The Kick (더 킥)
Director: Prachya Pinkaew
Writer(s): Lee Jong-suk, Prachya Pinkaew
Country: Thailand, South Korea
Year: 2011
“The Kick” is a co-production between Thailand and South Korea. Primarily, it is a family action-comedy movie with very impressive taekwondo stunts.
The plot is very simple – a rich evil guy, Suck Doo, wants to steal an ancient kris, a precious Thai artifact. His crime is accidentally stopped by a taekwondo practicing family. They get fame for saving the national treasure, but also become targets of Suck Doo’s revenge. The family is not without their own problems too, and the father controls the family tightly. His goal is to get his son, Taeyang, to win Olympic gold, but the son wants to become a famous pop singer. They fight their way against the evil rich guy’s squads and work out their family tensions along the way.
The movie is filled with really goofy, B-rate family comedy scenes, but there are lots of sloppy mistakes too. For example, characters getting really bruised, and in the next scene they are already healed. If not for the outstanding fighting scenes, it would not be something I would recommend. It did have impressive taekwondo though, and some funny and interesting fighting blended with dance moves or kitchen utensils. In the end I can say this: it is not the best film from Prachya Pinkaew by far, but for martial arts fans it is something fun to watch.
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