So we come at last to Ong Bak 2, the 'difficult third album' for Thai martial arts legend Tony Jaa. Jaa stunned chopsockey fans around the world with his star-making turn in Ong Bak: Thai Warrior, a movie turned a whole new audience on to Thailand’s burgeoning action scene. Aside from a couple of cameos, Jaa’s next screen outing came in Tom Yum Goong, which arrived in the west as either Warrior King or The Protector depending on where you lived. I guess foreign distributors were worried people wouldn’t know what tom yum goong was (it’s a spicy Thai soup), or those who did would confuse it with a cookery show or something. Tom Yum Goong/Warrior King/The Protector had some more spectacular Muay Thai-derived fights but didn't break much new ground otherwise. Unless you count myriad internet jokes about the fate of anyone foolish enough to touch Tony Jaa’s elephant.

TYG/WK/TP also saw Jaa take on a dual role, as co-action choreographer alongside his mentor Panna Rittikrai. Anticipation was running high for their next collaboration, which studio Sahamongkol Film International announced would be called Dab Atamas, about Thai two-sword fighting. However there was apparently a falling out between Jaa and Prachya Pinkaew, director of Jaa’s previous two hits, and the project was cancelled. Instead Jaa would star in, choreograph and direct Ong Bak 2. The film would be a follow-up to Ong Bak in name only, eschewing the original’s modern-day action in favour of a historical epic. Rittikrai would not be involved either, instead working with Pinkaew on the wonderful Chocolate.

It wasn't long before Thai news sources began reporting problems: Ong Bak 2 was three times over budget and the studio had halted funding. Jaa was broke from paying the crew using his own money, was behind on his mortgage payments and his power had been cut off. Then the stories started getting weirder: Jaa had disappeared into the jungle to meditate in a cave and hang out with his beloved elephants. He was rumoured to be sacrificing chickens and performing black magic rituals. He then appeared on TV to issue tearful denials. Pinkaew and Rittikrai were involved in secret mediation talks between Jaa and the studio, with a view to finding something releasable in the many hours of footage Jaa had shot.

In the end, the studio agreed to finance the end of shooting, but not without conditions. Jaa suffered the ignominy of having Rittikrai brought in as director, writer and action choreographer to finish the film. In addition, the hugely expensive sets would be used for a further sequel, Ong Bak 3, to begin production once the current film wrapped. This would incorporate new material in addition to footage already shot for Ong Bak 2. Not only that, the plot would attempt to tie the first two films together somehow, presumably involving the Buddha statue that gave the first film its title. But crucially, Jaa would not be in charge.

The following review contains spoilers. You have been warned.

The year is 1421 (1974 by the Buddhist calendar, though sadly without platform boots or Pam Grier). The Sukhothai kingdom is in the process of being overrun by Ayutthaya Kingdom, the Thai equivalent of Hong Kong’s Ming vs. Qing dynasties. And much like in Hong Kong movies where the plucky Ming patriots fight the evil Qing usurpers, the setting makes very little difference to the plot. Lord Sihadecho (Santisuk Promsiri) is a high official of the Ayutthaya kingdom, but he’s worried about ambitious city administrator Lord Rajasena (Sarunyoo Wongkrachang). With this in mind Sihadecho takes his son Tien (or Teean depending on your subtitles) to study at a dance school run by Master Bua (Nirut Sirichanya), away from the capital city. Here Tien befriends a little girl, Pim, and some sort of beggar/tramp type, Maen (played - oh joy - by irritating Thai comedian Petchtai Wongkamlao from Ong Bak and Tom Yum Goong). Before long though, Tien witnesses his father murdered by Lord Rajasena’s men, and is captured by slavers.

Sounds straightforward, right? Unfortunately this information is disseminated through a series of sketchy flashbacks spread throughout the film. So for the bulk of the running time it’s a struggle to decipher who anyone is or what they’re doing. The A-plot is only slightly more coherent: the young Tien is so defiant that the slavers toss him into their crocodile pit, from where he sees his abusers attacked and defeated by some guerrilla fighters called the Pha Peek Krut Pirates.

The pirate leader, Chernang (Sorapong Chatree) is impressed with Tien’s moxie when the boy kills the crocodile. The Pirates’ blind mystic predicts Tien will be the greatest warrior ever (“even the Spirits will fear him”), so Chernang allows Tien to stay with the pirates and learn martial arts. A quick training montage later, young Tien has grown up into Tony Jaa. Having come of age (whatever age that might be), Tien must undergo a number of trials. First he has to tame the toughest elephant in the forest, and then prove his mastery of martial arts including Muay Boran, Kenjutsu, Silat and Hung Gar kung fu. Then he’s taken to a cave where he has to beat some sort of weird hermit chick with vampire teeth - I suspect the latter has some spiritual or cultural significance I’m missing by not being Thai.

