Wow, all of that credit that female lead JeeJa Yanin built up with the enjoyable CHOCOLATE (2008) is blown away in one quick yank of a wire harness. Seriously, one of the things that has made the recent explosion of Thai action cinema enjoyable is that 99% of the time the actors were doing these flips and kicks for real. It was refreshing after Hong Kong had - for the most part - retreated into the wacky world of wire work in the 1990s. So it truly saddened me to see JeeJa, who did some amazing stuff in CHOCOLATE, look like a floating fairy as wires help her achieve some ridiculous looking stunts, especially during the final fights. I was hoping for more realism along the lines of Tony Jaa's "No harness, no wires!" motto.
Review of Raging Phoenix
