It seems the most action packed movies are coming out of Thailand these days! Naturally, I was pretty pumped to watch ‘The Kick’ after hearing that Yanin Jeeja was in it, but she only plays a supporting role.
So in this film, a precious Thailand treasure has been returned to the Thai government. Naturally a group of bad guys plot to steal this treasure which is believed to give the beholder the ability to rule the world or, even better, be sold on the black market for around $30 million US.
Who cares about domination, money is waaay better.
Th plan begins but a family of Taekwondo practitioners stop the thiefs during the execution of their plan.
So naturally the bad guys throw a tantrum and try to kill the family!
So the kids go to tstay with their uncle out in the sticks with his niece, the Muay Thai champion Wawa, played by Yanin Jeeja. There they adapt to the wildlife and lack of modern facilities before eventually the bad guys show up and steal the smallest child available after kicking the asses of everyone there.
The whole family gets together and then find the group of men, and fight for their youngest in a spinny kicky extravaganza of Thai martial arts action.
The Family vs The Crime Gang
This movie has a pretty simple plot that’s dead easy to follow. Good guys (the family) mess up the bad guys plan, the bad guys retaliate and the good guys fight back. But what makes it interesting is the personal struggles each family members faces.
In typical martial arts movies the highly trained martial arts family are invincible and seemingly unnerved by being threatened, but in this film the family is a little more realistic. They fight well but don’t have the same killer instinct the gang members do and they struggle to cope with this constant threat and possibility of dieing.
It seems that the main character to focus on though is the eldest son, Taeju. Taeju is pressured by his father to get a Gold Medal in Taekwondo but instead he wants ot be a dancer. So another personal struggle is revealed between those two as they fight for Taeju’s identity.
It’s a nicely pieced together movie as it shows the family working together, overcoming personal issues and using their Taekwondo to fight off their enemies. Not too bad.
The Action & Martial Arts
Being from Thailand and starring Yanin Jeeja, I had high expectations of the action in this film. Unfortunately it just wasn’t quite there in my opinion. The fights were well performed but the strikes just didn’t sell as well as other efforts from Thailand, even using the same people.
One strength and weakness of the film is the overuse of kicks. Of course, the family is a team Taekwondo practitioners, so kicks are gonna be their thing, but it was a little too much. A lot of spinning and spinny kicks are used repetitively on this film and left me wanting more variety. They were done well, but when you do them that often in one film they’d want to be done well!
What I do respect though is just how dizzy these guys would have had to have been after some of these shots!
One cool thing I liked which many may not is the combination of dance and fighting used by Taeju during the film. He mixes his dance moves and kicks to take apart a group of fighters on his own in a very lame looking exhibition of acrobatic skill.
What I liked about it was the obvious nature of his fighting disappearing and a less predictable approach to his attacks being taken. Although he is dancing like an idiot, his movements give his opponents little to work with until they are being landed up on them – another little lesson thrown into the fight choreography.
Overall?
Very standard, not the best that Thailand has to offer but entertaining enough.
