'Ong-Bak' Special Coverage

INTERVIEW: Tony Jaa on 'Ong-Bak'

by Jean Lukitsh
kungfucinema.com

2005.02.10 - For sheer bravura and breathtaking agility, no one in the action movie scene today can beat Thailand's Tony Jaa. Now moviegoers in the US can finally see what the rest of the world is talking about, with the Magnolia Pictures release of Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior , featuring Jaa as a Muay Thai boxer on a mission to recover a stolen Buddhist artifact. In addition to some of the sharpest kickboxing ever to grace the screen, the film showcases Jaa's phenomenal stunt work in a series of vertigo-inducing jumps, flips, spin kicks, and falls that must be seen to be believed. And it's all real. Just to convince the skeptics in the audience, Jaa has been recreating stunts from Ong Bak in a series of live demos here in the US, as part of his promotional tour.

In person, Tony Jaa is just as likable as his character, Ting, is in the film. Soft-spoken and genial, he agreed to meet with a reporter prior to a gala New York screening of Ong Bak. His passion and enthusiasm for his work was obvious in the discussion that followed. (Special thanks to translator Taya Varnichpun for her invaluable assistance.)

KFC: How long have you studied Muay Thai boxing?

TJ: I started at the age of ten. I guess you could say it's in the blood - my father was a Muay Thai boxer. I began watching Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan movies, and I was inspired by them, and I'd come home and practice the moves on my own. I'd be constantly studying the moves, constantly practicing. But I didn't begin more formal training until 15, when I wanted to work with another mentor of mine, Panna Rittikrai (martial arts choreographer of Ong-Bak), who is one of the first action heroes in Thailand, and I traveled to study with him. So I studied on the set and worked my way up from jobs like working with dollies, being a waterboy, working with the cameraman, just getting experience and watching the stuntmen practice. I would go during the summers, when I didn't have school. So, I worked my way up to to be an extra, and eventually I became a stuntman. During that time, I had the opportunity to study at a physical education college near my home in Surin province. There I learned a variety of martial arts from Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai, to Thai swordplay, Krabi-Krabong - that's where it all began.

KFC: The style has a reputation for being realistic and relatively grounded. Did you add the jumps and spinning kicks from your stunt background?

TJ: Actually it is a type of training in Muay Thai. In Muay Thai, there are jumping techniques. But the moves you see in Ong-Bak are evolved from constant training, when you practice the basic moves over and over, and you combine them with your skills, and eventually you create your own moves. We wanted to use this in the film because it's beautiful, and you can see the richness of Muay Thai. I also used my childhood experiences in sports like gymnastics, hurdling, and high jumps, and I combined all that with Muay Thai in Ong-Bak.

KFC: So it's an individualized version of the style?

TJ: Yes.

KFC: It's very impressive! Strikes and blocks are done with elbows and knees in Muay Thai. How do you train to strengthen those joints to take the impact?

TJ: You have to train constantly. There has to be proper preparation, and enough time put into the training to get used to it.

KFC: Do you work with a canvas bag?

TJ: Now we use canvas bags or sandbags, but in older times, Muay Thai fighters would use banana trees! They would practice with banana trees, hitting them and kicking them. (He demonstrates the strikes.) At first, when I hit there, it hurt, but after you practice for a while, you toughen up. You get used to getting hit. In the film, my opponents wear safety gear to protect themselves.

KFC: It's a tough art! What other traditions are associated with the old style Muay Thai? In the movie, when we see you wrapping your arms with rope, you seem very focused. Is there any ritual or mental preparation associated with Muay Thai combat? Or are you just thinking, “I'm going to waste this guy!”

TJ: It's part of the tradition, and a lot of Muay Thai “ram” tradition comes from the teachings of the ancestors, and from Buddhist teachings as well.

KFC: It looks very spiritual, and almost calming, if you can say that of a fighting art.

TJ: It's the most difficult part, because you have to have that meditation in you to be able to fight.

KFC: I wanted to ask about the fire scene in Ong-Bak . In the behind-the-scenes footage on the DVD, it shows you being set on fire, then you have to jump through a wall of fire, hit your mark, execute a kick, stay in character, and not end up in the hospital! Was this your first time doing a fire stunt?

TJ: Well, we wanted the picture to come out beautifully. I had worked with fire before as a stunt man, where I jumped into a fire, but was not actually set on fire. For this scene, I was set on fire, but the problem was that I then had to wait for the camera to come up to speed! And when it came up to speed, then I had to wait for the director to say “action!” And the fire came up so fast, it burnt my eyelashes, and that made me lose my concentration for a while! But the picture came out just the way we wanted it.

KFC: How many takes did you do?

TJ: Five takes.

KFC: Watching those scenes on the DVD, I was scared!

TJ: We used safety precautions, safety gels. But the problem was waiting for the camera. And we wanted to show enough flames that the picture would turn out just right.

KFC: At about take number four, did you find yourself thinking, “Maybe I should get a different job!”

TJ: (Laughs) No, we dedicated ourselves to work on this film. We wanted the picture to come out as perfect and as beautiful as possible, so for me and the stuntmen and the director, it didn't matter how many takes we needed, we all put our hearts into it. When I sit in the theater and hear people cheering - that's my goal.

KFC: The marketplace scene is such a beautiful sequence, and it has absolutely the best stunt work I have ever seen. How long did it take to shoot?

TJ: About ten days, but not all at once. If I got injured, we'd have to stop until I was okay. Usually it was just sore muscles, or torn ligaments. Also, if it was raining, we'd have to stop and wait for that to go away before we could continue filming. It was something I really wanted to do. It's not a violent scene, but you want to astonish the audience, whether it's jumping through the barbed wire, or going under the car - when you hear the audience reaction, that's what I'm working for. By the way, in the scene where I go under the car, I had my Master drive the car because we know each other and we know the cues. I have more peace of mind when he does it.

KFC: I have another question about the marketplace scene, about a technique we first see when you are fighting on the table, spinning and kicking your attackers, although you show this technique in other scenes too. In spinning kicks, usually there is a dominant leg, and the power of the jumping and spinning is directed into that leg for the strike. But you often strike with the non-dominant foot, or with both, in a 1-2 combination. Sometimes you feint with the leading foot and then strike with the following foot as your opponent comes out of the duck or lean he uses to avoid the dominant leg. It shows amazing control! I've never really seen this technique used before, at least not so consistently. Is there a misdirection strategy working here? And did you come up with this yourself, or did someone teach you?

TJ: I practiced on my own. As I said, in this movie, Ong-Bak , I combined a lot of my skills, and in that scene where you see the high jumps, the hurdles, it's like the evolution of breakdancing, but using breakdancing in fighting. I wanted to present something new for the viewers.

KFC: In the fight scene in the cave, there's a short, powerful sequence where you use a variety of weapons. Do you have a favorite weapon, a specialty?

TJ: What you see in the cave scene is the pipe or bong, and when it breaks in half, it becomes swordplay, a type of ancient Thai fighting as well. Also, we wanted to show the use of the mai sok, the wooden sticks.

KFC: Mai sok?

TJ: “Mai” means wood, “sok” means “elbow."

KFC: One more question. What are your plans for the future?

TJ: Right now I'm in the process of filming my next movie, Tom Yum Goong .

KFC: I've heard rumors about a project with Jackie Chan.

TJ: (Laughs) You'll have to wait and see!

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Jean Lukitsh is a Tai Chi instructor in the Boston area and a regular contributor to Kung Fu Cinema.

 

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