[Tyfon]

Came across this Thai film in the three-for-GBP15 section of a London Tesco's. Has Thai audio track and dubbed English plus English subtitles.

It's the tale of a villager, Ting (Tony Jaa), trained by the village in the 'ancient and dangerous art of Muay Thai' (errr...) by the local monk who once killed a man in the ring. When Bangkok bad-boy Don steals the head of the village's Buddha (Ong-Bak of the title), Ting is dispatched to the city to retrieve it and recover the fortunes of the drought-stricken village.

Basically it's good, simple country-folk vs big-city crooks. Another ex-villager and petty con-man and female friend leads Ting into Bangkok's Muay Thai underworld where Don's artifact-smuggling boss pitches him against, for some reason, mostly Farang fighters. A great deal of running and jumping over/under/through things ensue all around and about Bangkok. Familiar sites: The fight-club is just off Kahosan Road, a few glimpses of the area, but nothing you can easily recognise.

One Farang fighter tries to goad Ting into fighting with the line "Thai people are not strong enough. That's why Thai women come to my country, become ******s..."

Fans of the Bangkok tuk-tuk will enjoy the high-speed tuk-tuk chase (they must have run the film at least 50% overspeed) involving two-dozen tuk-tuks, most of which end up trashed. Beyond the setting, it's a pretty formulaic martial arts film but useful to get the ear attuned pre-tour and as a source of all those essential phrases you just don't get in your Lonely-Planet phrase book, like "motherf***er", "S**thead" and other terms you might find useful to speed you through Suvarnabhumi immigration...