7.1 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Based on a true historic figure during Ayothaya Era, the film depicts the life of Yamada Nagamasa, a Japanese adventurer who gained considerable influence in Thailand and became the governor of Nakhon Si Thammarat province in southern Thailand.
Starring: Seigi Ozeki, Kanokkorn Jaicheun, Sorapong ChatreeAction | 100% |
Foreign | 78% |
Martial arts | 64% |
Drama | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Thai: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Thai: Dolby Digital 2.0
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 2.5 | |
Video | 3.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
There is such a glut of specialized martial arts techniques that if asked to describe them, some Westerners at least are probably going to be prone to haul out that rightly disparaged old saying that bigots used to denigrate various races with, saying “they all look the same to me”. Would many uninitiated viewers really know the difference between karate, judo, Kung Fu, T’ai Chi, and countless other vaunted approaches if they weren’t told or shown what those differences are? And that same epithet might even be slightly morphed in starting to talk about Muay Thai Warrior by stating “all the titles look the same to me”, for lovers of the martial arts genre might initially be forgiven for mistaking this film for Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior, for a couple of reasons. First of all, Ong Bak is listed prominently in a pull quote on the front cover, but perhaps more importantly Ong Bak was released in many markets with the title Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior. There’s perhaps some intentional consternation in all of this, a potential intentionality only heightened by the fact that this film was evidently originally titled either Yamada: The Samurai of Ayothaya or simply The Samurai of Ayothaya. The British Blu-ray of this film was released under the title Yamada: Way of the Samurai, and it’s obviously no mere coincidence that the other film prominently mentioned in the pull quote on the cover is The Last Samurai. Even putting aside all of this deliberate obfuscation of the film’s title, obviously meant to link it to other, better known, fare, chances are some viewers will be at least momentarily confused by a piece which plops them down in an intercultural war which very few of them will know much about.
Muay Thai Warrior is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. A little internet sleuthing disclosed that this film was evidently made on an extremely small budget, which may account at least in part for how relatively shoddy this high definition presentation looks, at least in part. The entire film is really very soft looking, with only extreme close-ups offering anything approaching decent looking "pop" and fine detail (see the first screenshot for a good example). Unfortunately, the bulk of this outing is marred by fuzziness, lack of shadow detail and outright digital noise in a lot of the more dimly lit sequences, although things are rather strangely highly variable throughout this presentation, almost as if either different cameras were utilized or different source elements in the transfer. Look for example at screenshots 2, 8 and 10, which are on the soft side, and compare them with some of the others (3 and 5, for example) and you'll get an idea of the differing quality that's quite noticeable here.
Muay Thai Warrior's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Thai mix is considerably more effective than the image quality, though it is marred both by the incompetent music mixing and editing (as outlined above in the main body of the review) as well as a tendency to deliver too much bass at times, resulting in an overall rumbling quality that persists through vast swaths of the film. That said, fidelity is excellent and surround activity is quite consistent. Dialogue is cleanly presented and dynamic range is extremely wide.
Muay Thai Warrior is kind of a hodgepodge of other, better films, as is immediately made apparent by its many "borrowed" titles as well as its emphasis on two of its forebears on its cover's pull quote. There's definitely an interesting story here, even if it's not particularly well connected to actual historical events, but the film is often haphazardly put together, with some amateurish performances and a lack of narrative momentum that will probably leave most people checking their watches until the next fight sequence is cued up. Thai films have really experienced an explosion in popularity over the past few years, but Muay Thai Warrior is simply a pretty rote retread of material we've all seen before. Still, those who love martial arts flicks may want to check this out as at least a rental, for the fight scenes are very dramatic and generally well staged.
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