The Thai DVD of Tony Jaa's follow up to Ong Bak, Tom Yum Goong, has released and, as suspected, this edition does not include English subtitles which means that the chances of anyone in the English speaking world ever being able to see a legal, English friendly version of the longer Asian cut of the film have now effectively dropped to zero as the Hong Kong and Korean editions are also coming without subs.
However, if you're going to drop coin for one of the unsubbed versions this looks to be the one to get. Not only is it the cheapest and earliest option out there but it is also the most extensive with a stack of bonus features spread over its two discs. And, really, you don't pick up a Jaa film to listen to him talk, anyway.
I would expect that somebdoy in the UK will release the longer cut at some point: Premiere Asia seems like a good label for it.
Tyler-
What do you mean, actions scenes at "their full length"? Does that mean that you can see the complete, uncut versions of the fights, some of which I heard were edited due to length issues?
Oh yes. The Thai DVD also comes with various trailers. The world premiere trailer will show you certain footage that didn't make it in the final cut. For example, the first action scene where Kham (Tony Jaa) goes to the clubhouse, you actually see him take on a bunch of guys upstairs before kicking one them downstairs and leaping downstairs to knock those guys over like dominos. You see certain parts of action scenes that didn't make it either. The action scenes were definitely cut to a certain extent.
Just got the Hong Kong version on DVD.
Disc one - The movie and the usual actor filmography, nothing special, only Chinese subtitles, Thai and Cantonese language tracks.
Disc two - 3 trailers, 1 of them being the one that's been on the tom yum goong website. Cool thing is all three of them have English subtitles. Watch them all and you won't need subtitles for the movie because they'll explain everything.
Making-of featurette in Thai with Chinese subtitles only. Pretty cool stuff. A ton of behind the scenes material which covers all the fight scenes. The audio quality is poor and the interviewer appologizes for it in the beginning. Commentary from the director and stunt coordinator. At one point they do a picture-in-picture breakdown of the 4 minute uncut fight scene. They said they filmed it 8 times. Twice a day for four days.
Footage of the Hong Kong premiere. Basically the same thing from the Hong Kong Ong Bak disc. But this one doesn't have the entire demo he gave at the theater. It's just a montage of clips from the premiere. It only runs for a couple of minutes, pretty weak.
TV spot from Hong Kong. Only one. Weak.
Photo Gallery
So that's the breakdown, hope this clears things up.
The premier asia version of Warrior King a.k.a Tom Yum Goong is a good one. But why have they not put any deleted fights and shots on the second disc?
Which version has all the deleted scenes?
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