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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
This Girl is Bad Ass! (Jukkalan) (2011)

This Girl is Bad Ass! (Jukkalan) (2011)

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Released 9-Jan-2013

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Action Comedy Deleted Scenes
Interviews-Cast & Crew
Theatrical Trailer
Trailer-Eastern Eye trailers x 4
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2011
Running Time 94:31 (Case: 109)
RSDL / Flipper Dual Layered Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Petchtai Wongkamlao
Studio
Distributor
Sahamongkolfilm
Madman Entertainment
Starring Petchtai Wongkamlao
JeeJa Yanin
Akom Preedakul
Bawriboon Chanreuang
Chalerm Yamchamang
Anek Intajan
Udom Songsaeng
Chukiet Auimsuk
Siriporn Eiamsuk
Sthit Amornvej
Padung Songsang
Case Alpha-Transparent
RPI ? Music Kanisorn Phuangjin


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits Yes, out takes at the end

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

     The rather chunkily entitled This Girl is Bad Ass! (the original Thai title is the simpler Jukkalan, after the name of the main character) is intended to be a showcase of the wider acting talents of diminutive and dynamic Thai female action star Jeeja Yanin. Yanin was fabulous in two earlier martial arts films Chocolate (2008) and Raging Phoenix (2009), both of which were reviewed on this site. In Raging Phoenix Yanin displayed some acting ability but in This Girl is Bad Ass!, a combination of broad comedy, romance and action, the script does her few favours.

     Indeed, This Girl is Bad Ass! has one of the most contrived and convoluted plots I have seen in a long time. Jukkalan (Jeeja Yanin) with her friend Naew (Bawriboon Chanreuang) works as a cycle delivery rider for a company run by Reung (Akom Preedakul). They deliver drugs for one of two opposing crime bosses and Jukkalan is helping herself to a little of what she delivers and a cut of the money.

     Jukkalan lives with her uncle Wang (Petchtai Wongkamlao), who has a hidden past that is catching up with him. Wang is also in love with the widow Fai, but while he helps her with money and supplies he is too shy to declare his love. Jukkalan’s childhood friend Duan (Chalerm Yamchamang) is in love with her but Jukkalan only has eyes for budding rock musician Pong (Sthit Amornvej), who has other inclinations. When the crime bosses discover that Jukkalan has been stealing their money, she needs to play one off against the other, avoid the police, take on all comers, save the lives of her friends and find true love.

     This Girl is Bad Ass! tries for broad comedy that is only occasionally amusing, unless humour involving short people, pimples, weird costumes, funny voices or being ugly are appealing. The acting is universally over the top mugging, and the romantic subplots unconvincing and silly. What the film, and Yanin, do best is action. She is diminutive but wonderfully flexible with great athleticism and has no trouble selling the punches, spins and kicks that she delivers to her opponents. As in her other films, the stunt people here absolutely earn their money with some cringe-inducing falls and throws. The sequence where the tiny girl takes on 10 thugs with only a bicycle for a prop is a wonderful example of a martial arts scene done for real without wires or excessive intercutting, and is one a young Jackie Chan would relish. As well, a latter sequence involving bikes pulled behind a car and a girl on girl fight is also inventive and lot of fun. If the climax is more a gunfight than a martial arts sequence, and includes a lot of slow motion camerawork, it is still of interest and worth watching.

     The broad comedy elements of This Girl is Bad Ass! are possibly better appreciated in Asian markets, while the uneasy mixture of comedy, romance and sometimes quite bloody and brutal action does not work. The film is hindered by a very convoluted plot, yet when This Girl is Bad Ass! and Yanin get into the action the film is exciting, inventive and a lot of fun.

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Transfer Quality

Video

     This Girl is Bad Ass! is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, the original theatrical ratio, and is 16x9 enhanced.

     The print is nice and sharp. Detail in close-ups is good and reasonable detail is retained during the action sequences so it is always possible to see what is happening. Colours are vibrant but natural, skin tones good. Blacks and shadow detail are fine, brightness and contrast consistent.

     The print has occasional slight ghosting with movement against railings for example, and pleasing grain. Other marks and artefacts were absent.

     The layer change at 73:44 resulted in a very slight pause.

    English subtitles are in a clean yellow font and are easy to read. They are in English English and I did not notice and spelling or grammatical errors.

     A fine looking print, without issues.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     Audio is a Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 track at 448 Kbps.

     Dialogue seemed clear but as my Thai is non-existent it was hard to tell if it was understandable. The surrounds are not overused but did produce some music and ambient effects. The only time I noticed directional effects was during the gunfight at the end. The sub-woofer supported the music and some impact sounds.

     Lip synchronisation is fine.

     The original music by Kanisorn Phuangjin was a mixture of electronic and rock that supported the tone of the film.

     The audio track was fine and without issues.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Deleted Scenes (5:41)

    Ten short deleted scenes with no music and what sounds like production captured sound. No captions, linking comments or any indication of where they fitted into the film limits their interest.

Interviews with Cast and Crew (18:11)

     EPK interviews giving some background to each character and saying how great everyone was. The speakers answer questions posed off camera and are not identified by caption: for the record they are director / actor Petchtai Wongkamlao and actors Jeeja Yanin, Akom Preedakul, Bawriboon Chanreuang, Chalerm Yamchamang and Sthit Amornvej. All speakers also have the habit of referring to others by nickname; for example, it took me a while to work out that when they were referring to “Mum” they were talking about the director! The interviews are in Thai, with white subtitles that have a number of spelling and grammatical errors.

    

Theatrical Trailer (2:29)

Eastern Eye Trailers

     Trailers for Motorway (1:33), Quick (2:04), Vanquisher (1:49) and Space Ship Yamoto (1:38).

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

     There does not seem to be a version of This Girl is Bad Ass! currently available elsewhere.

Summary

     This Girl is Bad Ass! is intended to showcase the wider acting talents of dynamic Thai female action star Jeeja Yanin, but the film, a combination of broad comedy, romance and action, does her few favours. Yet, when Yanin gets into the action the film is exciting, inventive and a lot of fun.

     The video is very good, the audio fine. The extras are light-weight, but at least there are some.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ray Nyland (the bio is the thing)
Friday, February 22, 2013
Review Equipment
DVDSony BDP-S580, using HDMI output
DisplayLG 55inch HD LCD. This display device has not been calibrated. This display device is 16x9 capable. This display device has a maximum native resolution of 1080p.
Audio DecoderNAD T737. This audio decoder/receiver has not been calibrated.
AmplificationNAD T737
SpeakersStudio Acoustics 5.1

Other Reviews NONE