Tony Jaa fans got a great piece of news this week. Major Cineplex Group posted the release date for his new movie ‘Tom Yum Goong 2‘ (TYG2) on their Facebook page — and, unless anything changes, they say the movie will be released in May 2013.
Tom Yum Goong, in case you don’t remember, is one of the biggest grossing Thai movies of all time. The original was released in 2005, with Tony Jaa starring as Kham, a young man whose family has been entrusted with protecting the King of Thailand’s elephants of war.
When the elephants, including his favorite Por Yai, are stolen and sold to an evil Vietnamese gangster and business man who owns a Thai restaurant in Australia called ‘Tom Yum Goong’, Kham sets off to the land down under to get his elephants back.
Tom Yum Goong grossed over $25 million both in Thailand and overseas — the most successful Thai release to date.
Unfortunately, the original Tom Yum Goong was so heavily edited for the American market, if you’d seen it in Thailand you wouldn’t even have recognized it as the same movie — and, honestly, it wasn’t very good (it was also called ‘The Protector‘ in America and a host of other names in other countries it was released in – very odd indeed). That’s why we recommend seeing ‘Tom Yum Goong 2‘ in Thailand, before American censors get their hands on it.
Tom Yum Goong 2 has been shot in 3-D, and will again be given an international release.
No word yet on if the movie will be released around the world at the same time. Tom Yum Goong 2 will also star Jeeja Yanin & Deaw Chupong, and will reunite Tony Jaa with director Prachya Pinkaew and fight choreographer Panna Rittikrai. That can only be a good thing as, without Prachya Pinkaew, Jaa’s career hasn’t gone so well.
By the way, if you haven’t yet seen ‘Tom Yum Goong’ (the first one), or you’d like to see it again, it is available on various international DVD sites, and includes English subtitles.
What’s even cooler about this, is the DVD includes both the American version (awful) and the longer uncut Thai version.
Watch the trailer for the movie below and, yes, in the US it was released under the title ‘The Protector 2‘.
