Trivia / Ong-Bak

• Dyeing for Your Art: Jaa spent four years learning the ancient muay boran style in preparation for the film. It helped that he was already a Muay Thai practitioner.
• Follow the Leader: The film was a refreshing work with a young new name in a film genre increasingly populated by aging stars, and marked a new direction with elements like wireless stunts, nonstop pacing and cringe-inducing hard fight scenes. Even Donnie Yen would admit he used the film as a motivating force behind his own late career. You can also note how relevant it was, as when Gareth Evans wanted to showcase the Indonesian style of silat just like Jaa had done with muay thai, he wrote a film that felt like a Whole-Plot Reference to Ong Bak.
• Life Imitates Art: Just like his character, Jaa actually did become a Buddhist monk in 2010, albeit temporarily after his Creator Breakdown in the wake of Ong Bak 3.
• Spared by the Cut: Humlae is crushed by a falling statute in the climax. In one version of the ending, he returns home with Ting, bandaged but alive. In the final cut, Ting brings back Humlae's ashes.
• Star-Making Role: For Tony Jaa.
• What Could Have Been: Steven Seagal proposed a recut for a US release featuring in a prologue and epilogue as the Mighty Whitey who trained Ting. Thankfully, this never panned out.