Tony Jaa Vows To Complete ONG BAK 2

The very strange saga of Tony Jaa and his disappearance from the set of Ong Bak 2 appears to have come to a tearful end. