"Legend of the Tsunami Warrior" Thai Theatrical Poster
AKA: The Pirates of Langkasuka, The Tsunami Warrior, Queens of Langkasuka
Director: Nonzee Nimibutr
Writer: Winn Leawwarin
Producer: Nonzee Nimibutr
Cast: Sorapong Chatree, Ananda Everingham, Jesdaporn Pholdee, Chupong Changprung, Ake Oree, Jakrit Phanichphatikram, Jarunee Suksawas, Winai Kraibutr, Jaqueline Apithananon
Running Time: 119 min.
By JJ Hatfield
I watched this film and looked at a few short notes I jotted down. Where should I begin with a review? I admit I watched this twice and still experienced more than one wtf? moments.
The premise is very broadly based on a mythical place and time with a kingdom on the sea. Okay I can follow that. I guess. There are three princesses, or sisters, or maybe one is a queen and the other two are princesses… that rule over the kingdom …anyway that’s the least of the problems! I listened carefully as the director explained how he wanted to create something different. Well by golly he sure got his wish! I don’t mind different but this movie borders on incomprehensible! The director, Nonee Nimibutr was excited to bring about the first – fantasy based historical – like a medium sized kind of epic but action too movie. wth? If you watch this you too will be having those moments. If there were any real situation to have drawn from the subject would have been far more interesting..
The three royal rulers have to combine forces and work together to uhm……oh yeah, protect their kingdoms. Everyone seems to have a canon fetish. Everyone has canons, lots of canons. Some of the canons have dragon heads, others are all shiny and one or two are even pulled up from the ocean floor. These people need canons! This should have been called “Canons of the Fish Warriors”.
If you are looking for Dan Chupong he isn’t hard to find. Early on he saves the Queen from an assassination attempt but he is burned by acid leaving a scar on his face. No problem says the queen so they stick him in a cheap silver-ish mask that covers half his face. I’m not sure if he wanted to be noticed or if he was trying to hide. There are some fights but they are shot so poorly it’s hard to see anything. One of the princesses marries a ruler from another region so that she can bring home – yes – more canons!
Oh yes and our hero, how could I forget him? He has a lot of baggage but he can still study the magic of being at one with the fish and other critters in the water. He doesn’t raise any tsunamis or even a mild hurricane. There are some fairly interesting shots of underwater plant life – Wait – back to looking for canons! Our hero doesn’t really do much with his powers he waits until half the peasants are dead and then yells from his stomach and moby dick or some creature shows up after most of the dirty work is done. He does say he will go live in the sea and I hope to God that means there will not be a sequel!
JJ Hatfield’s Rating: 3.5/10
If only “Legend of the Tsunami Warrior” had been half as entertaining as your review, JJ Hatfield. As you say, no tsunami just many many cannons. I am sure that Dan Chupong was trying to hide. This film was so bad I did not even care about him or anyone else. Actually I kept hoping for a tsunami, a really big one, that would take out all 3 kingdoms, especially their cannons. Break up those cannons on the sea floor, so they can not go get those things and bring them back up.
Thanks! Well if the movie sucks I try to at least inject something good into the review. With my natural leanings I tend to go with sarcasm. That was a bit difficult with the Fish Warriors as it was so over the top anyway.
Dan Chupong was the best thing about it and he literally doesn’t have enough room to act or fight because of the little holes they left in the cgi to insert the scenes.
Apparently those canons are damned long lived in usefulness.
lol@ tsunami taking out all the kingdoms. Alas the hero didn’t even create a decent surfing wave.
I agree, this movie was a stinker, though I enjoyed it at least a little more than you did based on your score. I’ll admit I’m a sucker for movies where people use animals as an offensive weapon, so I liked the sea creature action at the end ;D
I wish they had brought in the sea creature much earlier! Was that supposed to be a really big stingray?
Really though I expected and would have welcomed some sea action! I thought the “hero” would learn some “art” and when necessary might oh I don’t know – maybe use a tsunami to wipe out bad guys! No such luck, lol. Even some dolphins, or rallying a bunch of jellyfish to attack the bad guys!
I’m glad you enjoyed it more than I did, as you noted I didn’t like it much at all. And I don’t mind creatures, they should have had more screen time. : )