Me! With the offical promotion poster for Muay Thai Chaiya. He looks super fierce and intimidating.. but still good-looking nonetheless. =)

Half an hour before the movie: Taking random photos with the tickets at Burger King. This is the best of the lot!

Super close-up of the tickets. Just to show that I watched the movie in Coca Cola Hall. Very cute name!

Muay Thai is a predominant art in Thailand and in recent years, has been gaining popularity in many other countries around the world. The movie that I watched was titled "Muay Thai Chaiya". There are actually many different genres of Muay Thai, and this movie specifically shows how Muay Thai Chaiya has influenced the lives of 3 guys – Pao, Piak and Samor.

Okay.. Before I start babbling about the movie...

I went to surf the net for some information about Muay Thai Chaiya and discovered that it is not as popular as the other forms of Muay Thai that is still being practiced today. This was briefly mentioned in the movie when Pao’s father said that Muay Thai Chaiya is a dying art. I guess it is partly because of the techniques involved. As said by Pao’s brother, Muay Thai Chaiya “looks defending but it’s actually attacking”. Guess this kind of intentional attacks are considered violent and are not encouraged today.

Anyway...

“Muay Thai Chaiya” started off very pleasantly. Pao, Piak and Samor were children training in a small town Muay Thai training camp which was situated in rural Thailand. They were trained in the art of Muay Thai Chaiya by Pao's father who runs the training camp. Pao’s brother was aware of their interest in Muay Thai Chaiya, and constantly taught them the skills involved. However, Pao’s father incurred debts from running the camp, and was thus forced to close it down. An offer then came for his father and brother to fight in matches in Bangkok where Muay Thai was actually a very lucrative business. They accepted the offer because it was a mean for them to get out of the poverty cycle.

When they grew older, Pao, Piak and Samor managed to save enough money to travel to Bangkok to seek a brighter future for themselves too. By this time, Piak was already married. They joined a legal Muay Thai association and only received monetary rewards when they won matches.This was when all the trouble started. They found out that Pao's brother had commited suicide as he could not handle the pressure he was put under. It turned out that the Muay Thai industry was actually a very complicated one.

When Piak and Samor got kicked out of the association because they refused to throw a match (in other words, lose on purpose to the opponent so that the boss would earn big money), they joined an illegal boxing ring. This ring did not follow the rules set by the legal organisations. Instead, boxers could use weapons during a match and often, the match only ends when one boxer is killed by his opponent. However, rituals are still conducted at the beginning of the match. The boxers would do some form of "dance" and then go on to acknowledge their teachers' efforts in training them.

Besides fighting all these matches, Piak and Samor were also forced to follow their boss' orders and thus, ended killing people who offended the boss. Lots of blood and gore in the middle which I didn't really dare to watch... but... Piak didn't get away scot-free.

Towards the end of the show...
Samor rescued Piak out of prison. However, he got caught by his boss' men. While he was in the car with them, he committed suicide by triggering this bomb which he had tied to his body. Kinda gross.. but oh well. Anyway, Piak then went to the stadium to look for his boss for revenge. It was the stadium where Pao was fighting for the championship title. Lots of killing and bloodshed again. The ending was quite tragic. Piak got surrounded by the police and his ex-wife, daughter and Pao managed to get him to surrender. But... his boss kinda gestured that he would kill Piak's wife and daughter. So, Piak ended up killing him, then committing suicide.

Commentary:

This movie is kind of sad in the way that these 3 guys had bright futures ahead of them as Muay Thai boxers but their dreams were ruined due to unforeseen circumstances. It was revealed at the end of the show that Piak and Samor joined the underground organization so that they could earn more money to support Pao in his career. Throughout most of the movie, it was obvious that the 3 friends were very close. When they were staying in the village, they experienced being marginalized by others. I guess this was what spurred them on to achieve more in monetary terms as well as social status.

Another phenomenon that I observed in the movie was that Pao had several matches against this American boxer who practices Muay Thai. This shows that the art of Muay Thai is slowly, but surely spreading to other parts of the world. What is amazing is that this American boxer, the foreigner, actually has better skills than the Thai!!

My goodness.. Even if this is like fiction and stuff, I really wonder how the Thai community must have felt when their national art is being represented by somebody of a different nationality and race...

Back to the point. Muay Thai.. 'elegant' and 'graceful' might not be the words one will associate with this sport. However, these words comprehensively describe the swift attacks and defense tactics that I watched in the show. The determination and perseverance shown by the boxers during tough trainings should be commended. When used in the wrong context, Muay Thai can be a deadly weapon. But, when used correctly, it is indeed an art that deserves much recognition and respect.

**Wan Shin