[ATTENTION! THIS REVIEW IS A MAJOR PLOT SPOILER] :)
The film "Jakkalan" just recently given an English name “This Girl Is Bad-Ass”. Gija Yanin it fits perfectly. Unfortunately, her fierce fighting style is overshadowed by the director's extremely lackluster collection of one-liners and visual gags. Pettaya Wongkamlao nicknamed “Mam Jokmok” and his fellow comedians.
Representing a kind of set of episodes from various comedies, melodramas and action films from the company “Sahamongkol”, movie "Jakkalan" distracts the viewer's attention. There's a little bit "Bodyguard", there's not much here “Chocolate”, pinch “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” (and even “Siamese love”) – a decent result could have been achieved, but instead it was a real disaster.
"Jakkalan" - a clunky, messy mix of comedy, melodrama and action with a weak plot, unfunny jokes, fights that lack grit and a cast dominated by sidekicks Mama on show business. They were apparently allowed to make whatever stupid jokes they came up with. For comparison, past directorial works Mama, for example, in the first “Bodyguard”, banter about soap operas “Wongkamlao” or in a country comedy “Hello Yasoton”, there were denser scripts, and they were much more interesting.
But those films were made mainly with the Thai audience in mind. And to "Jakkalan" has received worldwide recognition, it will have to be radically remade, but there’s practically nothing to start with. People abroad want to see on the screen Jija, but there are too few scenes with her participation, and even those are on the verge of nonsense.
Jija – a young tomboy named Jakkalan, raised by her uncle (Mom). She works as a bicycle courier and, taking into account the quirky Thai preferences, pedals a bicycle without replaceable sprockets. In the first fight scene, she also uses the bicycle as an effective weapon. But you'll have to wait forever for this, because first there are episodes in which Mom takes care of the little one and the growing one Jakkalan, starting from the age of a toddler, ending with a 10-year-old bully who beats all the neighborhood hooligans.
Uncle Mom sells films in a street stall, it is worth noting that he sells only licensed copies (and, of course, only films from “Sahamongkol”) is a useless idea, and an extremely self-serving and unfunny attempt to offend movie pirates.
We see more of the so-called “comedy” in the face of the omnipresent Coma of Changchuen, wearing clothes that appeared to be on sale from the BDSM section of a thrift store. The only way to protect yourself from the abomination the clown is wearing Com, is to close your eyes every time you see him on the screen, but he appears often. He plays the owner of a courier service.
There is also a strange young man (Akom Pridakun) with bad teeth, in love with Jakkalan. He constantly hangs around, asking Mamahow to approach her. The fact that he constantly calls the character Wongkamlao “uncle” looks strange, even if we take into account that when communicating with older people who are not relatives, Thais usually say “uncle”, “aunt”, “elder brother”, etc.
But Jakkalan has her eye on the long-haired rock musician next door (Atit Amonwet), which gives her the opportunity to act like a clueless teenager who's fallen in love for the first time. Such Jija we haven't seen yet and she looks quite adorable in this look. There are several scenes in which she takes off her T-shirt, jeans, baseball cap and sneakers, dresses up in a dress and puts on makeup.
There are also a couple of funny scenes with her participation, for example, in the episode where she energetically insults an annoying guy, she showed herself on the good side.
Jija she looks funny even when she fights, and it’s all simply because instead of a gloomy expression on her face, she smiles sweetly, punching the dude in the face.
Her job is to deliver gangster money and other supposedly illegal “stuff.” The film never explains what these “things” are, but they are probably talking about drugs. She somehow left behind some of the gangster's money and some of the goods, and this led to problems involving two ridiculously dressed gangsters for whom she worked. Like a samurai Sanjuro в “Yojimbo”, she manages to set the gangsters against each other. But this part of the plot is lost amid the drawn-out jokes and tiresome romantic overtures.
Episodes with fights are rare, and even if fights do occur, they do not last very long.
First fight Jija with a group of bad guys who are trying to take her gangster money. They climb out of a small van like circus clowns from a tiny car. A Jija deals with them using a mixture Muay Thai and cycling tricks. One of the bad guys was even stabbed with a knife, more than once, borrowing a trick from “Kung Fu showdown” Stephen Chow.
One more fight Jija spends with a female fighter dressed in a school uniform, like Go-go в "Kill Bill". But the schoolgirl turns out to be not such a serious opponent, and soon Jija goes toe-to-toe with a half-dozen guys or so, and gets creative, throwing bicycle sprockets as throwers, using hex nuts as brass knuckles, and bicycle inner tubes as a bondage aid. Computer blood flies in all directions and everything, again, ends too quickly, because Jija senselessly runs into a group of sharp-tongued bandits waving pistols.
The hackneyed and hackneyed plot branches finally converge into one long, drawn-out ending in a warehouse with a shootout between gangsters and the police. Jija fights with a schoolgirl again, but the attention of the audience is not drawn to her, but to what his fellow comedians are doing Wongkamlao. Even Mom and his stunt double threw a couple of punches and kicks.
There's no end to the cavalcade of comedians, the whole family Changchuen takes part (they beat their father, but since he is not playing the role of their father in the film, everything is apparently in order). Also appear Sudarat “Takki” Butprom, Pongsak “Teng Terdterng” Pongsuwan, Janet Q of “Hello Yasoton” and others.
The best part of the film is the end credits, which reveal the identity of one of the gangster sycophants - a guy in a mask with a zipper like Jimpa в “Pulp Fiction” - and he begins to utter a free tirade to the side Mama, which continues until the screen goes dark.
Wise Kwai Rating: 2/5
Author: Wise Kwai
Translation: EvilDollaR
Home » Reviews » Translated reviews »
Tags: This Girl is Bad-Ass, Gija Yanin, Pettai Wongkamlao
Tags: This Girl is Bad-Ass, Gija Yanin, Pettai Wongkamlao
1. Mandrill - the film was not released on disc.
2. BKO - English. The subtitles are clearly amateur, with a lot of errors.
3. Yamada - the subtitles are also amateur, translated from Vietnamese.
I won’t talk about adequacy yet, first you need to find the source files of the films so as not to play around with synchronization once again.
Thanks for the translation. Kwai is always quite strict in his reviews, and I think the film will still work. So, for once. Oleg, we generally have a problem with translations. There are a lot of translators for the slag comedy "The Adventures of My Fat-Assed Black Family", but for the cool oriental action movie - no one. Although, let’s imagine: a film is released in their native language, it is translated into English with a dictionary by some Thai exchange student, and then it is translated into Russian by a selfless homemade man, and also with a dictionary. And at the end we have something like “Storms in a Teacup” or “The Fellowship and the Ring”. The choice is small - we learn Thai in tears or patiently wait for the European release.
a small question if anyone is in the know - I came across information on the net that Gija will supposedly star in a certain Sin-Jin - does anyone know anything about this...?
For now these are just RUMORS.
The subtitles for Yamada are almost ready, all that remains is to check for errors and post them.
People, tell me when Yamada, Bangkok Knockout and Mandrill will be released with translation?
Thanks for the translation. The movie, of course, is garbage. I won't say anything about the battles.
I have long been puzzled by the question - for what merits (or “services”) is this Vonkaklamo shoved into every film??? It is because of characters like these that the movie turns into trash... There are no words.. Sorry..((
Well done Kwai, you blew it to smithereens...%)