Tony Jaa - Mission One: Retrieve the Buddha's Head!

Press Start

melodic eastern music- Long ago in a small town in Thailand, the young men of the village would have a contest to see who was the greatest Thai Warrior. They would all try to climb to the top of a large many limbed tree. It is part of a traditional celebration

Prologue You are Ting, the Thai Warrior! Climb the Tree. Press up to climb up and down to climb down. Press Y to swing and X to push an opponent!

You Did it! YOu are the Thai Champion! (Tony Jaa)

Cut Scene - Bad men from the city break into the sacred temple! They have cut off the head of the Buddha, Ong Bak! The village ceremony is only days away. How will the village have prosperity and good fortune for the next decade?

You are sent to meet your cousin, Humlae (Petchtai Wongkamlao) who lives in the city. Perhaps he can help you to retrieve the Buddha's head

Act II scene 1 You are entered into the arena of Thai boxing! Press XY to give a devastating kick! Give me back my Buddha Head!

Cut Scene You see your cousin Humlae and his girlfriend being chased by thugs that they scammed. Your character, the Thai Warrior goes down to protect them, but then dozens more gang members appear.

Act II scene 2 - The Chase Scene! You must jump run, scale walls and otherwise use your incredible agility to escape the gang!

Cut Scene- after each successful fancy manuever, Humlae, follows you, trying to do the same, with limited success

Act II, Scene 3 - The fight out You are surrounded You must fight! Give me back my Buddha head! Press X to hit and Y to kick!

cut scene - Rich people are betting at the boxing match! You must find the man who stole your Buddha Head!

Act III - Return to the Thai Boxing Match You must face opponents one by one in the arena!

Act IV - The Buddhist Temple in the Cave The bad guys are digging up a huge Buddha. Your Buddha head is here to! Defeat the Boss and win the game!


This game, er movie, was a lot of action fun. New action star Tony Jaa (star of The Protector ) is another Asian martial arts star who does his own stunts. He doesn't have much personality though, and the plot truly is that of a video game. He literally goes on a bone breaking, head thumping high kicking rampage to retrieve the Buddha's Head, that he has been assigned to protect. Although the film has subtitles when dialogue is in Thai, this film needs no dialogue, it is all about the action and the martial arts. Regretably, Tony Jaa doesn't have the personality of Jet Li or the humor of Jackie Chan. He is okay, but he needs to lighten up a bit. As Action goes, it's great action believe me, the last time I saw so many fight scenes, I was watching my son play Mortal Combat! He also thought that this movie was very video game like . Although he is only 11, he quickly pointed out that the "plot" of this movie was about exactly the same as the plot of The Protector after we had seen both films. In this film, Jaa must retrieve the Buddha's head, in that film Jaa had to retrieve the elephant. On route to these missions he engages in many very well choreographed action filled fight sequences.

Only the occasional one liners or comical expressions of actor Petchtia Wongkamlao as cousin Humlae provided some comic relief in the film. He was actually funnier in this film than the currently in theaters The Protector


Summary As action goes, it provided plenty of it, and very well choreographed at that. No high wires, just Tony Jaa. What the film doesn't provide, and what keeps me at only an average rating is plot, character development, dialogue, all those other silly things that make up a film.

If you have noticed that my review is similar in many respects to my review of his other film, it is because his two films are really not very different either. Seriously, Tony Jaa should be happy that I was able to think of a hundred words to differentiate the two. However for your purposes remember! In Thai Warrior Tony Jaa saves the Buddha's head! In The Protector Tony Jaa saves the Elephants! Nevertheless, it was fun to watch, so it gets 3 stars.