I was lucky enough to see Ong Bak Muay Thai Warrior at Midnight Madness and Tony Jaa kicking the hell out of people with his legs on fire at the Uptown Theatre on a screen tens of carol's high.  I'm looking forward to seeing Tony Jaa's return to Midnight Madness with Ong Bak 2: The Beginning at Ryerson tonight, which he directed, did the action choreography for and dances in. (Yay, Khon!) And I'm happy to close out the Gentlemen of Asskickery with Tony Jaa / Thatchakorn Yeerum (nee Panom Yeerum).

Tony Jaa is a student of Panna Rittikrai and started out on Panna's Muay Thai Stunt team.  He played a villainous supporting role in Spirited Killer and was a stunt double in Mortal Kombat: Annihilation before Prachya Pinkaew cast him for Ong Bak Muay Thai Warrior making him the most popular action star in Thailand, though some say Dan Chupong is the next big thing. Maybe we'll see in Ong Bak 3.

And Tony Jaa played Hanuman the Monkey King at the ceremonies for the 1st Asian Martial Arts Games in August, 2009.

Here's footage of Tony Jaa practicing for Ong Bak Muay Thai Warrior. There's some hopped up choral music, too.

 

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning ends TIFF tonight Saturday September 19 at 11:59pm - RYERSON

And my respect to all you people who got up to catch the 9:45am screening. You're hardcore.

Leading up to tonight's Midnight Madness screening of Ong Bak 2:  The Beginning, I've been posting profiles of some Gentlemen of Asskickery. But with Bitch Slap at Midnight Madness this year, it's time to return to the Ladies of Asskickery.  As my blog colleagues have mentioned. Zoë Bell did the fight choreography and was the stunt double for all three women in Bitch Slap.  Bell was the stunt double for Lucy Lawless in Xena: Warrior Princess and Uma Thurman's stunt double in the Kill Bill movies. Along with stunt woman/stunt coordinator Jeannie Epper (Wonder Woman), Bell was one of the subjects of the fantastic documentary, Double Dare.  And she starred in and performed her own stunts in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof and Ed Brubaker's Angel of Death web series.

Here's a little look at her in action:

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning screens tonight at TIFF: Saturday September 19, 11:59pm - RYERSON. 

Ken'ichi Matsuyama's back at the festival starring in another live-action manga adaption. Last year, Matsuyama starred in one of my favorite MM movies ever, Detroit Metal City based on the eponymous manga.  And he's also starred as L in the live action adaptation of Death Note.  And this year he stars in an adaption of Sanpei Shirato's  Kamui Gaiden, in which he plays a ninja fleeing his ninja clan--and it's screening in the daytime (in fact, today and Saturday morning.

How crazy is that the madness has infected the festival to the point that not only is a viking film playing the non-Madness program, a ninja film is? At this rate, I look forward to Sonny Chiba's presenting some of his favorite films in Dialogues program.  After all, he's not only a ninjitsu master, he's a guest professor in film studies at Kyoto University of Art and Design.

Let's have a little Gentleman of Asskickery moment with Sonny Chiba:

Kamui Gaiden's final screening at TIFF is on: Saturday September 19, 09:45AM - AMC 3

Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai have another film at the festival this year. Vengeance, starring Johnny Hallyday and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang as hitmen seeking revenge for the death of Hallyday's family. But Hallyday and Wong have something more in common outside the movie.  They're both musicians.

Hallyday is a rock star in France who became famous in the 1960s.  Anthony Wong is a little more punk rock.  They might not throw down in the film, but I can arrange a musical throwdown right here.

Ladies and gentleman, click the links for Johnny Hallyday in a 1960s scopitone and Anthony Wong, with maybe a little Xavier Jamaux influence.

 

Vengeance screens at TIFF on:  Tuesday September 15 09:15PM - RYERSON / Thursday September 17, 3:30PM - SCOTIABANK THEATRE 3.

A true Canadian superhero arrived last night - no, it wasn't Wayne Gretzky - it was Defendor!  The world premiere of the only Canadian superhero movie I can remember occurred last night in front of a sold out crowd at the Varsity 8.  Writer and director Peter Stebbings (pictured talking on mic) has crafted a thrilling, funny and clever movie that is about our cultural need for superheroes, and how we often find them in unexpected places.  Woody Harrelson was on hand last night along with Elias Koteas, Kat Dennings, Michael Kelly and many others.  The crowd loved it, and the party afterwards was even more insane - the roof of a parking garage, turned into an entertainment circus, complete with talk show set, VIP tent, and golf cart chauffeur service.

As a guy who grew up in East York dreaming of a cool Canadian superhero, it was a dream-come-true type of evening. 

More to come tonight, and then, there's always day 5.....

Dan Chupong / Deaw Chupong Changprung is uncredited in Ong Bak 2: The Beginning but he's the guy on the elephant in that poster with Tony Jaa.  And in 6 years, he's gone from his first screen credit as "bodyguard #4" in Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior to co-starring in Ong Bak 3.  (Yes, Ong Bak 2 has already opened and Ong Bak 3 is in production in Thailand).  Like Tony Jaa, he started out a member of Panna Rittikrai's Muay Thai Stunt team taking extra parts and after his bit part in Ong Bak has been the lead in Dynamite Warrior (Khon Fai Bin / Konfaibin / Tabunfire) and the 2004 remake of Panna Rittikrai's Born to Fight as well as being featured in Sahamongkol's gargantuan 2008 costume epic/fantasy, Queens of Langkasuka.

His style isn't necessarily as graceful as Tony Jaa's but he's powerful, fast and entertaining to watch while he breaks bad guys' bones and  keeps ramming his knees into their organs.

 

 

 

 

 

Here he is in the fight that opens Dynamite Warrior:

 I fear his deadly knees!

Just to get in the mood for historicall asskickery, here's a still from the same film and a poster of his character from Queens of Langkasuka.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ong Bak 2: The Beginning screens at TIFF on: Saturday September 19, 9:45am -SCOTIABANK THEATRE 2 / Saturday September 19, 11:59pm - RYERSON.

You've probably heard that Ong Bak 2: The Beginning is set hundreds of years before the original, Ong Bak Muay Thai Warrior (2003) and the net is a-buzz with questions about how the films relate. Is Tony Jaa an undead warrior traveling the world tragically in search of a peace he can never know? Has he been frozen in a cavern of ice, only to be awoken when needed by his people?

I don't know. I am doing my best to be spoiler free, though, I have to say my best hasn't been that good.

I do know that Ong Bak is the name of the Buddha stolen in the first movie and I suspect that the statue of a certain enlightened being will return in the second.  More...