Ong-Bak is a story of Thailand tradition that talks about the life and culture of its people.
The title Ong-Bak refers to the Buddha of a certain community in the story. This community is simple but full of cultural traditions that heighten their lifestyle despite of poverty and inopportunity. Though the community has simple deeds within it, it embodies stylistic aspect of nature, religion, and culture of Thailand that seeks attention.Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discuss the elements, images, and style of the director and creators of the whole movie as it discusses the style and industrial issues that emerged in the story. The story of Ong-Bak speaks with the life of a young man who wanted to explore his skills and talents in Muay Thai.
In the beginning of the story, many young men were challenge by their culture and community to get the red band to be able to become the warrior of the whole community.Boonting won this challenge and he became the new warrior of the community. His family is very happy with his new throne because they wanted Boonting to be recognized by many. However, his struggle with his father showed that he himself is not capable of doing things for other. It means that there is a personal oppression that emerged in the personality of Boonting along with his struggle of being the new warrior. One day, their Ong-Bak or the sacred Buddha of their community was stolen by an English businessman.
Boonting was the person who was supposed to make action because he is the savior of his people. Through his talents, skills, and learning in Muay Thai, he could be able to defeat his enemies and took the Ong-Bak back to their monastery. Throughout the story, the sacredness of the Thai religion and martial arts serves as their armor of freedom and against colonization. It shows that Boonting serves as the weapon of the community to become powerful and strong against the oppressors and illogical authority. There are different images and elements that exist in this movie.
The audience could thoroughly recognize and analyze the important details of the film because the director stresses these details into significant capture and production. There are two important aspects that can be seen from the beginning up to the end of the movie – the Muay Thai and religion. Muay Thai as martial arts is very unique and sacred in their culture as what the movie is trying to impose. On the other hand, religion as other culture’s sacredness, it embodies the life and beauty of Thai tradition.It shows how the people of Thailand become weak when they have no source of strength, which is their religion.
They rely on the Ong-Bak’s capability and magnificence. That is why when the English businessman took their Buddha, it seems like it is the end of their days. It only means that life for them is always connected to their religion and social interaction. In conclusion to this, Ong-Bak is a story of life, culture, religion, conviction, and faith. All these aspects became related to one another as the characters unravel their identities and personalities.
The main character of the story works for the benefit of the other characters as they continue to struggle the oppression of other culture. It was seen that Boonting became the eye-opener of the whole community because he was not just a warrior of their community but a self-confession of faith and realism in the modern world. Though the community is poor and incapable of producing economic stability, everyone is happy and contented with what they have. It means that they are simple people with simple wishes and dreams – to serve their Ong-bak all of their lives.
