Film: Fireball
Release date: 18th January 2010
Certificate: 15
Running time: 90 mins
Director: Thanakorn Pongsuwan
Starring: Preeti Barameenat, Khanutra Chuchuaysuwan, Kumpanat Oungsoongnern
Genre: Martial Arts
Studio: E1
Format: DVD
Country: Thailand
There have been only a handful of movies that have tried to blend martial arts with mainstream sports. Stephen Chow’s Shoalin Soccer was a fine blend of a typical sports movie (underdogs overcome immeasurable odds to win championship) with fantasy martial arts (said underdogs were highly skilled Shaolin Monks). The Jay Chou vehicle, Kung Fu Dunk added teen romance to the above mixture. However, Thanakorn Pongsuwan has turned the idea on its head.
Tai (Barameeana) is finally released from prison after his twin brother managed to raise the appropriate bribe money. However, once on the outside, Tai discovers his brother is in a coma. It turns out that he’d raised the money taking part in a Fireball tournament – a cross between basketball and street-fighting.
Posing as his twin, Tai is recruited by Boss Den, an ambitious upstart wanting to gain respect with his peers. Tai and his team-mates must bond quickly. They have the individual talent but must work together if they are to win the tournament – let alone survive...
Forgoing the usual tourist sites of Bangkok, Fireball is wholly set amongst the crowded poor districts of the city - the poverty illustrating the drive of the young fighters to win the tournament and escape. Director Thanakorn Pongsuwan gives us a more gritty perspective of life on the wrong side of the tracks. This is exemplified best by a free-running training match, as the team compete with each other to get the basket ball from a tenement block to a basketball court.
The rules of Fireball are simple – to win you must score one basket, by any means, or to be the last team standing. It becomes pretty clear that the concept of actually scoring a basket is not something these guys are familiar with, preferring to beat the hell out of their opponents to win. The crowd seems to enjoy this approach, too. You suddenly realise just how serious things are when one team’s group of managers throw in knives and metal stakes to try and give their team an edge. It’s a fascinating moment in that no-one – not even our team – cries foul; they just deal with the new development as if it were expected.
Characterisation is streamlined at best, although we see each player in turn, either at work or at night with their families, illustrating why each wants to be involved in such a dangerous sport. This helps give some scenes, including a devastating betrayal, a lot of dramatic weight. However, when the film gives Tai a sub-plot involving his brother’s girlfriend this, unfortunately, slows down the film. Fireball definitely comes alive when focusing on the matches.
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The action on court is very frenetic and brutal, but unfortunately a lot of the editing leaves you confused or disorientated as to what is going on. There is little flow to the antics on court, just a patchwork of images - but what images! If there is something Thai action movies get right, it’s turning a bone-crunching confrontation and into a photogenic spectacle.
Along the way there are a few plot twists and high tragedy, which for once in a Thai action movie make sense in the context of the story, building to the final match - an intense finale which takes place inside a shipyard, where the ball is forgotten about pretty early on.
Fireball is a million miles away from more recent martial arts/sports movies in style and tone – concentrating on gritty street-fighting, with the sport an almost afterthought. With a more subdued film style, the proposed prequel could deliver on this film’s faltered promise. MOW
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