Hi! I'm new to this forum and I just wanted to inform people of the release of the US version of ONG BAK.


I had been very privileged to see the Thai version of ONG BAK almost 2 years earlier to the release of the US version of this coming Friday. When I seen the DVD Thai version ONG BAK with English sub-tittles, I was blown away by every moment of the movie and had not even blinked once. I loved the story, the action, the unique characters (e.g. con artistes Dirty balls and Muay Or in the US version Hum Lae and Muay.) and the techno music was all very sick and almost like a dream movie to me (and is). After I had seen the movie, I had done some research and I had found that it was going to be released in the US I was like now I can get the US DVD cool. Now I can find out whats going on in the special features that are on the Thai version. The alternate ending stopped my crying.

Interestingly enough last week I had gotten the cold and missed one day of school and my friend who works in this movie theater gets an exclusive screening for two to see ONG Bak. To his dismay he was busy and he gave me the pass because he knew that I was crazy over this film for almost 2 years now and knew I would love to see it. So I went with my brother to the screener and sat down for what I thought would be a dubbed version and some how (I don know how you could improve something better than the Thai version) an improved version of ONG BAK by Luc Bronson and my heart had broken to see that really IMPORTaNT character work was taken out. I came out of the theater in disappointment and at the same time joyed to see the film that everyone is hyped up to see this Friday. Luc Bronson really killed a lot of the movie just so the movie could be sped up bad move in my opinion. Another bad move is also changing a lot of the sub titles.

But here’s a list of the things changed.

-Sub-titles changed
-Ting's character background story that explains that he was an orphan is cut.
-The medicine that relieves pain and strengthens whoever use is given by the monk at the beginning is not told to be medicine but something that once belonged to a great master of Muya Thai. (Doesn't make complete sense of something that belonged to great master of Muay Thai, is chewed and spat out by Ting onto his arms.)
-More to the liking of most westerners you'll be glad because the music from the Thai version is replaced by trendy hip hop music for most of the scenes except the very last fight scene (I despise the changes.)
-Dirty Balls name is Hum Lae
-lot of times when Muay supposed to talk is cut.
-Muay (dirty balls partner in crime.) having an older sister that is addicted to drugs and is Bak Duon girl is cut.

***********Spoiler*********





-Muay sister is shown dying but makes no connection to any Characters. (I guess its to makes Bak Duon seem more like ruthless drug king killing one of his own drug sellers for trying to go cold turkey.)






**********Spoiler***********
-Muay in the hospital with her dying sister is cut.
-Muay just becomes sad for some odd reason, before she and Dirty Balls are kidnapped.
-Several weird sound overs (e.g. when the crippled guys main henchman is crushing Ting with foot you can hear "take!...that!" twice.)
-Credits music is straight from the French soundtrack of ONG BAK.

the scene that Muay screamimg when Hum Lae had die in the end of movie should be cut off .....sooooo annoying..

really? I thought it was sad. Plus I think Muay is cute whats her real name?

What the? I don't think Muay is annoying. I think she cute.

As for the changes in Ong Bak, I hate the idea of distrubutor messing with the original. It takes away the cultural stuff which makes it unique.

Don't forget that Prachya approved the cut

Yea, I guess Prachya was just trying to be nice and just said " uhhh...yeah...a master piece." just so they could realease it.

Ong Bak is meant to promote Thai culture, I hate it when they "westernize" it. Thats my beef when a company takes a foreign film and water it down for the western audience.

Nah. They watered it down for all the people who saw the Thai version and then saw the US realease because I was one of them but as for the western audience
they enjoyed what they saw but they just don't know better, they haven't got to the true version of the Ong Bak movie.

I'm not disagreeing with you, its just how I felt about the whole US realease.




How very true. Hollywood loves to kill character work in movies from other countries and just cuts to the chase. Oh and the sub-tittles were also very westernized as well for example Ting is brought into the apartment of Hum Lae at the beginning and Hum Lae tells Ting to go into the bath room, clean up and not to jerk off (stupid jerk off jokes Its not funny at all)like if this some American Pie movie. None of the other versions of Ong Bak have that. How very western.

It was the same thing with the french version . Don't know why but I was sure it was not in the thai version even if I didn't watch it yet at that moment....

We have the joke about that jerk in Thai version.

Ok :laugh:

Are You sure? I own the Thai version and Dirty balls was the original name for the character and in that seen he says nothing remotely close to what he says in the American version of the subtitles and in the Thai version Dirty Balls just says "don't worry we'll find Ong Bak." and "freshen up don't worry we'll find that Ong Bak." till dirty balls runs out the door. However if they did say the jerk off joke in Thai and you understand Thai, then whatever.

Ohh.. come on.... please.
I am Thai.

So then Ong Knot do they say the jerk off joke in Thai language?

yeahh.

Just a little question out of nowhere....

I hear from some people that HumLae doesn't actually mean "dirty balls" but instead "dark balls"...can anybody correct me on this?.....

If it really does mean dark balls then that actually sounds better and less offending...

As far as Luc Besson cutting out scenes in the movie to cut to the chase, there is a pro and con to this...the pro is well you DO cut the the chase and don't waste time showing nothing that'll bore the audience and the con is that the storyline gets really messed up and gets more confusing....so you think what you like.....

And as far as being westernized, well you can't really complain because you will have to attract the viewers you are displaying it too one way or another...but ya it does take away the heritage and culture of thailand....

OK. In the original version, he is called Hum Lae.
I honestly don't know what "Lae" means because it is Isan language (north east area). But the word "Hum" for people in Bangkok means the male part.
However, Hum in Isan language doesn't have a dirty meaning at all. It's a common way that they use to call people.

I actually know some people called Hum from Isan are.
Moreover, kids in Isan are normally called "Hum Noi" (Noi = small)
Similar to that an American named Robert and his son named Robert Junior.

Many Bankokians think that it sounds funny, but for me, it's a culture thing.


Yeah.. if you come to Thailand, I mean bangkok, and you say the word "Hum." People will think you are talking dirty. (But hey.. people all around the world actually like dirty jokes, don't they?)

^^^Ya I know what you mean cas' I'm Lao and its very common for an elder to call a younger child "hum noi" or whatever...heck my gramps use to call me that when I was younger...

Bangkokians?,,I didn't know thats what they called themselves...

Hmm..you learn something new everyday....

Yes, it is true. "Ham Lae" means dark balls. Hum = balls, lae = dark. Names like these are usually nicknames, not exactly official names.

I love the sound of Bhi-Path (a kind of thai flute orchestra) which always played during muay-thai fighting match. I think without it, the match is not itself.

Yes, I agree. I liked how they mixed that in with techno music on the original score. Now that there's new music for the fight scenes, it just seems out of place (to me anyways).

umm its not Black balls???

People should know that Hollywood had NOTHING to do with Ong-Bak and Luc Bronson is a French director from France who decided to do this.
I really don't see the major difference between the two versions. The music is the same shit. Just techno music crap. Nothing very Thai about techno. And at least they keep the cultural Thai music that plays every now and then (like the ending when Hum Lae dies and Muay starts crying over him).
Cutting out the girl in the hospital was pointless, but I guess he wanted to cut to the chase. I did notice though that in the ending when Muay does all that annoying crying, music overlaps her voice. Thank God for that.