[Updated with new poster and much higher quality trailer.]
Thanapon Maliwan's The Sanctuary is a film that we've been tracking here for a good while now. Maliwan rose to attention as one of the directors in the Pechpanna Productions stable, the Thai action outfit where both Panna Rittikrai and Tony Jaa got their starts, Maliwan directing both Jaa and his mentor is at least one early pre-Ong Bak film together. And then there's star Mike B, a Thai stunt man who was one of the key stunt performers in Ong Bak who Maliwan has been grooming for stardom for a little while.
This particular project began life as Dead End before finance troubles forced it to be suspended for a while and Maliwan and Mike B went off and made inconsistent action-comedy Brave instead. That project out of the way the materials from Dead End were reworked and redeveloped and the project re-launched as The Sanctuary with B joined by co-star Russell Wong.
In 1897, the “Poisoned Knife” clan broke into the royal palace of Thailand to steal the Royal Antiques which the King intended to give to America as a reward for its help in negotiations that avoided Thai territorial cuts. The clan succeeded in stealing the antiques, but the thieves didn’t escape with their lives. Before their deaths, they hid the antiques somewhere close to the palace. During his interrogation, the last bandit chose to end his life by Master Sawang’s sword and let the place where the Royal Antiques were hidden die with him.Today, Wisa (Winston Omega), the mafia boss whose ancestor masterminded the theft of the antiques wants to find them. Wisa believes the antiques give special powers to those who possess them. He hires Patrick (Russell Wong – 'Romeo Must Die', 'Mummy 3: Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor', 'New Jack City' ), the former Director of the U.S. military National Subterranean Exploration Unit, to search for the lost antiques . Using U.S. Army satellite scans, Patrick and Selina (Patharawarin Timkul – 'Bangkok Dangerous', 'Jan Dara'), the beautiful and sexy assassin, retrieve the antiques from beneath the Thai temple where Krit (Mike B – 'Brave'), Master Sawang’s great grandson and a gifted martial artist, resides as a temple boy. When they steal the antiques from the temple, it’s down to Krit with the help of Praifa (Intira Jaroenpura – 'Nang Nak', ‘Brokedown Palace’, 'King Naresuan trilogy'), an Archaeology student, to retrieve them. Together they fight against the powerful and greedy group of thugs. Will they be able to rescue Thailand’s national treasures and protect the world from evil?
We've posted earlier reel from this in the past and now the sales trailer has arrived online. You'll find it below the break.
Looks like the weakest of the thai action litter doesn't it. Brave showcased a few neat tricks but it wasn't enough to really make me jump on board the Mike B train - doesn't look like this will either.
wow, awsome
Whzt is it with Thai action films and retrieving a stolen object?
looks fun as well.. :-P
Same plot as Ong Bak. Plap!
So, they just remade Ong Bak, but the same clothes to this guy, and that's it.
At what point do we say Tony Jaa has pretty much cornered the market on Thai action, I mean i can't watch this and not think this is just a Jaa rip off, of the style he has pretty much trade marked. Am I wrong, is it just me? It just seems there isn't a as much of a distinct difference in Thai screen fighters as there is with the top HK screen fighters (i.e. Chan, Jet Li, Donny Yen, Sammo, etc.) I don't know, but I agree with ChevalierAguila, i mean from the hair down to the clothes, screams rip off.
I hate to start this argument back up again, but I have to say that I probably want to see this one a little bit more than (wait for it) the Iwo "ass-whuppery" Malaysian vehicle promoted here this past weekend. Although the water and leaves slung off the kicks was a bit much, the action just seemed a little more crisp to me. Maybe I've just gotten used to the Thai action with Tony Jaa and others, but this type of chop-socky just seems a little more appealing than the Jackie Chan-ish action in the Malaysian film.
Afro, you can't possibly call this a Tony Jaa rip off. First of all, the style doesn't originate with Jaa at all, but with Panna Rittikrai, who trained Jaa, Dan Chupong, Jeeja Yanin, Mike B and others. Second of all, Mike is a contemporary of Jaa's who has worked directly with him on more than one occasion. Though Jaa was the focal point of Ong Bak, people like B and Chupong were just as integral to building the style of that film as key stunt performers. And, finally, director Maliwan is himself a contemporary of Rittikrai's, the two of them having worked together in the very early days before Jaa was any sort of star at all. Maliwan was a part of the production outfit where Rittikrai worked in his early career - and as said in the post, directed Rittikrai on at least one occasion - and developed the style he has since made famous.
You can certainly compare B's skills to Jaa's and see who you prefer but there's no way one is knocking off the other.
filth
Not interested. The Thai action genre is just repeating itself at this point. Every one of their 'heroes' are of the same look and personality it seems and the fighting style hasn't changed. All flashy. The stunts are amazing but, what's the point when you got no emotional investment in it? I love action but I prefer to see something with a little more meat. And I also don't like seeing these flashy spinning tricks in choreography. Who stands there waiting for you to land that kick after 1 or 2 spins in the air? If this was Sammo, he'd have knocked him down before he made half a turn!!
What "pg13myass" said, i like how thai action cinema brought back the hard and raw action that was missing from Hong Kong these days (with the exception of the Yip/Yen flicks that is) But they're showing a big lack of creativity, they're just repeating themselves over and over. Sammo, Jackie and Yuen Biao knew how to keep things fresh, how to avoid tedious repetition and so on. The thai acion industry still needs to figure that out.
Well in the 7 degrees of Kevin Bacon thread of inference since all these particular Thai industry people worked together at some point on certain movies, you're going to eventually see some similar styles in the action scenes and fights-which isn't a bad thing . I only hope they make a halfway decent movie somewhere in there. And does Russell Wong age at all?