Plot: When a remote Thai village is overrun by terrorists armed with a nuclear missile, an elite undercover operative leads the most unique fighting force ever assembled in a heroic bid to save their nation. Filled with spectacular fight scenes and death-defying stunts done without wires or CGI, ‘Born to Fight’ features some of the most dangerous action sequences ever filmed as it hurtles towards its explosive finale.
It’s a shame more people don’t talk about Born to Fight as it has it has one of the best opening sequences of all-time and had my jaw on the floor as our hero Daew (Dan Chupong) chases a bad guy after he tries to get away in a truck; it just has to be seen to be believed.
In fact, I‘m pretty sure everyone involved was killed several times making this movie as the stunts are unreal with people falling/jumping off moving vehicles and it took us back to a time of better action movies where we got real stunts rather than digital effects.
I’d like to see more of Dan Chupong as this is a man who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty, giving us explosive fight scenes and stunts. It should come as no surprise as the late, great Panna Rittikrai directed the film and his action scenes never disappointed. Daew himself isn’t remotely interesting as a character and displays little in the way of personality but he sure has the moves and Born to Fight is essentially a showreel for his skills and how to do action properly.
The story is straightforward and tells the tale of a group of athletes who help a poor village stop an evil tyrant and his men from terrorizing them and launching a nuclear missile.
There is a moment half way through when they launch said missile and it detonates in a city. I nearly jumped out of my seat thinking a filmmaker had the balls to actually show that but it ends up being a dream sequence which was a huge copout.
There are plenty of Hard R moments though so it never skimps on violence with limbs being broken/severed in satisfactorily brutal fashion.
I liked how the character of Tun was introduced and you think he is going to be the local bully and Daew will have to fight him at the end; then it all goes pear shaped and the terrorists show up with Tun becoming more of a hero, which I didn’t see coming.
If you haven’t seen Born to Fight it’s definitely worth picking up as the action scenes are amazing and that opening sequence is an all-time classic.