ARTICLE
Getting to Know Tony Jaa in 'Tom Yum Goong 2'!
By InCinemas / 11 Nov 2013 (Monday)
The action-packed Thai film, Tom Yum Goong 2 features Tony Jaa, one of Asia's popular martial arts choreographer.
Thanks to Scorpio East Pictures, we managed to grab an interview transcript with lead actor, Tony Jaa! Find out more after the jump!
Synopsis
Boss Suchart is the influential owner of a major
elephant camp. When he was murdered in his own home – the killer
delivered three fatal blows on his body – all evidence points to KHAM
(Tony Jaa), who was present at the crime scene and was seen with the
victim the moment before he died. Kham is forced to run as the police
launches a pursuit…
A sequel of the global smash-hit “Tom Yam
Goong” (or “The Protector”), TYG2 is an extreme fight movie, an
endlessly intense, nerve-racking film full of fists, elbows, kicks and
daredevil stunt scenes and amazingly choreographed fighting moves that
will pump hot blood through the body of all action fans!
Q. Now you are here with the dream of Tony Jaa, the kid who wanted to be an action star, how do you feel?
A: When I was young, I was fond of action movies. I used to ride my bicycle 10 km aross the fields just to watch an action film. Maybe it’s because I have the blood of a fighter, like it’s there in my soul. When I saw action film, I wanted to do the same, I wanted to be the same, I wanted to accomplished this. I love it. When I saw it I thought to myself ‘hmm... I can do this’, and finally my dream came true.
I look back to my younger days watching action films, and now I am the inspiration for a lot of youngsters out there who share the same sparkle in my eyes when I was a kid, the feeling ’I wanted to do that, I wanted to show my ability, my dream’.
Q. Why do you think Kham (Tony Jaa) is charming?
A: The charm of Kham is he is heroic, naïve, and pure. He has a Thai lifestyle that is so simple, peaceful, and solitary. He is kind and loves kids. He teaches them martial arts, hoping they would be his successors and keep the country’s precious arts alive. When necessary, his heroic action is used for good deeds and justice.
In this sequel, we will get to see more perspectives of Kham. In the first film, he seemed to be crazy but in this sequel, he will show more of his human side, his development in thoughts to bring out his power, combined with the skills he has honed to win his rivals over. We will definitely see pain, lost, and also deligence, violence, agressiveness of this charater.
Q. The first film has become a phenomenon because of the uniqueness of new kind action film. Is there anything in this sequel that’s as rousing as first one?
A: If you can recall, there were several scenes in the first film that are still in audiences’ mind whether the action scenes, which I had to fight and run up 4, stories building. In this sequel we implement more of scenes like that. We intended to make more non-stop scenes starting from the top of the building up to the roof of sky scrapper. And we put something different by adding motorbikes in the scene. Normally, motorbikes would be ridden on the stress, but in this scene we developed the plot for the character to fight with a motorbike gang on the roof, jumping from buildings to buildings.
There is another chasing scene that ended up with me falling off Karnchanapisek Bridge because of a bomb blast. It was the biggest scene. In the first film, people remembered the 4-minute long scene but in this sequel we doubled that. It was 13-16 minutes which was a very life-risking scene. This one scene required my lifetime experience as I needed to be fast and slick. I had to do a fighting scene with more than 10 motorbikes when trying to avoid tools and metal pieces. It was a big scene I risked my life for.
(View movie movie details/trailers here!)
Q. The sequel is meant to be 3D. Is it hard to film Tom Yum Goong 2 in 3D?
A: It is very hard to film this movie in 3D because besides the usual action set up, we have to set the perspective of each camera. Normally, I only need 10 minutes break between action scenes, everyone knows that. I would warm up for 30 minutes and then I can do 3 cuts. But this is very difficult because it was 360 filmed action scene. It required a lot. But when it’s done, it’s worth it.
Making this film 3D required 30 minutes set up for the depth dimension. It we missed even a little, the scene will be blurring. We need to be really careful and detail oriented even for the tiniest level. The effects, the angle of depths, or even the location of characters those need to be stand out, all these need to be accurate. It is a hard work since if we missed even a little, we had to re-do the whole thing. Together with the operation team, extras, the crew, each scene required at least 300 people and a whole day for only a 1-minute part in the actual film. We did all this for the great film, for our fans those are looking forward to it.
Q. When talking about the Tony Jaa’s realy action films, the first thing come to mind would be martial arts. Will we be seeing this in Tom Yum Goong 2?
A: Martial Arts is the character of Tom Yum Goong 2 – 3D, the movie still mainly focuses on martial arts and that is what used against the villains. Elephant Martial Arts (Muay Kochasarn) is what Kham used against his rival, Maresse, who has thoroughly studied martial arts and became so skilled at several kinds, including his invention, the Hip-hop martial arts which is really unique, fast, and beautiful.
He mixed martial arts and made it Trick Martial Arts, whether it’s Pencak Silat, Capoeira, Thai Boxing, or even Kangfu, Taekwondo, Karate, they are all mixed together in this actor. He is a competitive rival.
Q. Tell us about the fighting scene between Tony Jaa and Marrese Crump.
A: Marrese character is a skilled assassin. He is aggressive, and wants to fight Kham, but Kham is one who believes in helping than to fight people. The martial arts we present are both soft and hard. There were some avoiding and drama in it, with more plots to the film too. And the final blow was 3 punches which was superb. Moris and I agreed that we wouldn’t be using the same old style. We did that in the previous film, the Capoeira, and boxing, which ones we did in the first film we wouldn’t use them again. There were several kinds of martial arts. Which gesture will be used against the 3 death final punches, we will have to wait and see.
Q. We have heard that there were some injuries in the making of Tom yum Goong 2.
A: There were some injuries from the action scenes because we worked with metals and velocity, which we can neither predict nor control. There is a scene where I have to push the motorbike, driven by a stunt man with front wheal up high. I had to go against the motorbike so I was injuired around my knees and legs. It was an accident but the scene showed how the hero risked his life in the moment that the motorbike hit him. The villian who drove the motorbike got his neck slashed by the metal sheet. It was terrifying. This scene showed the ability of stunt team and the quality of safety measurements to secure all the actors. It was life-risking and I survived.
Catch Tony Jaa in Tom Yum Goong 2, screening in theatres now!