It's not every day you witness the arrival of a screen phenomenon. But with Thai movie Ong-Bak, worldwide audiences get the first chance to see the astounding physical abilities of Tony Jaa, martial artist, stuntman and acrobat extraordinaire. Put simply, if you love action films then you absolutely must see this film. And if you long for the kind of on-screen physical performers we don't see anymore - Jackie Chan at his best, or the amazing grace of Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire - then Tony Jaa may be as close as we're going to get.

Ong-Bak is the latest movie from established Thai director Prachya Pinkaew, and is unashamedly designed as a vehicle for Tony Jaa. It's also a well-made, well-shot film with excellent fight choreography from former action star and Jaa mentor, Phanna Rithikrai. Which is no doubt why French auteur and arts-martiaux-phile Luc Besson (Jet Li's Kiss of the Dragon) purchased the international distribution rights. A hit in France, it wowed the US and now gets a more limited UK release.

So what's it all about? The off-the-peg plot is a staple of eastern-pride martial arts movies. The titular Ong-Bak, a Buddha statue from a Thai village, is pinched by unscrupulous treasure-sellers. Local boy Ting sets off to get it back. Fortunately, he's a student of the highly distinctive and devastating art of Muay Thai. The trail leads to Bangkok and some literally stunning fight sequences and an amazing tuk-tuk chase - the three-wheeled Thai transports careering in ways that make you glad you're not a stuntman. An on-foot comedy chase through a market is pure Chan - our hero jumping through barbed wire hoops, between panes of glass and running along the shoulders of his pursuers. The director's use of triple camera angle repeats is both necessary - did Jaa really perform those kicks with legs aflame? - and a further tribute to Chan, who invented the ruse.

It's a good time for eastern action movies with a swathe of directors putting the art back into martial arts. But Ong-Bak isn't as beautiful as Zhang Yimou's Hero/House of Flying Daggers, as spiritual as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or as funny as any Chan. It's frequently bone-crunchingly violent. There are no wires, no special effects. This is just Tony Jaa doing what he does best - and more aesthetically than all The Rocks, Van Dammes and Steven Seagals put together. Watching Ong-Bak is like seeing Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan for the first time - which is not surprising since they're Jaa's boyhood inspiration.

So, is Jaa the next Jackie Chan? On the showing of Ong-Bak, he can certainly cut the physical mustard. It remains to be seen whether he can match Jackie's crowd-pleasing originality. But make no mistake, in the list of great martial arts movies, Ong-Bak is immediately up there with Lee's Enter the Dragon and Chan's Police Story or Project A. And that doesn't happen every day either.

Glenn Watson 22.04.05