This movie rocks.  I just saw it last night and it blew me away.  Not only is it one of the best movie production from Thailand (looks damn good) but its one of the slickest in style and fights.  And I’m not just saying that because I grew up in Thailand.

Ever since watching Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong, I have been a Jaa fan.  While this one took a while to make, you can tell where that time and quality went to.  Visually I think its stunning and the plot is not bad.  I didn’t expect much on the plot and I hate people who rags on about plot in these kinds of movies.  I also wouldn’t compare it to wuxia type of epic movies that people tend to do.

The fights are pretty brutal and is a joy to watch Jaa do amazing stuff with his body.  I also personally like the sword fighting in this movie.  I thought it would be a little cheesy but it works in my book.  The dancing scene was also a joy to watch.  I haven’t seen stuff like that done so well for Thailand.  It was definately visually appealing to me and definately a movie Thai people can be proud of.

The only complain I have is the way they titled it.  Although its a marketing scheme, for people who knows the stuff its a bit “weak sauce”.

In a time like this when the big names in MA are slowly deteroriating, its pretty amazing to see a someone from Thailand takes up reign for the next generation.  I never saw this one coming.

All I can say is.. MAKE MORE OF THIS JAA.

I ran into an interesting band awhile ago that I’ve been listening to alot.  Not exactly manly music but thats ok.  You know the ying yang, staying in balanced idea which includes girly music

The story how I ran into them is interesting so I’ll recite it here.  A website that was promoting many bands (including them) had an issue so I sshed into the server and started to investigate the problem.  The owner gave me a link which was showing an error.  I figured out that it was an apache permission issue and resolved it.  I refresh the link and it wasn’t showing up the error anymore.  Then a song started playing since the error was fixed.  The song is called “Feel The Same Way” and I thought to myself, this is pretty good!  I did check out the other bands but none of them really had that catchy tune of that song.

I went to their myspace (http://www.myspace.com/poemamyspace) and listened to the other songs.  Good stuff.  The interesting thing is that their songs are simple melodies that just work.  Heck I can play their songs on the guitar myself.. but I won’t sound good thats for sure.

The thing I like about them is the purity, simplicity and good clean music.  They remind me of what I love about many classic Thai songs.  So now during work I cycle through their songs on their page.  I should purchase the songs sometimes soon

A few days ago I started to watch a program called Churchill’s Bodyguard.  It was about Sgt. Murray who was with Churchill for many years trying to protect him from many different types of threats.  Interestingly on one of the episodes, he talked about the trip to the ME and how Lawrence of Arabia had saved Churchill with his incredible popularity with the Arabs.

I’ve heard about the individual before but never really looked him up.  Since the episode was really fascinating, I got my hands on the classic movie and watched it.  I have to say this is one of the best movie I’ve seen.  Peter O’Toole play a great character and he did the character justice.  Now I gotta go out and buy the book.

Since Lawrence died so early I wonder what he would have done for the Arabs if he lived into an old age.  The movie potrayed him as someone who fought for the Arabs and tried but ultimately failed to unit the people.

What I’m really interested in knowing is what the contempory Arabs think of his contributions.

Do they consider him just a British agent using the Arabs as a tool? Do they think he truly tried hard to help them in gaining their independence?  Do they see him as a tragic character? I really wonder what Arab intellectuals think of him.

Since I live in a small town, its pretty difficult to find anyone who is truly interested in things such as this.  I’ll have to find a way to gather some info in the near future.