“Force of Five” concerns the dazzling exploits of four very young and fearless Thai boxing students who come to the aid of their friend Wun, who has chronic heart disease. As the end nears, a donor heart is located but tragically the hospital in charge comes under siege from a group of ruthless terrorists. Wuth, Catt, Jib and Pong must breach the terrorists’ perimeter, locate the heart and get it back to Wun in time for his operation.

Krissanapong Rachata’s movie comes from the same stable as “Ong Bak”, “Chocolate” and “Raging Phoenix” which means that, despite it featuring a much younger cast than those adult hits, it still features thrilling acrobatics, spine-crunching combat and boundless energy. Like “Home Alone”, though, the movie has a more family-oriented flavour and there are plenty of pratfalls, high jinks and light comedic touches.

The original 1958 version of “The Hidden Fortress” was directed by Japanese legend Akira Kurosawa, and was apparently heavily referenced in George Lucas’s “Star Wars” movies. Fifty years on, this new version seeks to update the production values of the original whilst holding true to its classical storylines and characters.

The allied nations of Hayakawa and Akizuki are at war with the invading forces of Yamana. The titular fortress is under siege and Princess Yuki (Masami Nagasawa) and her loyal Samurai bodyguard Rokurota (Hiroshi Abe) must flee before enemy forces breach their defences. They dupe a couple of morally suspect rogues into helping them transport some gold back to friendly territory whilst pretending to be humble bandits. Shinji Higuchi’s remake is a fun, mildly thoughtful and action-packed adventure yarn about caste, honour, greed, humanity and salvation. The two rogues - Takezo (Jun Matsumoto) and Shinpachi (Daisuke Miyagawa) - are the bumbling comic relief in an otherwise quite earnest and bloody movie, but during their journey they realise there might be more to life than their mantra of “Women! Liquor! Food!”.