Killer Elephants
 
   

Director:  Kom Akkadej
Year: 1976
Rating: 5.0
Country: Thailand

Angela Yu Chien brought me here but it was the elephants playing soccer that made me stay. It turns out that IMDB has it wrong - it is Yu Chien but a different one. Angela is one of the Shaw stars, this one is Thai as best as I can tell. The film is horribly dubbed and I think by the same annoying voices that dubbed so many kung-fu films. They ruined more Hong Kong films than Dean Shek did. Apparently, Thai films as well. I am not sure if it is the dubbing or just inept editing, but much of this film is incomprehensible. One group is fighting another group and I am not sure why. We know one of them are the villains but the supposed head of the good guys isn't much better. But the elephants. They have good roles here. Their agents must have been happy. They not only play soccer in an Elephant Day celebration but get to demolish a village, overturn cars with people still in them, save the day and gore a few people. It must have been fun for them from their usual day of labor in the fields.



This is a Thai film starring Sombat Metanee, a big action star at the time. He is still occasionally active in films. This has a ton of action - both human and elephant and it is fun in a late night sort of way. The dubbing is really distracting so it may be better than it seemed. It takes place upcountry near Surin and begins with a cop, Ching Ming (Yodchai Meksuan - in two Hanuman films) chasing after a truck in his car. Whether it was him or a stunt man there is some great work as the car tries to force the truck to stop with them throwing down drums of gas and exploding them with gun shots. Ching ends up getting ditched and his old friend Kau Fei (Sombat) comes along on a motorcycle to help. But Ching doesn't want his help because his old friend has broken the law. A lot. Kau Fei tells him where the bad guys are. A lumber yard and a good fight takes place and a few bad men die. Kau Fei shows up to help anyways, shooting a few guys from his motorcycle.



The Boss wants to force a farmer from his land and has his men on horses ride in and burn everything down. Kau Fei takes the side of the farmers and much of the rest of the film is them killing each other. The farmers have the elephants which they use against the bad guys but also against the cops who come investigating. Every time someone sees an elephant their eyes nearly pop out in fear. Killer elephants. Kau Fei kidnaps the wife of the Boss - after slapping her a few times for good measure. She was his girlfriend once but went for the richer man with the shag carpet. He still loves her. He forgives her. In one of the great mis-continuity bits of all time - when he meets her she is fine - in the next scene she is very pregnant - in the next scene she has had the baby and an elephant crashes through the hospital wall to rescue her - in the next scene her baby is walking.  If the movie had lasted any longer, he would have been running for office. Ching keeps trying to arrest him and Kau Fei keeps punching him in the face. Learn to duck when you say those words.