrelated sequel to the jaw-dropping Ong Bak. Jaa stars and also co-directs the film alongside frequent collaborator Panna Rittikrai, action choreographer for Jaa’s Tom Yum Goong and Ong Bak. Not content to dish out the same Muay Thai that made him an international sensation, Jaa mixes it up in Ong Bak 2, demonstrating a wider range of martial arts including styles made popular by Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee. Also, Jaa performs his own perilous stunts, and engages in a spectacular duel with Dan Chupong (Dynamite Warrior) on the back of an elephant. The climactic action sequence is a breathless twenty minute-plus fight that finds Jaa squaring off against hordes of foes in a Thai jungle village. A must-see for Asian action aficionados, Ong Bak 2 should be the perfect appetizer before Tony Jaa returns in Ong Bak 3.

Orphaned when the treacherous Lord Rajasena (Saranyoo Wongkrajang) kills his parents, young Tien is saved from slavery and raised by Chernang (Sorapong Chatree), leader of a renowned band of guerillas. Growing to adulthood, Tien (Tony Jaa) becomes proficient in a variety of martial arts styles including boxing, kung fu, and Muay Thai, as well as numerous forms of exotic weaponry. With his training behind him, Tien begins his journey towards his ultimate goal: revenge against Lord Rajasena for his parents’ death. However, infiltrating the enemy brings Tien in contact once again with childhood sweetheart Pim (Primorata Dejudom), who has become Rajasena’s top dancer. Inflicting an initial blow on Rajasena, Tien makes his return to the jungle, only to find his enemies – and a shocking revelation – waiting for him.

Videos from Ong Bak 2:

Attacking the slaver camp

Graduation Test

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The big Korean monster smash hit of 2006 by Bong Joon Ho swept the Korean box-office in a tidal wave. It then went on to draw large audiences throughout Asian cinemas.
A monster creature rosed from the polluted Han river and caused much chaos as it rampaged through the gathered crowd, killing and maiming it’s way. Finally, it snatched a young girl with its tail and took her away.

The young girl’s family was frustrated by the authorities lack of belief in the existence of such a monster; and thus, lack of action in attempting to look for the missing girl.
The desperate family scoured the tunnels beneath the city hoping against hope that their youngest is still alive.

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Cast:
Song Kang Ho as Gang Du
Park Hae Il as Nam Il
Bae Du Na as Nam Joo
Ko Ah Sung as Hyun Seo

Ratings: 4 out of 5
What made this movie different is that there are no beautiful plastic faces in this show. Everyone is pretty much of the average-joe looks. And this is what made the whole movie believable and kept the viewers rooting for this very ordinary family.
In the end, we feel sympathy for the monster who must die as in all monster movies. It did not choose to be a monster but was created by Man’s polluting. It killed not because it enjoyed killing but because of food. It captured humans not because it enjoyed torturing but because it must prepare for its offspring.

Latest installment in the series, this movie has no relationship with the 2 earlier movies as the main actors and actresses are all different as well as having a different storyline.

The story starts in Hong Kong at a dinner attended by 2 rival triad leaders, one of them is acted by Ti Lung. The rival leader requested Ti Lung’s daughter, Lim Aryoung, to perform a sword dance for which she is noted. During the dance, a henchman of the opposite faction threw glass onto the floor to humiliate Aryoung. She exacted her punishment by piercing his hand with her sword. A fight was barely averted by her father.
The next day, Aryoung assassinated the rival gang leader and Ti Lung hurriedly packed her off to Korea for her own protection.

Arriving in Korea, she was placed under the care of a small-time hood, Ki Chul, under the impression that he could speak Chinese. A female Korean translator, Hyun Young, was brought in to help but she was so terrified of offending the hoods she deliberately gave pleasant translations that was opposite of what Aryoung actually said. These mistranslations formed the bulk of the comedy moments of this movie.
The HK triad sent killers after Aryoung but Ki Chul thought they were after him, not realising Aryoung’s actual background and fighting skills. It was only when a rival Korean gang leader had captured his underlings and almost beaten him to death that Aryoung showed her true abilities to Ki Chul. From that moment his attitude towards her changed and mutual affections rose between them.
A highlight pf this movie is a car chase with Aryoung sitting in Ki Chul’s laps and driving the car in an attempt to escape killers sent from Hong Kong. Ki Chul was aroused and both became excited when the car hit various bumps on the road and a final drive down a stair case.

