Tony Jaa
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Phanom Yeerum (Thai: พนม ยีรัมย์), better known in the West as Tony Jaa, is a martial arts actor and choreographer who is highly skilled in Muay Thai, taekwondo, swordplay, and gymnastics. He was born in the Surin Province of northeastern Thailand.
Jaa initially worked as a stuntman, appearing in the movie Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. His first major movie, in which he played the lead character Ting, was Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior (2003). Jaa did all the stunts in this movie without mechanical assistance or computer-generated effects. He claims to have been influenced by the Chinese action movie stars Bruce Lee, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan, although his fighting style in Ong-Bak remains loyal to his Thai roots.
Jaa's prowess as a martial artist, as witnessed in Ong-Bak, is amazing by any standards, and he has gained many fans throughout the world. His extreme popularity among teenage boys in North America who have seen him performing may be seen as a result of the similarity between his movements and those of martial arts fighters found in video games. Many of his movements seem to be almost physically impossible, and look like ones which a video game character would use.
His next movie is Tom-Yum-Goong.
External links
- Tony Jaa (http://www.tonyjaa.org/) Unofficial fan site
- Suicide Girls Interview (http://suicidegirls.com/words/Ong-bak%20star%20Tony%20Jaa/)
- [1] (http://www.tomyumgoongmovie.com) Tom-yum-goong