Like many martial arts, Muay Thai combines bone-crunching maneuvers with fluid, balletlike movement.
September 10, 2006 (Press Release) --
Like many martial arts, Muay Thai combines bone-crunching maneuvers with fluid, balletlike movement.
The national sport of Thailand, Muay Thai is a more versatile, and by some accounts more brutal, variation on martial arts such as tae kwon do, aikido or kung fu, which are better known to American audiences. It is sometimes called Thai boxing or "The Art of the Eight Limbs." Instead of employing just the fists and feet, a Muay Thai fighter also uses elbows, knees, shins and precise hip movements to land the maximum number of blows on his opponent.
Add that to gravity-defying flips and kicks, and what you have is nothing less than elegantly choreographed carnage. That kind of spectacle is what has made Muay Thai fighter Tony Jaa a huge star in Asia via his movies "Ong-bak" (2003) and "The Bodyguard" (2004).
In his three-star review of "Ong-bak," Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert called Jaa "an acrobat and stunt man in the league of Jackie Chan or Buster Keaton."
In his latest film, "The Protector," Jaa puts those acrobatic moves to good use as Kham, who is avenging the theft of his family's elephants by a notorious Asian gang. Meanwhile, on the trail of the elephants, Kham uncovers a government conspiracy.
Here to promote "The Protector," which opened Friday, Jaa and his manager and translator Gilbert Lim took a break from the action to talk to the Sun-Times about the star's aspirations and inspirations:
Source: http://search.msn.com
Posted BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA
The national sport of Thailand, Muay Thai is a more versatile, and by some accounts more brutal, variation on martial arts such as tae kwon do, aikido or kung fu, which are better known to American audiences. It is sometimes called Thai boxing or "The Art of the Eight Limbs." Instead of employing just the fists and feet, a Muay Thai fighter also uses elbows, knees, shins and precise hip movements to land the maximum number of blows on his opponent.
Add that to gravity-defying flips and kicks, and what you have is nothing less than elegantly choreographed carnage. That kind of spectacle is what has made Muay Thai fighter Tony Jaa a huge star in Asia via his movies "Ong-bak" (2003) and "The Bodyguard" (2004).
In his three-star review of "Ong-bak," Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert called Jaa "an acrobat and stunt man in the league of Jackie Chan or Buster Keaton."
In his latest film, "The Protector," Jaa puts those acrobatic moves to good use as Kham, who is avenging the theft of his family's elephants by a notorious Asian gang. Meanwhile, on the trail of the elephants, Kham uncovers a government conspiracy.
Here to promote "The Protector," which opened Friday, Jaa and his manager and translator Gilbert Lim took a break from the action to talk to the Sun-Times about the star's aspirations and inspirations:
Source: http://search.msn.com
Posted BY ESTHER J. CEPEDA
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