Ong-Bak (2003)
Directed by Prachya Pinkaew
When the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it.
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Paralleling Tony Jaa to a young Jackie Chan is a pretty fair comparison, once the fighting starts Jaa and his cast of stunt-fighters pull of amazing, vicious fight choreography, gleefully reminiscent of Drunken Master, and maybe even the best martial arts film ever made, Drunken Master 2. There are no wires, no CGI, and from what I can see no mats; just perfectly skilled performers executing intentionally ferocious, graphic moves.
A new soundtrack, thanks to rights-owner Luc Besson ("La Femme Nikita," "The Professional"), enlivens the whole enterprise, adding a Western edge with modern techno and hip-hop beats.
Pinkaew tailor-made this film to showcase the former stuntman's jaw-dropping skills (Jaa doubled for Robin Shou in the movie version of "Mortal Kombat") and there's even talk of another Jaa/Pinkaew collaboration.
No wonder Magnolia Pictures has decided to open it in wide release, despite the Thai language with English subtitles; in the era of "House of Flying Daggers" and "Hero," it's starting to make sense to put these foreign action flicks in the multiplexes.
Jackie Chan was always Mr. Nice Guy, and the recent wire-fu epics (Hero, House of Flying Daggers) are more about grace than gore.
Now even Jet Li, who once disavowed them, agreed to use wires in Hero.