Muay thai - Nai khanom tom (2003) User Reviews

low in budget, high in length, but definitely not bad

[Goldenarms_88 · 7/10 · 22 April 2005]

This movie is sometimes referred to as Ong Bak 2, which it is not, as the two movies are entirely unrelated aside from Muay Thai (Kickboxing) being part of the main premise.

This film although being evidently low in budget, is quite long but manages to entertain. This is especially true if your are into Thai culture and history or even Martial arts in general. There is plenty of action to be found here featuring lots of sword and Muay Thai fights. But if your expecting the high octane, fast paced action of Ong Bak you will be disappointed as this movie takes a much more practical approach to it's fight sequences. I found the story a little hard to fallow at times but that could just be a result of poor subtitles, overall the story was enough to keep me watching.

This movie turned out to be an interesting experience and I am glad to have it in my collection.

Great legend, but bad movie

[jedak88 · 3/10 · 25 October 2005]

Nai Khanomtom is pretty much considered the epitome of Muay Boran/Muay Thai/Ling Lom/Pahuyuth fighting. The legendary story is that he fought 9 or 10 Burmese lethwei/parma fighters and beat them. His feat is actually inscribed on a column somewhere in Burma lending credence to the story. Neither the Thais (of course!) nor the Burmese (surprisingly!) dispute that.

Unfortunately, this movie tries to be a documentary of sorts and the muay skills portrayed are not done properly ala Ong-Bak, Tom Yum-Goong, or even Born to Fight. The story is OK but the fights are practically skipped over. The sword fighting is pretty atrocious: when people get killed by the sword in this movie, it's because they either tripped, stumbled into or onto a sword. while I believe the main characters are probably accomplished muay thai boxers, they had to fake or pull their strikes and kicks as they would probably seriously injure, maim or kill each other if they did it for real. That makes for pretty bad and awkward movements in their koi dode and koi loi hits (jumping and flying knee strikes). Also, the fighting with the lethwei/parma fighters are too quickly over. The entire climatic fight with the ten Burmese are over in about 3 minutes or about 18 secs avg. Lastly, the sets are for the most part, pretty cheap looking.

Weak Bang Rajan rip-off

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 27 January 2017]

KING OF THAI BOXING is a classic example of what happens when you try to rip off a successful, mid-to-big budget film on a low budget. The inspiration for this film is none other than BANG RAJAN, the excellent Thai historical war epic; KING OF THAI BOXING attempts to tell almost exactly the same tale albeit with a fraction of the cost. Thus we get endless scenes which are mere weak imitations of those in BANG RAJAN, and a general lack of quality all round.

I wanted to like this film, I really did. The subject matter is interesting and there's plenty of action, as the Thai villagers attempt to fight off an invading Burmese army. It's a pity then that the quality is so bad and the director doesn't have much of a clue how to shoot action. Obviously the fighters need to hold back on their kicks and punches and knee strikes but they do so here in a very obvious way. Otherwise you get the usual round of sentiment and moralising and melodrama with the typical Thai chest-thumping patriotism. My advice? Stick with BANG RAJAN.

Cant seem to find it

[kinglycian · 27 January 2021]

I've been spending time looking for this movie, but have not been able to find it. I love historical films about martial arts as I normally find them inspirational and would love to catch this one if possible.