Krai Thong 2 (1985)

... aka: ไกรทอง 2

... aka: Kraithong 2

Directed by:

Neramit

Sompote Saengduenchai

Krai Thong is a famous Thai folk tale dating back to the early 1800s and has been the subject of numerous books and film and TV adaptations over the years. The story basically involves a crocodile lord (who can go from human to large crocodile form) called Chalawan, who resides in an opulent underwater cavern and frequently terrorizes villagers. He falls in love with, and then kidnaps, a beautiful human girl, whose wealthy father then calls on the services of master crocodile hunter Krai Thong to rescue her. Fantasy elements aside, the character of Krai Thong was apparently based on an actual historical figure of the same name, who was also renowned for his bravery and crocodile hunting skills in his day. The real Krai Thong had a temple built in his honor and there's also a special Krai Thong Garden at the Muang Boran Museum in Thailand; which is the world's largest outdoor museum.

The first known film adaptation was made way back in 1958, but, like most other early Thai films, it's missing, was probably destroyed and is most likely gone forever. And then came a second adaptation called Chalawan (1972), which was also made by Saengduenchai but currently m.i.a. itself. And that brings us to the same director's second stab at the story: 1980's KRAI THONG (aka Legend of the Crocodile), which is one of the only 80s Thai genre films that was ever released with English subtitles. This sequel, which may have actually been made and released prior to the usually-given 1985 release date, features the same stars, same sets, same props and same model crocodile as the first film. Though this is going to be considered pure schlock pretty much everywhere else, this was considered a major production in Thailand at the time and the cast features the countries biggest stars.

While Krai Thong, the 1980 version, was never given a legit U. S. release (the English subbed version was made for the Hong Kong market), this sequel did. Well, sort of. Instead of being released as is, it fell into the hands of Tomas Tang and his Filmark International company, who had the film chopped to ribbons and English dubbed plus had new scenes added to it by Godfrey Ho, which tossed an evil, claw-handed sorceress, some jianshi (hopping vampires) and other unrelated things into the works. That version was released on VHS in a number of countries (France, Greece...) under the new title CROCODILE FURY in 1988. Later on, this same Filmark version was released on DVD on the Cult Action label.

The opening credits begin as all movies should: with a series of random crocodile attacks. It's shown swimming around with screaming victims in its mouth and then making a quick snack of a guy brushing his teeth. We then cut to a busy waterfront village where some kind of celebration is taking place and everyone's singing and dancing. Yes, folks, it's a musical number; only this one isn't so bad. That's not because the music is great, or because two angry / jealous women get pissed off and suddenly start pelting people with melons, but because it ends in a crocodile chomping down on one of the men. Legendary hunter Krai Thong (Sorapong Chatree) hops into the water, goes all crocodile whisperer and manages to sweet talk the croc into letting go of its prey. Even though I couldn't make out the dialogue, I imagine he said something along the lines of, "Why eat this puny human when there's a delicious fat water buffalo right over there?"

The crocodile then turns into a human woman; Wimala (Aranya Namwong). In the previous film, Krai Thong and Wimala had fallen in love, but the two were unable to be together because, well, he's human and she's partially crocodile and it just wasn't meant to be. Also, Wimala has some anger issues she needs to work on. Instead, Krai Thong was "gifted" brides in the form of the two pretty but spoiled daughters; Tapao-Thong (Supansa Nuengpirom) and Tapao-Kaew (Ampha Phusit), of a wealthy man after he saved them. Though Krai Thong initially had little interest in his new wives, he has now accepted his lot in life and just wants to live a normal life. Wimala, on the other hand, is pretty bitter about the whole affair. With her crocodile king husband Chalawan (Sombat Methanee) dead, she's been living a lonely existence in their gold underwater cave, with only Chalawan's other wife; Luemlaiwan (Duangcheewan Komolsen, who was Miss Thailand in 1976), and an old mystic guy named Thao Rampai (Sor Asanajinda), who sits in a giant crocodile skull meditating 24/7, as company. If you can call it that.

