Why Tony Jaa's Fight Style Is So Different In Tom Yum Goong
In his second movie as leading man, Tony Jaa reshaped his on-screen fighting style for 2005's The Protector. Thailand's renown Muay Thai king Tony Jaa first made an impression in action films with his 2003 hit Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior. As the former stuntman Jaa's first major role,Ong Bakleft audiences around the world speechless with its wire and CGI-free stunts and martial arts action scenes. This makes the subtle shift in The Protector even more noticeable and perhaps surprising.
As Tony Jaa's breakout movie,Ong Bak was also a major showcase of Muay Thai. More specifically, Jaa utilized Muay Thai's most ancient form, Muay Boran, which literally translates as "ancient boxing". Muay Thai is well-known in the martial arts world as "the art of the eight limbs", utilizing punching, kicking, elbows, and knee strikes with its own methodology for delivering them. Jaa's next film The Protector got in on the one-shot martial arts fight scene game early with the film's five-minute oner, and changed some other things up.
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For The Protector (titled Tom Yum Goong in Thailand), Jaa and his mentor Panna Rittikrai developed a strong cinematic martial art for his character called "Muay Kotchasaan". The duo's variant on Muay Thai, Muay Kotchasaan (which translates as "elephant boxing") incorporates a wide range of grappling techniques and joint manipulations. This made the art a perfect reflection of the quest of Jaa's character Kham in The Protector. In the film, Kham, the descendant of ancient Thai warriors, travels to Australia to rescue his two beloved elephants after they're kidnapped by local poachers. Kham finds himself deep within the criminal underworld of
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