DarkMode/LightMode
Light Mode

The Protector Review

Of course the plot is just an excuse to set up the fight scenes. In this case it revolves around a Thai farmer and martial arts expert Kham (Tony Jaa) who lives a peaceful existence surrounded by a family of elephants he’s grown up with. When a ruthless gang kills Kham’s dad pinches two of his beloved elephants and smuggles them to Sydney Australia (to do god knows what with them) Kham immediately springs into ass-kicking mode and goes Down Under to get them back. Despite the help of Sergeant Mark (Petchthai Wongkamlao) a Thai policeman and Pla (Bongkot Kongmalai) a Thai girl forced into modern day slavery the going gets tough for our friend. But the moral of this story is if you steal a kung-fu master’s elephants you WILL have your legs broken. Period. Bruce Lee. Jackie Chan. Jet Li. And now Tony Jaa a martial arts connoisseur from Thailand whose debut in the Thai film Ong Bak put him on the map. The Thai fighter offers something slightly new to the genre combining an ancient boxing art known as Muay Thai or the “Science of 8 Limbs” with expert sword fighting and gymnastics. It’s truly something to behold especially since he does all the work. Even if he lacks Chan’s charm or Li’s intense dramatic skills Jaa is poised to claim the crown as the new master of the chop-socky. The rest of the cast are merely window-dressing with one stand out—Madam Rose (Xing Jing) the head of the international crime syndicate. She’s such a meeeean lady. The Protector actually seems a bit nostalgic for the days of such Bruce Lee classics as Enter the Dragon and Fist of Fury. With a sparse storyline really bad dialogue and dubbed lines  Protector fits right in. But that’s not what you’re seeing this movie for. It’s about the fighting and director Prachya Pinkaew (Ong Bak) frames his muse in one highly choreographed elaborate sequence after another. The best is probably in the lair of Madame Rose. Once Kham breaks in—and discovers the fate of one of his elephants—he then becomes a one-man limb-breaking machine. Protector is rated R not so much for blood and gore but perhaps for the hundreds of times you hear bones being crunched. Ouch.

- Advertisement -