There's another man-who-can-transform-into-a-giant-croc on the block called Aikiam (Lak Apichat), who shows up and starts terrorizing the village during a hilarious (and thankfully also LONG) montage which shows it tipping over boats, stealing oars from people, whacking people with its tail and gobbling up all kinds of villagers, including a guy who pushes his girlfriend into the water, an old pervert who attempts to rape a young woman on his boat, a crocodile wrangler who attempts to lasso it, a bunch of buck naked little boys, a whiny wizard (played by extremely annoying "comic" actor Lor Tok, who was very popular in Thailand at the time) and even a newborn baby. When another man tries to save a young woman from the croc's jaws, he grabs her legs and pulls her pants right off! Krai Thong indeed.

Aikiam rips the head off a water buffalo after it shits all over his face (!!) then decides to take over Chalawan's lair, become the new crocodile lord and lay claim to his former wives. He also kidnaps Kaew and drags her down to the cave to add to his harem. Wimala is receptive to the new guy and plots with him, though Luemlaiwan rejects him and tries to protect Kaew. Chalawan is revived by the old mystic, which leads to a battle between the alpha crocodile men. Krai Thong shows up too, looking for Kaew. There are a couple of poorly choreographed and edited kung fu fights with subpar wire work and Krai Thong gets to ride on the back of the Aikiam crocodile and stab it on the top of the head about 100 times.

Story-wise, this is a mess. The 1980 Krai Thong did a much better job in this regard because it had the folk tale to use as its backbone, while this is a brand new story. However, this sequel does manage to eclipse the original when it comes to sheer mindless fun! It goes from one crocodile attack scene to the next at such a quick clip you never get bored and a lot of these scenes are downright hilarious... some even intentionally so! Sure, main characters all get sidelined in the process and we don't really care much about their stories, but if you're just wanting to see dozens of people being attacked by large model crocodiles, this is a rousing success. The highlight, which seems to be trying to one-up the wedding reception scene in ALLIGATOR (1980), is when the crocodile attacks Krai Thong's wives and their friends at their home, which features people getting thrown around everywhere, a guy scalded by boiling water, a woman being bitten on the ass and legs and arms being ripped off.

Apparently there are a number of different cuts of the film floating around. The Crocodile Fury version with newly-added footage is the shortest, running 87 minutes, but it's also the only version in English. The most common print, which has been issued on VCD and DVD a number of times in Asia, runs a little over 92 minutes. According to ThaiWorldView, there's a third, longer cut; an extremely rare 109 minute version released only on Betamax in Thailand. Later versions of Krai Thong were made in 1995 and 2017 (both for the TV network Channel 7) and 2001 (a theatrical release).

★★1/2

Jogger, The (1988)

Directed by:

Robert Resnikoff

One of five short films made for Chanticleer Films, as part of a project called The Discovery Program, which offered up fledgling directors the money, talent and resources to make their first film, which was to act as a resume builder of sorts to hopefully help them get their foot in the door in Hollywood. Believe it or not, in most cases this actually worked exactly as planned. From this first crop of directors, there were numerous success stories. Bryan Gordon, director of Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall (which went on to win the Academy Award for Best Short Film, Live Action in 1988), was making a major feature for Universal, the John Hughes-scripted Career Opportunities (1991), just a few years later. Since then, he's directed dozens of TV shows, including, most recently, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Stephen Tolkin made The Price of Life for the program, then moved on to work extensively on TV for such shows as Brothers & Sisters and Summerland. Robbie Fox (The Great O'Grady), went on to script major studio comedies for the likes of Mike Myers and Pauly Shore, which some may consider successful.

