Tien, the son of Lord Sihadecho — a tragically murdered nobleman — is taken under the wing of Chernang, a renowned warrior and leader of the Pha Beek Krut, who teaches Tien a variety of deadly fighting styles. Now a master of weapons and combat, Tien seeks revenge on those who killed his family.
Those disappointed in Fox’s muddy, bleary, frankly ugly transfer of Ong Bak—which was, admittedly, not sourced from the greatest material to begin with—will be pleased by Magnolia’s 1080p/VC-1 encode of Ong Bak 2. With a bigger budget comes a more luscious visual look that seems heavily inspired by modern Chinese martial arts epics like House of Flying Daggers and Hero. The worst I can say about the film’s aesthetic is that it looks patently artificial at times, using a lot of post-production color timing boosts and extremely pushed contrast. It works for the film, though, and aside from a few technical quibbles—two or three instances of negligible banding and some sporadic artifacts—this transfer has no trouble keeping pace with its source material.
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Most of the film has a clean, sharp, stylized look, with a great and even occasionally wowing sense of clarity. Elephant hide, weather-beaten faces, jungle foliage, and intricate clothing all show fine texture and detail, and even background objects seem crisply resolved when they’re in focus. During a number of action scenes, I noticed an uncharacteristic softness toward the edges of the frame, but this appears to an intentional effect. Colors are selectively desaturated or overpumped—see the ultra-vivid greens, reds, and golds, or the pulled-back neutral tones—and aside from a few wishy-washy nighttime scenes, black levels are adequately deep. The only real downside to all the post-production tweaking is that the image seems somewhat dimensionless. Overall, though, I was more than pleased with this transfer.
In my review for Ong Bak, I noted that the soundfield during the action scenes seemed oddly limited to punches and music, with little ambience to fill out the space. Ong Bak 2’s Thai-language DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track mostly remedies that problem, and the film’s bigger budget equals more dynamic sound, better effects, and more vibrant clarity. The surround channels get much more action this time around, and you’ll hear horses galloping through the rears, arrows zipping directionally, whipping wind, pouring rain, and rolling thunder, amongst other place-establishing sounds like market chatter and the clashing of training ground swords. There are a few missed opportunities for discrete effects, but generally, this mix is active and engaging.
Aside, that is, from the forgettable score, which mixes orchestral elements and more driving rock numbers to ill effect. So, don’t expect the sweeping Chinese violin grandiosity of, say, Crouching Tiger. Dialogue reproduction seems okay—granted, I don’t speak Thai, so I can’t tell how easily it comes through—but I did notice that some of the lower, more full-bodied voices seem slightly muffled at times. If at all possible, stay away from the English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 dub, which is ridiculously laughable and robs the film of what little dramatic heft it has.