Review of Muay Thai Ring Girls

Introduction

For those who aren`t familiar with it, Muay Thai is a martial art which originated in South East Asia. It is often referred to as the "The Art of the Eight Limbs" on account of the fact that in a Muay Thai contest, a fighter is permitted to strike with the hands, elbows, shins, and knees. Bouts are won and lost via knockout, judge`s decision, or a referee or doctor`s stoppage.

In other words, you have to be tough to even consider it.

"Ring Girls" is a made-for-TV style film about five female Muay Thai fighters (Gina Carano, LaTasha Marzolla, Lisa King, Christine Toledo, and Ardra Hernandez) who are trained by Master Toddy, an expert in the discipline. He prepares them for their biggest test to date - travelling to Thailand to compete against the originators of the sport.

The film is based on a true story, with the fighters and Master Toddy all playing themselves. The fight scenes were filmed documentary-style, and are the actual fights that took place, although much of the build up to those matches is an acted interpretation of what really happened.

Christine Toledo summed it up as "Stories told, sad and happy; experiences good and bad; bonding and arguing among us girls and with Master Toddy; real training and real fighting, real BLOOD. Real stuff!"

Video

Video is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic PAL, and is excellent. It was shot with high-definition equipment, and you can really tell, making this a world away from your average made-for-TV film.

Some of the scenes in Thailand are particularly picturesque, and are worthy of note. The fights themselves - which were not "staged", but the actual fights - are shot in the manner of a documentary and also look excellent.

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and is very good in terms of clarity. Everything from music - which includes re-works of Samuel Barber`s "Adagio For Strings" and AC/DC`s "Back in Black" - to in-ring action, to the narration of Gina Carano, is clear in the mix.

The one huge downside to the audio is the use of over-dubs in the fight scenes. Not even Mr T`s punches in The A-Team had such an unrealistic thud. In some ways, this is worse than just a mere audio problem, as such comical sounds make it difficult to take this seriously as a story.

Features

There are no extras, unless you want to count three (bad) film trailers for other releases.

Conclusion

The story behind "Ring Girls" is an interesting one, but unfortunately it fails to live up to its potential. In my view, the difficulty lies in the fact that it is neither one thing nor the other; it is not a made-for-TV movie, nor is it an all-out documentary. Whilst the fight scenes are interesting, the poor acting which sets the scene for those fights most certainly is not. Anyone old enough to have watched "Jossy`s Giants" will remember that sportsmen generally do not make good actors, and there`s no disturbing that theory here.

Away from the fights themselves, we are left with what is basically a Karate Kid-type story, with Master Toddy as Mr Miyagi. He imparts various pieces of advice, and odd training techniques to prepare the women for their bouts. These include practicing their footwork on truck-sized tyres, and sleeping not in a bed, but in the ring.

Overall, "Ring Girls" is an average production which has its best sequences in the real-life fights. In a more raw, documentary format, this could have been much, much better.