by Katie [Lorehounds Subscirber]
Watching last Sunday’s episode “Killer Instincts” (E07) of White Lotus, I was captivated…not only by the bubbling suspense and exploding drama but also by the Muay Thai fighting scenes tell us about what was happening to the characters we were watching. If you just see the Muay Thai images of a fight or as foreshadowing for violence, you’re missing the nuance and depth that the stylized nature of Muay Thai fighting brings to the story.
To be clear, I’m not a Muay Thai fighter, but I am a fan of the traditional sport. I trained in Muay Thai in two different countries in my 20s and spent nine months living and working in Thailand around that same time. These experiences helped me understand the subtleties of traditional Muay Thai fighting, which are unique to Thai culture and very different from the aspects of Thai kickboxing that have been appropriated into mixed martial arts popular in Western countries. However, I’m no expert, and additional observations are welcome!
There is both style and form to Muay Thai fighting. You do not enter the ring and immediately try to kick your opponent’s head off. There are stages. Live music, called “sarama,” plays throughout, utilizing instruments that may sound discordant to the Western ear, which ramps up its intensity as the fight progresses. Each fight begins with an elaborate process of walk-dancing through all four corners of the ring and coming to its center, making prayers, and using ritualized gestures to pay honor to their teachers, the fighting lineage to which they belong, and the spirits that are omnipresent in Thai life. The fighters are adorned with “mongkol,” their halo-like headdresses, and flower garlands called “phuang ma lai” for good luck. Before the battle, the fighters will come to the center of the ring to pay respect to each other and showcase slowed-down versions of the familiar Muay Thai moves in time with the music (making them look more like dance moves than vicious strikes) before returning to their corners, shadowboxing out toward the audience to show their superior skill and enliven the crowd, remove all adornments, and turn in facing their opponent. Exposition is over, respect is paid, and it is time to fight.
Muay Thai is particularly brutal physical combat. Strikes are permitted with fists, legs, knees, and elbows. When the fighting is truly underway, by the third round or so, clinches are common, in which one or both opponents grip the other close to him by holding his opponent by the outside of the neck with his forearms, the lock held with his hands clasped together behind the neck, while delivering ruthless body blows over and over with the knees, often letting go briefly to deliver one or more downward strikes to the face with the elbow. It can get bloody as hell, and with the atmosphere of the music, the fans screaming wildly and placing bets, and the artistry and violence combined, it is damn compelling entertainment if you like that sort of thing.
The blows come hard and fast in Muay Thai, but not so much in the initial rounds. Round one (of five) primarily is a dance. A testing of range. An assessment of your opponent’s footwork. An assessment of potential weaknesses. Strikes and kicks will be landed, but not with the force the fighter can truly unleash. There is a battle within the battle, and picking your timing to truly open up is critical to the overall strategy. But this can’t be done in a vacuum; much like a conversation requires more than one participant, the fighter needs to sense his opponent’s will, ambition, and strengths to know how best to use his own.
On to Muay Thai in the show. In the opening scene, we see the flower and “halo” adorned fighters dancing and kneeling to pay honor to ancestors and fighting lineage. We get some great close-ups of the musical instruments being played by the live band while very different music swells as the scene transitions to our characters. You can tell there is a frenetic energy of something violent about to take place. Still, right now, all focus is on the traditions and formalities, the performance before the performance.
This is immediately followed by Rick and Frank (posing as Steve) in Bangkok, entering Sritala’s home so “Steve” can distract Sritala by discussing the upcoming movie he is directing and is interested in casting her for while Rick lays his eyes for the first time on her husband, Jim, the man who killed his father. Rick gets his initial opportunity to assess the man in the flesh while pretending to be the producer for “Steve’s” film. The group heads out to Sritala’s terrace.
We next see the fighters again, briefly. They spend a moment in the corners as they make their way around the entire ring, pausing each time to kneel in prayer and respect.
When we return to the show, the characters are seated in four separate corners. Frank/Steve is sitting across from Sritala, primarily engaging with her (having not been prepped on what to do by a now primarily silent Rick at all), while Rick is across from, and studying, his archnemesis, Jim, who is likely unaware of Rick’s existence, yet does give him a curious stare before the conversation begins. Whether they know it or not, the opponents are engaged in the formalities that precipitate a squaring-off. Overlayed at the end of this scene, we hear the Buddhist teacher who leads the temple where Piper plans to study saying, “Every one of us has the capacity to kill,” while the camera is close up on Rick’s face, wearing a half-smile.
We glimpse the fighters again, showcasing their moves and finishing their unique demonstrations of honor and respect before we find ourselves inside the temple with Piper and Lochland. The Buddhist teacher gives a dharma talk in English to a room full of primarily young Western students. The topic: the root of all violence is fear.
We are next with the fighters in their separate corners. They aren’t quite ready to fight (they still wear their monkol and phuang ma lai, for example, so they are still in the phase of opening formalities), and each stare for a moment at the other.
