At one point Tony Jaa was the most
exciting martial arts star on the planet. Then he became a big weird
joke. And now he’s done. Twitchfilm
is reporting that Tony
Jaa has quit filmmaking and become a monk in Thailand.
This
doesn’t necessarily mean his career is at an end, though. Twitch points
out that it’s not uncommon in Thai culture to take some time to join a
monastery, and Jaa could eventually leave the religious life and return
to kicking ass in movies, but it’s unlikely that this will happen any
time soon.
Jaa’s
career has been on a downward spiral; after demanding directorial
control on Ong Bak 2 he got it, and turned in a movie
with good action but really shitty everything else. I haven’t seen Ong Bak 3 but
hear that it’s terrible – according to Twitch it’s essentially a
failure in Thailand.
And while making Ong Bak 2 Jaa famously flipped his shit,
disappearing for two months, possibly getting involved in black magic.
That was just the tip of the crazy iceberg – Twitch has a full rundown
of Jaa’s turbulent last few years, which you can read by
clicking here. Let’s
just say that there’s the makings of a great Thai martial arts movie in
all of this. Sadly it looks like Tony Jaa won’t be starring in it.
6 comments
No big deal. Ong Bak was far better than part 2. I mean part 2 was good and all but part 1 kicked all sorts of ass!
Onto the next flash in the pan martial arts star!
Article is wrong. Jaa did not get involved in black magic. He went overtime and overbudget directing Ong Bak 2, all kinds of normal first-time director woes and producer battles, so he took off and had a little freak out. He claimed that the problems and stress he felt could have been due to the set being cursed by black magic because the film had some witchy business in its plotline.
the twitch people are morons. this weekend buddhists are celebrating the birth and death of buddha, which means buddhists EVERYWHERE are "entering" the monkhood temporarily. thais and other buddhists "enter the monkhood" like americans throw a bbq. i should know, i'm one.
I love Jaa's films, Ong Bak and The Protector are the 2 greatest martial arts films in years, maybe even a few decades. Ong Bak 2 wasn't great at all, not interested in 3. Guess it's good that he's stepping out now.
Jaa will be back in movies. Joining the monk hood in Thailand is mostly a temporary thing. He needs something to get his head straight after the Ong Bak 2-3 flicks. 3 didn't even make number one in it's opening week there.
Shame that Raymond Chow produced Donnie Yen/Tony Ja feature he's working to put together is probably dead.
I had to turn Ong Bak 2 off it was so horribly boring and poorly made. The dude shat the bed. He had a brief opportunity to exploit his martial arts abilities, and he let it go. It's not a great loss, because despite his ass kicking abilities, he was a horrible wreck on screen.
Comments are shown as archived from the original site; new comments are closed.