RAGING PHOENIX (Thailand, 2009)
Directed by: Rashane Limtrakul
Starring: "Jeeja" Yanin Wismistananda, Kazu Patrick Tang, Nui Saendaeng, Sompong Lertwimonkaisom, Boonprasayrít Salangam

RAGING PHOENIX is not a film.  It is not an action movie, not a story nor a script.  It's an animal, a living organism, a gorgeous pop abomination from beyond media, artificially engineered in refrigerated underground laboratories and sent to Earth with graffiti plumage, neon blood, a shrieking breakbeat for a pulse, and a soul pickled in fermented, 100-proof starshine.  The latest mad monster from Thai martial arts impresario Prachya Pinkaew (ONG-BAK, CHOCOLATE, POWER KIDS), RAGING PHOENIX reunites us with Muay Thai goddess "Jeeja" Yanin (CHOCOLATE) for the sickest, slickest lost weekend you've ever had, and we promise: no hangover.  With a premise straight out of a magic mushroom trip and production design courtesy of "Fraggle Rock," this just might be Thai action cinema's first elbow-gouging, pelvis-smashing women's picture.

Unlikely as it may seem, Deu (Yanin) is unlucky in love.  All the men in her life betray her, except Daddy, and he's dead.  A radical pixie rock drummer with a serious chip on her shoulder, Deu's in no mood for monkey business when a cadre of sniff-happy hoodlums come bouncing after her on gigantic pogo-scythes, determined to add her crazy lady pheromones to their collection in order to cultivate a forbidden perfume made from tears of sorrow.  Rescued by four lovelorn beaus who've lost their ladies to the black market parfumerie -Dog Shit, Pig Shit, Sanim, and the ever-mysterious Bull Shit - Deu joins their ranks to learn the ways of Meyraiyuth, the hip-hop-flavored, needle-scratching drunken fighting tactic that is unpredictable, unstoppable and unlearnable without having first consumed massive quantities of hard liquor.  Deu immediately takes a shine to hunky Sanim (Patrick Tang), but he's only got eyes for his long-lost fiancee, and if Deu can't get past her own trust issues, the nefarious Jaguar Gang will never be stopped.  Armed with only her pluck, her new friends, and a rainbow coalition of the world's strangest booze, Deu must brave the sacred demon hellgrog all others have failed to drink, and become the Raging Phoenix who will liberate womankind.

In her latest starring role, Jeeja Yanin plays an abrasive burnout case with a machine gun mouth and a sarin-tipped tongue, shoving everyone away lest she get hurt again.  Here, Yanin proves she's an actress as well as an action powerhouse, a living legend in the making who's here to stay.  The eye-popping, breakdancing action choreography by the great Panna Ritikrai (CHOCOLATE, ONG BAK) is like nothing you've ever seen - you haven't lived until you've watched someone take down an opponent by doing the Worm, and Rashane Limtrakul's fluid-groove camera captures every triphammer and electric slide kick.  RAGING PHOENIX is a gloriously debauched addition to the Thai action canon, an hallucinogenic cocktail which goes nova in your throat and gets you drunk off the fallout. See it while trashed, but try not to tear up the seats.