And that leaves just two others from the original slate of directors unaccounted for: Susan Rogers (who made the sci-fi short Astronomy) and the director of this one; Robert Resnikoff. It does not appear that Rogers received much work after this, though she was a budding female director and it was 1988 so that, sadly, may not need any further clarification. Resnikoff, on the other hand, was given the chance to direct the 10-million-budgeted horror film The First Power (1990) soon after, which more than doubled its budget in its U. S. theatrical run and also did well on home video. Despite his feature debut being a modest financial (but not critical) success, it was curiously the only feature he'd ever make and, according to IMDb, also the very last film project he has worked on to date.

Considering Resnikoff was already 40-years-old when he made this and Tinseltown has always been obsessed with fresh young talent, the lack of further opportunities could have boiled down to something as simple as ageism. In fact, part of the reason this project came into existence in the first place was the fact it was easier for a fresh-outta-film-school young man to be given the chance to direct a feature film than a very experienced veteran who worked in other film-related capacities for years but had yet to be given the chance to direct anything. And it's always possible that Resnikoff simply didn't enjoy his time working on the feature and / or preferred to go into another line of work. It's difficult to tell. (By the way, you can read more about the genesis of this project RIGHT HERE.)

Cast in lead here is Terry O'Quinn, who was fresh off his success in The Stepfather (1987); a role which garnered him several high profile award nominations plus excellent reviews even from critics who didn't love the film itself. In The Stepfather, he played Jerry Blake (more specifically, "Jerry Blake," as that was merely one of many identities), and here plays another Jerry; only this one an average middle-aged man facing typical middle-aged man problems. He's at that age where he needs to start taking better care of himself. That means, up at 6:30 a.m., throw on some sweats, down a few pills, gag down a nutritious shake ("I've got bean sprouts and carrots coming out my ears!") and then start exercising. It's especially important for Jerry, who's had a little cholesterol problem that led to a little heart attack and now doctor's orders specify he needs to be more careful about what he's doing, what he's putting into his body and how much stress he's under.

Jerry has recently started jogging every morning and set a 5 mile goal for himself. His wife (Elizabeth Ruscio) playfully nags him a bit about needing to take it easy. And he will. Once he reaches his goal. Jerry must wear a watch that monitors his heart rate, though, which sounds an alarm any time his pulse starts to get dangerously high. Whenever that happens, Jerry has to stop whatever he's doing, take a few breaths and start counting backwards from 5.

As Jerry sets out for his jog through the heavily-wooded hills behind his home, another, fitter jogger (played by professional stuntman Tom Morga) starts catching up behind him. The man, clad in all black and sunglasses, doesn't say a word but challenges Jerry to a race. Jerry manages to speed ahead. Then he loses the guy. And then the man reappears, moving even faster, catches Jerry and body checks him; pushing him over the side of a hill. Dirty and startled, Jerry regains his composure, goes back to the trail and continues his jog. But then he's tripped up by a rope intentionally tied between two trees. Sensing the first attack wasn't a one-off incident of path-rage, Jerry grabs a branch and starts scouring the area. The next time he encounters the man, he pulls out a switchblade, slashes his stomach and then punches him in the face. From then on out, it's a game of cat-and-mouse through the woods as Jerry fights for his life against an almost inhumanly relentless attacker.

Nothing groundbreaking here, but this is still a compact, skillfully-crafted short that's entertaining, well-edited, suspenseful and provides a few good jump scares, as well as a typically fine performance from O'Quinn. It would have been right at home as an episode on any number of 30-minute anthology TV shows (this one runs 23). Since these things can never just be cut-and-dry, there's a Twilight Zone-style twist at the very end that makes you question most of what you've just watched. The budget was 30,000 dollars, it was shot in around a week and, along with all of the rest of the shorts, played at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1989. The music is by Stewart Copeland (from The Police), who also did the end theme song "Strange Things Happen."

This and the other Discovery Program (which continued on well into the 90s) shorts were all released as part of a 7 disc, 56 film DVD box set titled Cinema Collection. This is also currently on Youtube.

★★1/2