Starring Seigi Ozeki, Thanawut Kasro, Thammaros Jaicheun, Sorapong Chatree,

Fight Choreography by Yuttana Muenvaja, Thanawut Kasro, Ramai Moriphan

Directed by Nopporn Watin

(Ed: I had a difficult time finding out who some of the actors were who played what character. For any readers who speak Thai, let me know what mistake I made and I’ll correct it)

Muay Thai Warrior tells the story of Yamada (Ozeki), a Japanese Samurai living in Ayothaya, a location within the Kingdom of Siam, where a contingent of Japanese warriors reside to help the King of Saim deal with his enemies as they had a friendship with Japan. One drunken night Yamada and his fellow samurai are ambushed by warriors wearing demon masks, and all are killed except for Yamada, who is saved by a group of badasses from the country (yeah, they always do come from there, don’t they?) led by Khaam (Kasro), who takes Yamada back to their village, where Yamada is healed by a young woman named Champa, Khaam’s sister. Yamada soon heals, and falls in love with the Ayothayan people, and even more so with the art of Muay Thai, which he combines with his Japanese swordsmanship in order to defend the people of Ayothaya and more importantly, finding the Japanese traitors who ambushed him and silence them lest their betrayal shatter the peace between Ayothaya and Japan…

The storyline is actually fairly strong, even though I wish more time had been spent between Yamada and Khaam. There is talk later in the film about their friendship, but with the exception of a couple of scenes I never really got the feeling that their friendship was “earned”. Speaking of which, Khaam needed to get his own damn movie, ‘cause Thanawut Kasro was all kinds of badass. His look, with that crazy moustache and mohawk, was just chilling. The other actors did a fine job, but I found the Japanese characters were just stock characters, and offered nothing to the narrative except as cackling bad guys. The story moves at a good pace, but I never really felt any particular emotion for any of the characters one way or the other, as no other characters were in “danger” except for the two principles.

The fights were also a source of disappointment, but not for the normal reasons. The choreography itself was okay, but screamed for Panna Rittikrai to do them. The actors and stuntmen could do more than what they were given, but did well with what they had. The real failing that drove me insane was the overuse and poor quality of the CGI blood scenes. They were terrible, and looked like something out of a PS2 game. Either do it right or just use real blood and a good makeup artist. This is a practice that just needs to stop in films like this. The CGI crappy blood effects took me out of every fight they are used in, which is bad because the fights in question are the two biggest set pieces of the film. It was unnecessary and ruined otherwise decent fight choreography.

Kiai-Kick’s Grade: 7

Muay Thai Warrior has a decent story and fair fight scenes that are just enough for me to recommend it, but the CGI blood scenes dropped my score considerably.

You can purchase this film now from Wellgo Entertainment here.

NEXT: Wellgo Entertainment slices through with The Assassin’s Blade