Tony Jaa made the world surprise with his new martial art style in Ong Bak. I wrote and did some interview with few people that know about Bokator: Khmer Martial Art. That article would help you to find the different between Khmer Bokator and what Tony Jaa were using in his films.

The style of Tony Jaa is unique that we never seen in cinema or maybe it was never reached that level of fast and deadly dangerous like that before. The strength from his knees is very strong. He is a good fighter. Ong Bak, story itself had a good plot and have a lot of interesting stuffs to talk about.

Tom-Yum-Goong, this second film about elephant protector is too violence to me. I don’t know how you feel about fighting scene maybe it was Ok to you or good. I feel since that time that there’s need of good story teller.

Good story, good fighting scene would become a good action/martial art film. But fighting alone would never be enough to make the good film’s circulation.

I didn’t follow up closely to what happen in Tony Jaa since i watched Tom-Yum-Goong.

This morning via TwitchFilm, Tony is becoming a monk in a pagoda in Surin.

I read through the article posted by Todd Brown, I have learned that Tony got a lot of trouble with the film production and he did have a very bad time to finish the Ong Bak 2 and Ong Bak 3.

Would you go to see Ong Bak 2 or 3? I also left a comment on TwitchFilm and you can share your idea here or there.

I personally hope to see Tony return and make a good film.

The Original article was posted atpresstelegram.com

LONG BEACH – It’s called “Self-portrait as a Needle.” And artist-in-residence Meas Sokhorn’s art piece, which sprawls nearly from floor to ceiling, certainly qualifies as a work in his specialty, called large-scale installation.

While Meas’ work may be a kind of centerpiece, it won’t be all that’s on display. He is one of 33 artists whose work is to be shown at an exhibit opening today with a free public reception at Hancock University from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., entitled Global Hybrid II.

The show builds on a July 2009 show called Global Hybrid I in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, that featured Cambodian, Cambodian-American and French artists with Khmer connections.

It is also an outgrowth of a show in Long Beach last April at the 2nd City Council Arts and Performance Space, called Transformation II: Bringing Contemporary Khmer/American Art to Long Beach.

The series of shows are part of an ongoing collaboration between several groups of artists and arts supporters, including Lydia Parusol, the art manager and curator of the Meta House gallery in Phnom Penh, and Denise Scott, who is also curating the exhibit and splits time living in Cambodia and the U.S.

Like last year’s show, the current exhibit is a kind of a moveable feast in sculpture, paint and multimedia of contemporary art and artists both from Cambodia and abroad.

Meas, for example, is in the midst of a three-month residency supported by the U.S. State Department. He has been working for seven weeks on “Self-portrait” which is an abstract, flowing sculpture constructed from about 7,000 chopsticks.

The day before the show opened, Meas was still filling in his piece and bemoaning the time constraints.

“The more time I have, the longer the song I can sing,” he said with a smile as he snipped off the end of a chopstick.

In another part of the large open space, Parusol displayed a multimedia piece by artist Chath Piersath, an artist, who fled Cambodia after the Pol-Pot regime to Massachusetts but has since returned to his homeland.

The interactive piece is a collection of blocks that can be flipped and rearranged, like a puzzle, to create different faces and identities.

Parusol said the piece is metaphoric in many ways of the changing faces of Cambodia and the country’s struggle to find and shape its own identity. This becomes particularly challenging as the once closed nation continues to grow into and be shaped by the global community.

Parusol says in Cambodia, young artists who don’t paint Buddhas or classical dancers have a hard time being recognized. Art education is nearly non-existent in schools and there is virtually no funding for the arts and very little interest among the country’s leadership, she says.

As a result, many artists use “found objects” or discarded materials to create art and tell stories.

One artist whose work is on display is Sokemtevy Oeur, a 26-year-old woman who has stirred the art scene in her home country with her portrayal, on canvas and in her own life, of women.

Global Hybrid II and other efforts by places like Meta House are trying create avenues for emerging artists.

Parusol says in Cambodia’s younger middle class there are flickers of knowledge and appreciation of modern art.

“It’s happening slowly, slowly,” Parusol said. “But, you know, it’s small steps, step by step.”

Not unlike what can be made of 7,000 chopsticks.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 562-499-1291

Want to go?

What: Global Hybrid II art exhibit
Where: Hancock University, 1600 Long Beach Blvd.
When: Monday-Friday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. until May 7, or by appointment at 562-591-7080.