International Muay Thai action star Tony Jaa, who’s been the star of only five movies so far, is leaving all that behind to join a monastery. On May 28th, the star rode an elephant to Surin, Thailand in order to become ordained as a full-fledged monk. No reasons were cited, but the deeply spiritual Jaa, who often played somewhat pious lead characters of few words in his film, is definitely gone from the film industry for now.
Or is there something else afoot? Twitchfilm speculates that, based on everything we know about Jaa’s last two films, that there might be twisted force behind Jaa’s decision. Much has been made of the disaster that was Jaa’s directorial debut, “Ong Bak 2,” though no one can accurately depict what happened when Jaa disappeared into the jungle for two weeks Kurtz-like in the middle of production (“black magic” is cited). When Jaa re-emerged with demands geared towards finishing the over-budget film, the company instead decided to hand over reshoots to another filmmaker, splitting the footage into two separate movies.
Unfortunately, much about “Ong Bak 3” hasn’t pleased viewers, as it’s the first film to fail to top the Thai box office among Jaa’s action spectaculars. The consensus from those that have seen is that it appears to be the result of a gang-written paycheck job for all involved. Twitchfilm speculates that these negotiations, leading to a compromised final product, led Jaa to find the only way around what looks like a shady deal with the production company that has him under a ten year, exclusive contract. We do hope Jaa resolves this situation as soon as possible and returns to the screen, as no martial artist of his generation has been nearly as compelling. For those who doubt Jaa’s prowess, we’ve attached a scene from “The Protector” to erase any doubts that Jaa was, and hopefully still is, the real deal. And yes, it’s all one shot.