Force of Five   Starring: Nantawooti Boonrapsap, Pimchanok Leuwisetpaiboon, Richard William Lord, Johnny Nguyen and Sasisa Jimdamanee Cine Asia RRP: £17.99 SBX475 Certificate: 15 Available 05 July 2010

Two brother and their friends are being raised in a Muay Thai martial arts school, being young they are talented but unruly. The youngest brother suffers from a heart problem and when the group get into a fight with another gang he ends up in hospital needing a heart transplant. There is a heart available but that is located in a hospital across town, a hospital which has been taken over by terrorists, who have the American Ambassador prisoner. The gang have to travel across town and take on the terrorists if they are to retrieve the donor heart...

Force of Five (2009 - 1 hr, 13 min, 22 sec) is a children’s film directed by Krissanapong Rachata. The film stars Sasisa Jimdamanee (Kat) and Johnny Nguyen as the rebel leader.

This film, more than most shows the differences between cultures when considering what is suitable for children. The only child which doesn’t get a chance to kick adults in the face and other places is little Wun and this is only because he is the child in the hospital. The others in the meantime are very fond of a bit of ultra violence.

Even the children’s living arrangements will have a lot of western parents wringing their hands. The kids live with their Muay Thai master, who spends a lot of time whipping them with a cane for any indiscretion. Why this should be is never really explained. They also share their lodgings with an unnamed character, only know as ‘drunk bully’ (Richard William Lord) which is exactly what he is, until the children gang up and kick his arse.

When the kids finally get to the hospital the film bares more than a passing resemblance to Die Hard, with the kids sneaking around the hospital trying to take out the terrorists, even though one of them gets shot in the process.

The children are given a few cute moments, which allows the audience to sympathise with their plight, but the main thrust and reason for being is to see kids beating up adults. I wouldn’t have had a problem with this if the film had been decently acted or constructed, but take out the fight scenes and what you have is a film with a very thin plot and no real depth.

The movie is presented with audio options for Thai 2.0 or 5.1. There are a number of extras including the interview gallery which has those irritating interviews where the question pops up as writing on the screen before the actor gives their answer. There are six in all, including interviews with Nuntawut Boonrubsub (Wuth), Sassia Jindamanee (Catt), Phethai Wongkhamlao (Pong), Navarat Techaratananaprasert (Jib), Johnny Nguyen and Director Krissanapong Rachata. To be honest I hate these things as they come across as very false. You also get a ‘Making of’ (5 min, 05 sec) which is short and instantly forgettable, which includes more footage of the cast talking about the film. Apart for the theatrical trailer (2 min, 07 sec) and trailers for twelve other DVDs, the last extras is a behind the scenes (5 min, 14 sec) which has footage of the film being made.

Regardless of what you think of the morality of the film's premise and execution, the one thing you can’t get away from is that it suffers from weak acting and an even weaker script.

5

Charles Packer