The Protector (2005) on Netflix
Kham raises Por Yai and its calf Kohrn, the elephants his family has long guarded. When poachers steal the animals during the Songkran festival and ship them to Sydney, he follows.
- Netflix3.7/5
- IMDb7.0/1040,596 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes53%
Trailer
Plot summary
Kham is the last in a family that has guarded Thailand's war elephants for generations, and he raises Por Yai and the calf Kohrn himself. During the Songkran festival, elephant poachers helped by a local politician, Mr. Suthep, and his son take the two animals. Kham beats the poachers at Mr. Suthep's house, but the elephants have already gone to Johnny, a Vietnamese gangster who runs a Thai restaurant in Sydney called Tom Yum Goong Otob. Kham travels to Sydney, where a wanted thief grabs him as a hostage. Officers Mark and Rick move in, Inspector Vincent shoots the thief, and Kham is arrested as a thief himself.
Cast
- Winai Poonpermsirias Fortune Teller
- Kittapon Wattanasinchaias Couple on the Street
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Protector (2005)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Tony Jaa's leap from a building to attack Madame Rose with a double knee attack is the film's biggest CGI shot, but the fall itself was real: Jaa and a stuntperson did it, landing on large mats. Jaa also refused a stunt double for such scenes.
- Tony Jaa and his mentor Panna Rittikrai invented a new Muay Thai style for the film, muay kodchasaan, or "elephant boxing", emphasising grappling. Jaa said the moves imitate how an elephant defends itself, with the arms acting as the trunk.
- After aspiring stuntmen sent in demo tapes, an American stunt actor was cast and was injured on the first take. Tony Jaa recalled: "He kicked me, I used my arm to block his kick, and he fell down hard."
- A two-on-one taekwondo fight for the burning temple, featuring Dean Alexandrou and Daniel O'Neill, was cut from released versions for unknown reasons, though it appears in nearly all trailers, and the pair's bodies still appear on the temple floor.
- No one was hospitalised during the making of the film; Tony Jaa said injuries were limited to "bumps and bruises, muscle tears, a little something like that. Nothing major."
- Tom-Yum-Goong is the most successful Thai film released in the US, with a total worldwide box office gross of US$25,715,096.
