The Kick (2011)

It's recognisably Pinkaew. A priceless item is stolen (a Kris), there's a rubbish car chase (mercifully brief), and the martial arts are astonishing.
But there are differences, too. There's more than one protagonist. It's a family of five, and they're South Korean practitioners of Taekwondo, not Muay Thai. The family unit adds something new to the formula. They squabble like a real family do, and even though they often fight solo there's an undercurrent of interdependence from time to time. Factor in a plot thread that carries a small but important message about following your heart and, even though it's a long way from perfect, it gets points for trying.
On the flip side, the villains are still blank, their primary function, outside of the aforementioned theft, being to give the hero(es) something to overcome.

3 cloth ears out of 5

Chocolate (2008)

JeeJa Yanin's amazing début performance. She plays a young autistic woman named Zen who may not be able to describe the nuances between right, wrong, or doing wrong for the right reason, but she knows when someone she loves needs help. Zen is instinct honed to perfection. She's 'don’t judge a book by its cover' and she doesn't back down from a fight.
It's a Thai martial arts movie from Prachya Pinkaew that goes for the heart almost as much as it goes for the throat. Fights often resemble Jackie Chan’s, but without the self-imposed restraints they're more violent.
Yanin is more diverse than Pinkaew’s other go to guy, Tony Jaa. She makes a stunning finale involving signs on the side of a building look easy.

4 inspiring imperfections out of 5

Warrior King 2 (2013)

aka Tom-Yum-Goong 2 / The Protector 2

Warrior King (2005) had some minor use of green screen but the stunts performed in front of it were dangerously real. The sequel uses the screen often and goes further by adding wire-work. There’s no law that says Tony Jaa can’t use wires, but his insistence that they not be used in previous films was what made him exceptional, like Jackie Chan. Remove the exception and you’re left with a great martial artist in a movie that isn't as far removed from Hollywood action as it ought to be; it’s just sweatier.
It’s worth watching to see Jaa and JeeJa Yanin together, though. More of that, please, but in a better film next time.

2 fiery feet out of 5

Warrior King (2005)

aka Tom-Yum-Goong / The Protector 

Most kids have a bunny or a puppy. Kham has an elephant. His love for his tusked companion sees him travelling from Thailand to Australia, where his mental state and martial arts skills are tested to the max.
The first half is hit and miss, I could've happily lived without the James Bond style boat chase and the bad CGI dream sequence, but the second half is an unforgettably violent and emotional journey that’s exhausting to watch. There’s a single unbroken fight scene lasting almost four minutes that really needs to be seen to be believed.

NOTE: My version (shown above) runs for approx 106 mins (PAL). The International Cut is shorter. Avoid the US Theatrical cut at all costs.

4 bone crunching sounds out of 5

Ong-bak (2003)

OB is a showcase for lithe Tony Jaa to demonstrate his Muay Thai skills to the world, all of which were achieved without the aid of wires.
It paints its characters mostly black or white, making the simple village folk noble and kind and the city folk selfish and Godless, but there’s just enough depth beneath that to make you care about Jaa and his do-or-die quest. The additional subtext about the power of spiritual belief to invigorate and encourage the individual stops the plot from teetering over into the two-dimensional abyss that hovers nearby at all times.
It gets face-palm bad when it mimics other directors (that Besson style tuk-tuk chase was a disaster), but it took the first steps in delivering a unique kind of action cinema to the West, one that we hadn't seen before.

3 different angles out of 5