Once his trials are complete, Tien is elevated to second-in-command of the Pha Peek Krut Pirates. He leads them in a raid on some guys transporting a Buddha statue (but not the Ong Bak one), then goes to sort out the slavers from the beginning of the movie. Here we’re treated to display of drunken boxing, Tony Jaa style, which doesn’t owe much to the Jackie Chan variety but is still pretty cool. Chernang can tell that Tien is preoccupied, so sends him off to finish his quest for vengeance. Tien travels to the palace of Lord Rajasena, who I think has usurped the throne or something. During some sort of celebration, Rajasena is mesmerised by a female dancer who I think is supposed to be the grown-up Pim. Disguising his attack as an acrobatic display, Tien uses his skills to apparently kill Rajasena.

Returning to the Pirates’ camp, Tien finds it deserted. Suddenly he’s set upon by a large force of ninjas led by a mysterious helmeted warrior (Tim Man). Though he manages to fight them off Tien is wounded, and then ultimately defeated by a weird crow-like fighter (Dan Chupong, Born to Fight). There’s a bit of business about the identity of who really killed Tien’s father, and then Rajasena (who survived the attempt on his life) shows up and orders Tien tortured to death. And that’s the end. Well, almost: there’s a short coda where a voiceover tells us that Tien’s misspent youth has brought him to this point, and if we clap our hands and believe in Tony Jaa hard enough, he might survive. There’s a mysterious shot of Tien with a beard in front of a scarred Buddha statue (presumably Ong Bak), and then it’s the end.

Ong Bak 2 is a frustrating experience, because it’s clear from watching it that a lot of material is missing. Presumably a large chunk of what will be in Ong Bak 3 was meant to form the climax of this film. One assumes that there will be more stuff with Tien, Pim (if indeed it was her) and Rajasena before the latter finally has his ass handed to him in pieces. As it stands, the main villain and presumably the love interest barely appear in this movie. Nobody is onscreen long enough to register anything but the thinnest of paper-thin characters, and even Jaa doesn’t bring anything to Tien other than ‘vengeful,’ ‘fighting’ or ‘vengeful and fighting.’ It doesn’t help that there are only about 20 lines of dialogue in the entire film.

Speaking of fighting, fans will be pleased to know that most of the film is given over to battles between Jaa and a wide variety of opponents. Jaa demonstrates he's more than just the Muay Thai guy, flawlessly executing a number of fighting styles. The problem is that, with minor exceptions, the action scenes lack the impact and pain of Ong Bak. There are a few flashes of brilliance but for the most part, it could be any decent martial arts actor in the role. Matters aren't helped by the number of scenes involving bladed weapons, where combatants are finished off with a spray of patently fake CG blood. The showdown between Jaa and Dan Chupong, a late addition by Rittikrai, on paper is a thrilling prospect. In reality the fight is a damp squib, over before it ever gets going, and designed purely to set up a further confrontation in Ong Bak 3.

As to how Jaa does as a director: the film looks great, with striking cinematography in places (especially the palace scene). But given the large sets that ate the movie’s budget, the film feels a little too ‘closed in,’ without the money ever really being apparent onscreen Maybe seeing it at the cinema will make a difference; certainly its DVD presentation on the Malaysian disc (as I write this, the only one with English subtitles) is quite poor.

One gets a very strong sense that with this movie, Jaa was desperate to prove himself the equal of both his heroes, Panna Rittikrai and a certain Mr. Jackie Chan. Rittikrai’s first feature as director and star, the original Born to Fight, saw him display an impressive array of martial arts styles, weapons and stunts much as Jaa does here. The trade-off was that Born to Fight was a cheap and dirty exploitation film and not a vast, expensive period epic. Jackie Chan, of course, has forged a career starring in, choreographing and directing his own films, and it's clear that this is the path Jaa sees for himself - remember that little bit of business with the Jackie lookalike in Tom Yum Goong? But maybe Tony is forgetting that it wasn't all plain sailing for Jackie either. A couple of times, Chan’s dream projects like Dragon Lord and Thunderbolt all but bankrupted his home studio Golden Harvest.

And the kung fu auteur method doesn't work for everyone. Jet Li tried it with Born to Defence, which he directed and starred in. Not only did he sustain a serious injury, the film’s failure squandered all of the goodwill Jet had previously garnered in the Shaolin Temple movies. Jet spent half a decade either out of work or stuck in the unfortunate likes of The Master and Dragon Fight. Since then, he has stuck to acting, leaving the behind-the-camera stuff to other, more qualified individuals. The presence of Gordon Chan and Yuen Woo-ping on Fist of Legend doesn't make that film any less awesome, nor does it diminish Jet's amazing contribution. I hope Tony is able to appreciate that when the whole Ong Bak 2 kerfuffle blows over.

So what we’re left with is a movie that’s difficult to love, but with some tantalising details of what’s still to come. Sahamongkol boss Sia Jieang has revealed that in Ong Bak 3, Tien’s limbs will be so crippled by torture that he will fight with a strange ‘boneless’ style desgned by Jaa and Rittikrai. Couple that with what should be a proper showdown between Jaa and Dan Chupong, and we could have the makings of a classic. But then, it wasn’t so long ago I was saying the same thing about Ong Bak 2.

Dave Thomas, 28^th May 2009