This weekend the Bangkok Film Festival will close with Muay Thai Chaiya a film by Kongkiat Komesiri. This film should be out in a few weeks. Based on this trailer it looks watchable… Then again so did Tom Yum Goong.
[youtube _tejWz439L4 ]
I’m not expecting too much from this flick, it’s probably the bad sound effects that are tainting my view. I know jack about sound production, is it really that hard to get right?
I do however welcome any exposure our art receives. I wish I would have had more exposure to Muay Thai or Muay Boran growing up. The only exposure was through this issue of Inside Kung Fu (google is amazing) When were you first exposed to Muay Thai, or Muay Boran?
It looks like Fairtex has also partner with the producers to come official Fairtex/Chaiya gear. Check it:
Fairtex is the official sponsor and designer of Chaiya merchandise in North America and Europe. Fairtex produced Chaiya merchandise includes t-shirts, boxing trunks, caps, sweatshirts, etc. The Fairtex USA team has created a unique design, blending traditional Thai prints with the “Chaiya” and Fairtex brands to create modern, stylish look.
You can read the full article here. Many thanks to Sean B for sending along the poster.
13 responses so far ↓
1 Dii Mak // Jul 31, 2007 at 6:32 am
Nop,
This does look pretty good, looks like it gives some historical context to it all, although the blatant rip off of certain Tony Jaa moves sort of scares me on the cheesy side. But movies like Suriyothai and Bang Rajan were done well so it could be really good if done in that style.
You’re right the sound effects do sound pretty bad too. Ong Bak didn’t seem to have all the bad sound effects, but I also agree Tom Yum Goong was really bad. Do you think many thais will watch this? Also, when is it out. I may run through BKK next week after my work in Singapore is finished.
2 nate // Jul 31, 2007 at 9:22 am
looks alright, but I hope the story is not too bad
3 Bunzy // Jul 31, 2007 at 12:04 pm
There is one thing I do wonder. Everytime that I see Muay Chaiya performed, it’s always against another Chaiya guy. To me it seems too choreographed. I would like to see it against another art or even against the practical Muay Thai. By all means i am not saying that Muay Chaiya is not effective, i’m just saying i want to see more.
4 Tong Po // Jul 31, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Looks cool. I wouldn’t mind checking it out.
5 Joe // Jul 31, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Looks interesting. Hope it comes out in the US maybe on DVD.
6 Nae (aka nathan smith aka wade willet).......... // Jul 31, 2007 at 9:37 pm
i saw the dvd trailer yesterday and it doesn’t look too bad. the designs that are mentioned in the article are tight but i don’t know if we’ll get em here tho.
7 chanks // Aug 7, 2007 at 3:47 am
Trailer looks good. Poster looks good. But I think the story seems to be predictable based on the trailer. That’s kinda bad. I hope muay thai movies should be exposed to other arts too. That would be a good blast. But this film seems to have cool fights. Still interesting to have a check. Good luck to the movie. I hope it will be shown in the Philippines.
8 Nathan // Sep 6, 2007 at 2:10 am
I train at Baan Chang Thai under Kruu Lek, and trust me, Chaiya is good stuff.
Tae (plays Krang in the movie) gets to spar with conventional fighters occasionally, but they don’t usually last too long. The style is VERY effective for disabling the opponents legs, through hard sharp ’stop kicks’ (Teeb Ka Naa). Also, the tight blocking style (using elbows and knees to block) usually deters opponents from attacking you after a few attempts… I think that’s why other style’s don’t like fighting against Chaiya. We have to be very careful when fighting each other, and injuries are pretty common.
Tae sparred with some guy (who was meant to be good) a few nights ago, and the guy lasted 40secs before he tried kicking Tae too hard (it was meant to be a friendly spar), and got a hard block, which pretty much took him out of the fight.
I really like the Chaiya style, as it is a very deep style of martial art, very challenging, fun and efective.
On the film… the only ‘real’ chaiya used in it appears in the beginning, after that, the choreographers got a little loose on their interpretation of the Chaiya style - kind of made me cringe a few times.
I thought overall the film was good, and I was impressed by some of the cinematography used (the director has obviously watched a few Guy Richie films
and the story had pleasant twists at the end which surprised me.
9 Dtang Jai // Sep 26, 2007 at 3:51 am
The Chaiya movie is good, but, as Nathan points out, there is actually very little Muay Chaiya in it - it also made me cringe a few times when what was being portrayed as Muay Chaiya to the public was actually little more than largely-abstracted techniques which look great (debatable…) on camera.
Anyhow, I thought that the movie was, on the whole, refreshingly uncheesy by Thai standards and actually walked out of the cinema uttering utterances to that effect.
However, if you want a more realistic display of Muay Chiaya (despite the dodgy sound effects), then wait for ‘Pahuyut’, which should be out some time soonish in Thailand…
10 Nathan // Sep 26, 2007 at 6:05 am
Hey Dtang Jai, can u tell me more about the film Pahuyut?
I haven’t heard anything about it yet…
11 Dtang Jai // Sep 26, 2007 at 2:47 pm
Hi,
Sure…
As you know, your teacher Kru Lek was at the forefront of the organisation of the fighting in ‘Chaiya’. In ‘Pahuyut’, Kru Preang (who I am assuming you know/have heard of; it’s impossible not to have if you train in Baan Chang Thai!) assumes that role.
The basic outline is this: a bunch of K-1 kickboxers come to Phuket (or some island/area in the South) and start bullying the locals etc. (big, bad farangs, as usual!). The local Muay Chiaya boxers (I’m not sure of they are a boxing team or not - perhaps just friends as in ‘Chiaya’) give them a good pasting, Chaiya-style.
And that’s about it, I think. I’m not sure about all the other plots points but as far as I know it should be out soon.
12 Dtang Jai // Sep 26, 2007 at 2:49 pm
…BTW, do a quick Google video search etc. and it’ll crop up somewhere. So far there has been no advertising inThailand, so, as I said, I’m not sure how long we’ll have to wait…
13 Nathan // Sep 29, 2007 at 7:23 pm
You’re right, I certainly know of Kru Preang
Thanks for the info, thinking about it I think I saw some of this before, when I was doing a search for information on the Chaiya movie before it came out!
If my memory serves me right, not a lot of ‘real’ chaiya in that also… but we’ll have to wait and see!
Thanks again.
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