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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 the earlier sales trailer from this in the past and now the Thai theatrical trailer has arrived online. You'll find it both the break.
For a second there I thought it was one of the Beastie Boys starring in this.
Didn't do it for me. The trailer highlights lots of slow motion and a few interesting stunts that are completely undermined by lack of impact. For example: A guy goes flying out a window, bounces off a sign and is about to fall ten feet onto a car....then we cut to three different angles before finally ending on a close up of the car as the guy hits it. I have a funny feeling that it may have been done in one take, but the excitement and "Holy Shit!" factor is lost if you play it up as a trick in cinematic editing.