I’ve never heard anything, good or bad, about THE PROTECTOR but I was willing to pony up two bucks at a thrift store to give it a try. Looked like an Asian martial arts film which Quentin Tarantino really likes. While I don’t like Tarantino or his work, he does know his genre/exploitation films.
THE PROTECTOR is the story of a young Thai man named Kham (Tony Jaa) who is a protector of the elephants that are raised to be the king’s chosen beasts. He loves his charges and when they are stolen, he goes on a relentless quest to find them and bring them home.
Kham’s journey takes him from his native Thailand to the dangerous streets of Sydney, Australia where he faces both corrupt police officers and murderous gangsters. What propels Kham’s odyssey is a non-stop barrage of action set pieces most of which are martial arts extravaganzas. Kham is an extremely accomplished fighter, and he uses his hands and feet and some amazing parkour to dispatch thugs all around him.
There are two sequences that are, to my mind, stand outs. The first is a boat chase on a Thai canal involving motorized canoes. The staging of the chase reminds me of similar scenes from the James Bond thriller LIVE AND LET DIE (1973) and the Nicholas Cage actioner BANGKOK DANGEROUS (2008).
But the real jaw dropper is an extended battle between Kham and an army of killers as he moves up a circular staircase from level to a level in a huge casino-based atrium. It’s all shot in one several minutes long tracking shot as the camera follows Kham up and up and up the stairs, dispatching goons left and right with no letup. It’s a breathtakingly choreographed money sequence (reminiscent of a similar scene in ATOMIC BLONDE (2017)) in a film that’s filled with fights and non-stop action.
Story wise there’s nothing here we haven’t seen in countless other revenge fueled action flicks. But the focus on such wonderful animals as elephants and Tony Jaa’s fighting ability (a mix between Brue Lee and Jackie Chan) make THE PROTECTOR an exhilarating joyride that’s well worth getting on board for.
Thumbs up.
Leave a comment