Jeeja Due Suay Du (Raging Phoenix)

Chocolate star Jeeja Yanin is back for another round of hard-hitting action in Jeeja Due Suay Du, in which she plays a character that promises to be more dynamic than the autistic teenager she portrayed in Chocolate.

Here, she's a headstrong young woman named Due who falls in with a group of martial artists who train her to hate and to love in order to take her skills to the next level. Jeeja gets to try out several new techniques here, chiefly mixing hip-hop dance moves with martial arts. She also does a bit of "drunken boxing".

The plot has something to with hi-so girls being kidnapped for organ trafficking, but I'm not sure how much of that really matters, because all action fans care about is seeing Jeeja kick ass.

She's joined this time by several new talents, chiefly "Kazu" Patrick Tang, a French-Vietnamese martial artist who's debuting in his first starring role. There's also the B-Boys Thai stunt and dance team. In the film, they dance as much and as well as they fight.

It's directed by Rashane Limtrakul and produced by Prachya Pinkaew.

Also opening

Citizen Juling -- The four-hour documentary is in limited release at House on RCA. See my earlier post for more about it.

E-Som Somwang Cha Cha Cha -- As a counterpoint to the booming hip-hop, violent action and international aspirations of Jeeja Raging Phoenix, cornpone purveyors Phranakorn Film are aiming squarely at the domestic Thai market E-Som Somwang Cha Cha Cha (In Country Melody 2). Somwang (Pitisak Yaowanan) has dreams of becoming a singing superstar and is bedazzled by Bangkok, leaving behind his sweetheart Som ("Kob" Suvanant Kongying). There's the usual country comedians -- among them Kom Chanchuen, Note Chernyim and even Mum Jokmok, plus wacky sound effects and bawdy slapstick.

The Wedding Game -- Thai director Ekachai Uekrongtham directs this Singaporean romantic comedy starring real-life celebrity couple Christopher Lee and Fann Wong as screen sweethearts who secretly detest each other but are forced into a sham marriage to boost their ratings. This was the Best Comedy Film of the first World Comedy Film Festival earlier this year and was a box-office smash in Singapore. In Mandarin with English and Thai subtitles at the Lido.

Trail of the Panda -- Disney co-produced this Chinese drama about an orphan kid who rescues a panda cub and embarks on an adventure to bring the little bar back to its mother. Awww! It was filmed in the Wolong panda preserve in China, which was hit by the deadly earthquake last year.

Baby & Me -- A troublemaking teenage boy (Jang Geun-suek) finds himself saddled with taking care of a baby. In Korean with English and Thai subtitles at the Grand EGV Siam Discovery.

Also playing

• 13th Thai Short Film and Video Festival -- It starts Thursday night at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, running until August 23 (except August 17 and 19). Details are in an earlier posting.
• Chulalongkorn University International Film Festival -- This week's films are the Israel animated war drama Waltz With Bashir on Friday and the Korean horror Hansel and Gretel on Monday. See my earlier post for the complete rundown.
• Death in the Land of Melancholia: Lav Diaz Retrospective in Thailand -- Heremias Book I is playing from 10am on Monday, August 17 at the Film Archive in Salaya, Nakhon Pathom. It's a goddamn powerful film, about a man on a journey into the moral soul of the Philippines.