This scene leads to Rick and Jim staring intently at each other while Frank/Steve and Sritala continue discussing films, a conversation in which Frank genuinely struggles. It’s clear that Rick’s only goal was to get in the door; he did not prep Frank at all for how to engage Sritala (though, to be fair, he may have planned to and been instead caught off guard by Frank’s confessions when they met up previously). When Rick suggests he and Jim leave the artists to talk so Rick can learn about Jim’s business success in Thailand, Jim says, “Sure. Let’s take it to the den.” Getting up, he audibly strikes his cane on the ground, which, along with the anticipatory pounding of the drums, transitions us back to the fighters.
The formalities are nearly done; the stage is set for the fight to begin, and we see them touch gloves (always one red, one blue, and I’ll refer to the fighters as “Red” and “Blue” from this point on). They return to their corners to remove all decorative regalia and prepare to fight. But remember, this fight will come in phases, with initial rounds serving as a dance for the fighters to size up one another and for the audience to size up the fighters.
Belinda and Zion enter Greg/Gary’s house, and we get a quick flash of Blue landing a teep kick, which is primarily defensive, kicking straight out at a slightly downward angle to push your opponent back and assess range. The fight has begun, but the opponents are more interested in feeling each other out than causing actual damage at this point.
Greg/Gary stares at Belinda and Zion. Then we are in Bangkok again, and Rick walks to the house with Jim.
We see Red land several punches, among the least damaging strikes a Muay Thai fighter can deliver, though the action is ramping up. Though this appears quite brutal, punches, like the teep kick, are more about assessing the opponent than inflicting damage.
Inside the house, Jim and Rick talk about Jim’s past, and we see Rick move his gun from inside his jacket to the front of his pants.
Cut to the fighters, and we see the action has progressed to a new level of violence. Blue attempts to grasp Red in a clinch (which could render him helpless as harder blows are delivered into his body), but he slips out and lands awkwardly into the ropes.
At the party, Greg/Gary invites Belinda inside and explains he had nothing to do with Tanya’s death and that he is happy in Thailand. He offers her $100,000, saying Tanya always felt guilty for not helping her open her wellness clinic and would want her to have the money. He states that Tanya wants him to spend the rest of his years in peace and tells Belinda, “Maybe in exchange, you could honor that.” Belinda asks to sleep on it, leaving Greg/Gary a bit shocked, awkwardly stumbling with his acceptance of her request. Belinda finds Zion, and the pair hastily leave the party as Gary/Greg watches.
When we return to the fight, it has passed through the assessment and dancing rounds and unleashes the full power of Muay Thai fighting. Blue attempts a sidekick, which is blocked. He follows up with another teep, to push Red back, but Red catches the kick, using the opportunity to move in closer to the fighter, putting him in a dangerous position.
We return to Rick, who is finally making his long-anticipated confrontation with Jim. The way Rick eventually ends this scene with what appears physically to resemble a teep kick by pushing Jim to the floor backward in his chair is just a chef’s kiss to me. Rick is in fight mode, but while he attempts to make aggressive moves (while Jim holds his hands up by his head to protect against a strike, much like we’ve seen from the fighters, but cannot move the same way on both sides to fully protect himself, likely due to the stroke), all he can do in the end is express his pain defensively rather than with the full offensive power we know he is capable of at this moment.
As Rick and Frank speed away on the boat taxi, we get our longest look at the fight and hear the musicians. The fight is at its climax now. Blue holds Red in a clench, delivering body blows with the knee, followed by Red pushing out of the clinch and landing a hard right hook. We see and hear the very specific instruments and sounds of Muay Thai.
We also see that Gaitok and Mook have moved their date from the night market to the fight. As the violence ramps up, Mook observes Gaitok enjoying the spectacle. However, he said at dinner he does not want to be a bodyguard because he doesn’t want to hurt anyone, especially because nonviolence is integral to his practice of Buddhism. Mook tells Gaitok that fighting is natural, a part of life. “It’s human to fight!” We also learn Laurie is at the fight with Valentin, and his buddies Alexie and Vlad from the previous night come to join the pair.
The fighters seem evenly matched, each landing powerful side kicks to the other’s ribs. Blue attempts a flying knee, which is devastating if landed but difficult to execute. He misses when Red steps out of the way and lands his own shot. However, we see Blue ultimately best Red with a burst of hard punches that culminate in a blow right on the button, knocking Red out. Though I mentioned previously that punches are among the least brutal moves available to a fighter in Muay Thai, I can understand how they would be easier to choreograph and block for filming. In reality, an elbow or two may have been deployed.
As the crowd goes wild, and Blue celebrates on the ropes, Gaitok, from farther up in the stands (accurate for where Thai people are often seated at fights with “falang” or foreigners often placed down on the floor, closer to the action) sees Valentin and his two friends and flashes back to the day of the robbery, putting it together that the robbery was indeed an inside job that Valentin helped facilitate.
I hope this breakdown of the fight scenes enriches your viewing of “Killer Instincts” (and maybe encourages you to check out a real Muay Thai fight online now that you’re done reading).