Born To Fight

Today I decided to go back to Thailand and watch Born To Fight, a movie released in 2004 that I copped around the time Ong Bak came out, but never got around to watching until now. Born to Fight stars Dan Chupong, who played the Crow Ghost in Ong Bak 2 & 3 and was directed by Panna Rittikrai (Ong Bak 2 & 3).

Born To Fight follows the traditional formula of most Thai Action/Martial Arts films in my opinion; shitty storyline with a few good action/fight scenes.

Chupong is Deaw, a cop who looks like he's 18 and involved in the arrest of a major Thai drug kingpin (referred to as "The General") at the beginning of the film. During the arrest his partner is killed, and then Deaw decides to take a trip with his sister, who is a Taekwondo champion.

The trip stops at a small village where Deaw, his sister, and the various other athletes are giving out things to the poor people of the village. Everything is shiny and happy until a heavily armed militia come in and start wrecking shop.

After a few minutes of shooting, yelling and ranting in Thai we soon learn that the militia are taking the village hostage and are demanding The General be released from prison. They take over all the computer and news transmissions in Thailand and demand he be released or they will kill the village on national television.


Deaw, who plans to escape and come back with help, also finds out that these dudes have other plans. He sees that they have a nuclear missile and plan on blowing up Bangkok. WTF?!?!

Deaw, inspires the villagers and his athletic friends to rise up, fight their enemies and save Thailand.

I am trying to give as brief as a plot rundown as possible, because their really wasn't any. The first 45 minutes of this movie was really horrible.

The last half of the movie is semi-entertaining, because you get to see a few of the athletes (who are really Thai National athletes) strut their stuff. Here are a few clips:



(look at the little girl at the 7:50 mark....one of my favorite parts.....)

(Wait for the 5:19 mark, the one legged dude is kind of nice!!!)

Deaw then fights off one of the Militia (played by the dude was injecting himself in Ong Bak) who is about to launch the nuclear missile (Oh No!). The fight is pretty entertaining, and the missile is redirected to land into the water instead of in the city (Yay!).




(I don't think anyone is going to be eating seafood in Thailand after that explosion....)


I was ready to dish out a horrible review for Born To Fight because so many things were wrong with the film. The story line was cheesy, acting was horrible, the score sounded like the start menu to Street Fighter put on repeat for 90 minutes. When the action did start, it was pretty entertaining. The way they intertwined gymnastics, soccer, rugby, etc. into the fight scenes was kind of cool. Chupong does not have great fighting skills when he is on the ground, but the dude does some pretty nasty flips. I give him credit for that.

I give Born to Fight 2 1/2 Fists. It's unique fight choreography saved what very well could have been a terrible film.

Peace & Blessing for now......The Sage......


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