Talking about martial arts films or punch-in-the-face films is talking about a genre that can produce films that become great classics. Enter the Dragon, the three dragons, and many other films with dragons, too, or not, are usually among the classics that every true fan of punch-in-the-face films should see. But after 2000, no star, much less a film, had been able to leave us wanting to see more. But from Southeast Asia came the man who would change that. Aside from imposing new rules when it comes to punching in the movies, for that reason and because you've asked for it with more violence than marriage to Alberto Fernández. Today we're going to talk about the Great Tony Jaa.
Tony Jaa, whose real name is Phanom Yeerum, was born in February 1976 in a small rural area of Suin Province, Thailand. His parents, like many rural Thais, worked the fields to provide for their family. His inspiration to begin martial arts came from some of this channel's old acquaintances, Bruce Lee, my beloved Yi Chan, and the great Jet Lee. But how did he get into film? Well, it turns out that film festivals used to be held in the Buddhist temple in his village, and that's where, thanks to the excellent cinematic taste of the monks in charge, he would see classic stories that would capture the imagination of our then-young protagonist, not only because they presented heroes who fought for good causes, but also because of their mastery of fighting moves, even ignoring that many of these moves were the product of cables and other tricks, and setting his mind on a goal: to become like the protagonists of these films.
The Thai martial art of Muay Thai and Muay Boran, fortunately for our protagonist, he wanted to enroll in a sports institute to complete his high school diploma, where he would begin to acquire other knowledge of martial arts such as gushu taekwondo and some gymnastics. But right around that time, he came across a film that finally convinced him that he could have a career in Thai cinema. The film in question was a B-movie called Born to Fight, directed by and starring Panna Ritty Cry. The film was from 1984 and is certainly not a pretentious film; it gives you what you're looking for, action, violence, and a good dose of slaps. Oh, look at cinema, but for Tony, that film was the closest thing to what had inspired him, so he decided to meet Pan in order to gain his favor and hopefully join his team of specialists. Using God knows what tricks he convinced his Father to take him to a nearby city where, thanks to the newspapers, he knew the actor-director would be filming.
His nickname would change, and they would start calling him the Thai "Bruce Lee." But, to be honest, there's only one "Bruce Lee." As I told you at the beginning, the actor considers himself only one of his disciples. Well, over time, Tony Jaa has done nothing but fuel his career and prestige with films like "The Bodyguard: Die Dragon" and the second and third parts of "A Pack." After achieving success, the warrior embraced the Buddhist faith and was on the verge of leaving his career to dedicate himself one hundred percent to practicing this faith.
But as his fame grew, job offers kept coming in. He tried to reject them all, but there was one he couldn't refuse. That was when they called him to make his Hollywood debut with the seventh installment of "Fast and Furious," in which he would play one of the villains allied with Chau's character. We could say that the Fast and the Furious saga And Furious were the ones who saved Tony Jaa's career. An imminent retirement from the film made him such a close friend of Bing Says that the famous actor asked Tony to give him some private lessons. The friendship between the two grew to such an extent that Bing Says invited Tony to participate alongside him in the third installment of the Triple X film.
In 2017, now with the doors open in Hollywood, the career of the experienced warrior is reborn and still has much to offer us in this wonderful world of cinema and martial arts. This has been the story of the great warrior of Muay Thai and Muay Boran.