The show’s last part was where Ti Lung was injured by a rival and Aryoung returns back to Hong Kong to take revenge. Ki Chul follows her with his gang to lend support.

Cast:
Shu Qi as Lim Aryong
Lee Bum Soo as Ki Chul
Hyun Young as the mousey Korean interpretor
Ti Lung as Lim Aryoung’s HK triad father

Ratings: 3.5 out of 5
This show’s interesting and watchable. Both Shu Qi and Lee Bum Soo are competent actors but Hyun Young was hilarious with her mis-translations in the first half. The fighting is good even though Shu Qi obviously used a stunt double but that was not so noticeable.

This Korean movie is by Director Park Chan Wook and concludes his Vengeance trilogy. It stars Lee Young Ae as Geum Ja, a fun-loving student who became pregnant and left home to seek shelter with her teacher Mr. Baek acted by Choi Min Sik of Old Boy fame.

Unknown to her, Mr Baek is a serial kidnapper and murderer of young children, for ransom and for thrill. Geum Ja was caught by the police and took the blame after a young boy was kidnapped and killed, and she was found guilty of the crime . As a result she spent 13 years in prison. She survived those years by being nice to all the inmates, even to the biggest bully in her cell block. She made friends with all and as a result, made many friends there wiling to help her at a later stage.

Released from prison, she was no longer the same naive girl of her younger days nor was she the sweet helpful girl her prison mates knew. Geum Ja became cold and calculating, plotting her revenge on Mr Baek who’d left her in prison.
Calling in the debts owed her, she managed to obtain plans for a gun, got it made, tracked down Mr Baek.
Geum Ja was reunited with her daughter who was adopted while she was in prison.
The end justified the means, and justice from Geum Ja’s view was served. The parents of all the children that Mr Baek had kidnapped and murdered were able to be part of that justice.

Cast:
Lee Young Ae as Geum Ja
Choi Min Sik as Mr Baek

Rating: 4/5
This is a side of Lee Young Ae that is totally new. No more the sweet innocence but the cold, calculating and vengeful demon woman. This, alone, makes Sympathy for Lady Vengeance a definite must-see. Young Ae showed why she is so highly regarded in the Korean entertainment scene. When Korean movies are good, Korean movies are very good.
They don’t believe in half measures.

This is touted as the most expensive Korean movie ever made. It tells a tale of a Korean terrorist, Jang Dong Gun, bend on exacting revenge on both North and South Koreas.
As a young boy, he and his family defected to South Korea. Through trickery, they were returned by the South Koreans to the North. In attempting to escape the whole family were slaughtered except for the young boy and his sister, but even then they became separated.

Falling into the hands of SEA bandits he grew up with them and gained leadership of a pirate group. The movie starts with this group hijacking a covert US ship transporting nuclear weapon kits. Jang Dong Gun intended to sell these kits to Pakistan but the deal fell through and he had to do a deal with a Russian general in a black-market trade.

This is where Lee Jeong Jae comes in as a South Korean agent tasked with preventing Jang Dong Gun from using these weapons of mass destruction.
The chase leads to Jang Dong Gun’s long lost sister who became his bait to trap Dong Gun. Jeong Jae learned Dong Gun’s past from the sister and felt sympathy for them.

The sister was shot when Dong Gun escaped from Jeong Jae’s men and he implemented his plan to destroy both the North and South Koreas with contaminated nuclear waste material he’d gotten from the Russian general. His plan was to hide in a typhoon and release balloons lifting drums of these materials and detonating them when they are over the Korean peninsula.
The fight between these 2 men climaxed onboard the ship in the midst of the typhoon, with a US submarine waiting to sink it.

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Cast:
Jang Dong Gun
Lee Jeong Jae

Rating: 2/5
Nothing original here. My personal opinion is that this movie doesn’t show where all the money went to. The ending was cliche as the villain became a good guy at the end and never set the load to auto-detonate in the first place. It’s a cop-out ending. When Korean movies are bad, they are very bad and this one is no exception. Most expensive but I really don’t see where the money went.