Tony Jah - actor, stuntman, director

"There are no ropes and no CGI!" - the principle of a Thai film actor, stuntman, choreographer and director specializing in films with martial arts, Tony Jha (Pan Jirum). Superhuman his jumpiness, this interesting person has developed since childhood. For this he jumped on the backs of the elephants that his parents bred. Elephants gradually grew, while Tony's jumping ability increased, his skill increased.

Tony Jha. Biography

Tony was born in the northern part of Thailand on February 5, 1976. Since childhood, he liked watching action movies with Jackie Chan, Bruce Lee, Jet Li. He was so carried away by martial arts that he began to study Thai boxing. The young man practiced those blows that he saw in films many times until they became what they should have been.

From the age of twelve, the young man dreamed of becoming a star of martial arts. He was engaged in various martial arts, fencing, gymnastics. Father did not take seriously the son's passion and even forbade him to do this business, but Jah threatened to commit suicide, so Dad could only accept it. He even began to teach his son, as he had experience of coaching in martial arts. Training took place every day and lasted for six to seven hours.

A Sign Meeting

When the boy was ten years old, he learned about the Thai stuntman and director P. Rittikray. At thirteen, I asked my master to train. Since then, he began to help on the set: he brought water, cooked, held an umbrella over the camera and so on.

At the age of fifteen, Tony became a true pupil of P. Rittikray. At the same time, on his recommendation, he begins to study at the school of physical education, studying various martial arts. And every weekend the young man studied acting and stunt skills.

Even in his youth, Tony Jah won many times in various sports, winning only gold medals. He was chairman of the sword fighting club and was repeatedly invited to China to demonstrate Thai martial arts.

The beginning of an acting career

After some time, Tony Jah becomes a stuntman in the Rittikray team. Together they are interested in the ancient style of muay-boran, intensive training begins. At this time, Jha develops her own style, combining gymnastics and muaythai together.

After a few years, there is a short film, where Tony showed all his abilities. The picture was seen by the director P. Pinkaya, and the stuntman was invited to the main role in his new film. Prior to this, Tony Jah, whose biography is quite fascinating, had experience working in film, as he previously duplicated actors in both commercials and several films. I must say that the first steps in the quality of stuntman Dzha did in ten films, which brought him some profit.

In 2003, the picture "Ong Bak: Thai Warrior" was released. In this film, the viewer saw the most complicated tricks with high-speed battles and quite extreme acrobatics. Tony performed all these tricks himself, so the film did not involve any computer graphics or other mechanical means. The picture was waiting for success, and the stuntman became the star of the Asian militants. The spectator was looking forward to the films with Tony Ja.

The next successful film, made by Jha, Pinka and Rittikrai, was released in 2005 under the title "Honor of the Dragon" (also known as the "Thai Dragon"). This picture was a huge success, so in 2006 it was released in the US under the title "Defender".

"Defender" was the most successful Thai film released in the West. Thanks to this, Tony began to stage demonstration performances outside of Thailand.

In 2006, Jah tries himself as a director in the film "Ong Bak 2". The picture was published in 2008, and in 2010 the film "Ong Bak 3" was shot.

Personal life

Tony Jah, all of whose films are shot without the use of computer graphics, is very fond of his parents. He bought them a huge mansion in two floors, where they now live. But the old small house did not begin to demolish, it stands nearby in the garden as a reminder to the famous actor about his childhood.

Today, Jah has a huge number of plans, which are related to future films and direction.

Filmography

Tony starred in many films, and they all had great success with the viewer. Possessing incredible abilities, the actor and stuntman constantly amazes idols with his skill.

With the participation of Jah came out such pictures: "Mortal battle. Extermination "(1997)," He Buck "(2003)," Bodyguard "(2004)," Honor of the Dragon "(2005)," Bodyguard 2 "(2007)," He Buck 2 "(2008)," He Buck 3 "(2010)," Honor of the Dragon 2 "(2013)," The Man Will Grow "(2014)," The Slave Trade "(2014). These are the best films with Tony Jha.

In 2015, the release of the film "Fast and Furious 7" is expected, which will be the Hollywood debut of a Thai star.

Muay Thai

As Tony Jah himself says, he wanted to show the whole world the other side of Muay Thai, quite the opposite of what everyone sees, watching the fights in the ring. Jah wanted to convey to people the Thai culture that had developed thousands of years ago.

So, the main task of Muay Thai was initially to help the warrior survive in the war after he became unarmed. The main emphasis in technology is put on developing the skills of a fighter without any weapons to fight with an armed opponent. The emphasis here is on the disabling of the enemy with the help of rapid destructive attacks. Technology has Buddhist roots, so a lot of time in preparation is given to meditations to achieve the highest form of concentration of the mind.

Tony Jah in his films not only successfully demonstrates the ability to conduct battles, using martial arts, but also brings to the viewer the ancient culture of Thailand. Maybe that's why I want to review all the films with his participation again and again.