Stylish but barely mediocre overall

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

When you look at Thai Martial Arts movies, you know what to expect in almost every films... Excellent brutal fight scenes, extremely Craptastic unoriginal storyline. I have watch almost everything when it comes to the 90s American martial arts industry, so i had to look elsewhere for entertaining. I must say American flicks are not very original either, but i love the classic formula of "get beaten down by the bad guy, train, come back" or the other famous formula of "get revenge for your brother/friend's murder" But when it comes to Thai movies, its almost always about some artifact of a small village that got stolen and our hero has to go after it. Or sometimes its even worse... It started with Tony Jaa, and i did love Ong Bak and The protector for there awesome fights, but after that i saw many movies with the same formula and lesser fight scenes.But with Cheiya, this is not the case at all. For once i saw a Thai movie that made me felt something, like those Korean or Japanese movies, in the vain of Fighter in the Wind.This movie tells the story of 3 boys went to the same place by extremely different roads. I got to admit some parts seem a bit exaggerated and this movie is not perfect, but its extremely interesting, i loved following the story, i loved the characters, and i hope future Thai movies will be in that style. The whole "artifact stolen" has got very old...

Being an extreme Muay Thai fan, I decided to see this film. Expecting jaw dropping action, I came into the movie with a somewhat a little less than satisfied feel to it... but being a big MOVIE fan... I came to see that even if this isn't what some come to expect (An action packed fighting movie with a bunch of stunts), it came to a great example of traditional Muay Thai style and a GREAT and BEAUTIFUL story. I do not wish to go into detail, but if you are looking for an overall good movie with more to offer than just some cool moves, definitely check this out. With a little patience, you will come into the movie wondering, but in the end it will all come into picture.

After I saw the commercial of this movie, I was expecting a solid Muay Thai action movie like those from Tony Ja. But I am totally wrong, there are only very limited action scenes. And all the fighting are composed with very short cuts which I personally dislike. I enjoy more median or long cuts that really show off the Marital Artist's talent like those you saw in Tony Ja or Bruce Lee's movies. OK, despite the wrong reception from the commercial, let's view it as a story telling movie. 3 bothers seek their dreams and went to 2 different directions... the plot is OK (not bad) for an action movie, but the director's story telling is just as awful as it could be. That guy certainly don't know where needs emphasizing and where should save the cuts. All those long boring scenes are unbearable to watch. Please don't waste your money and time. I certainly regret I did.

The movie was scheduled to closing The Bangkok International Festival but I missed that. After I finally see that.I was in awe of the show.3 friends from the southern Thailand, learned Muay Chaiya. Piak , Pao , Samor went to Bangkok to fight in the Professional MuayThai Boxing.Their career were included crimes.I saw the world of gangster in Boxing, life of night singer.In my opinion, its screenplay is very good because the director was professional writer before. (He was the crew in some Apichatpong film too.) It better than other Thai film and maybe better than some Hollywood film.Screenplay is very good ,so the film is the same..Kongkiat directed very well. He constructed a lot dimensions and artistic of violence.Likes Chan-Wook Park style, violence in this film is so much but he directed the view which had a reason.The friendship in childhood reminded me of City of God(Fernando Meirelles).Violences in gangster reminded me of Goodfella(Scorsese). And some photographing linked to WongKaWai style.I liked it so much especially the mixing of variable things.That made it the one of Best Thai Film of all time alongside 15kumdeaun11, Monster, Tin Mine, The Overture...Very good film,highly recommend who disappointed Tom Yum Koong. But Chaiya isn't only show Martial Art.It shows the heart of real Fighter.