Critiquing “Kickboxer”..Muay Thai, it is not.

Wow..the moves from the 1^st fight are quite legit. Liver kick and then a spinning back fist.

“You don’t win fights with that tip-tap shit…power..power kicks!” True, those tip-tap slap sidekicks that VD was throwing only wins matches if they were point-based. Plus they expose you to many possible counters. VD’s elder bro was throwing too much tip-toe into the high kick…power yes but he was compromising balance. And also, VD was not standing in a proper mitt stance thus he got rocked off his stance easily.

Damn, Bangkok stadium is small….from the looks of it, it is just a community stadium. And the Muay Thai music that they were playing was weird. The Thai champ was kicking a concrete pillar HARD…now that is funny. And he had some weird Chinese pigtail…which is totally not Nak Muay in any way. Then he does a nipple twist gesture to VD to intimidate him….funny shit! The fight looks stiff. Champ lands a sok which knocks out elder bro for the first count out. Champ doesn’t block and just takes hits because I guess he is tough. Then he catches elder bro’s kick and headbutts him. Headbutt?! Was that allowed in 1989s Muay Thai? Then he clinches him up in the high clinch and repeatedly throw khaos to his body. That much is legit. No hydration and ice pack in between rounds, they just fan their fighters with a huge cloth. VD throws in the towel but the champ kicks it away and the champ finishes off VD’s elder bro with an elbow to his back as he was trying to stand up. Officials rush to aid him and 1 guy keeps fanning him with the towel. Why are they so obsessed with fanning people? He tears his opponent’s belt at the end of the fight..with his gloves still on nonetheless! They just leave him out on the street with no medical care….talk about unsanctioned!

Meeting with the Kru..Kru jumps up in front of VD and d

oes crazy fast kicks and punches, “your defense stinks.”  Hahah…now that is so off that it isn’t even funny. Thai village life...rabbits are definitely not commonplace in rural Thailand. Why is the Kru doing Tai Chi hand movements and Kung Fu style kicks? They must have had their “Asians” confused for one another. Kru drops coconut on VD’s abs to train him to breath out. Legit..we still do this today but with light medicine balls. Kru asks him to do Karate style tip-tappy kicks (naw…he should have had him doing MT continuous RH kicks instead) and Karate style sidekicks. VD was not kicking through with his RH kicks and therefore the banana tree trunk was “kicking back”. Anyways, their accent sounds Chinese and their names sound very Chinese too.

The pub brawl scene is funny too. As usual in M.A.D situation, the baddies come at VD one at a time. Baddy breaks glass but stands there wide open and allows VD to nail him with a spinning backheel.

VD’s first Muay Thai fight is very stiff…again. They just stand in the centre and trade RH body kicks, no shin checks…nothing. He earns himself the fight nick of “Nak Su Khao”/ White warrior by finishing his opponent with 3 RH headkicks into a farajkhe Jad Hee. A bit of an overkill if you ask me. :P

There is quite of romantic mysticism in this movie as benefitting the era and orientalism. Wonder who started the martial myth of old Muay Thai fighters covering their stringed fists with glass shards?

When VD does his come around in the final fight, it is purely stylized and with no actual technical or tactical realism. He just comes to it when he sees that his brother is no longer held hostage, he just hits the “Nak Su Khao” switch on and suddenly all his strikes hit and the champ seems utterly useless. He even does the retarded windwiper  kick on the champ.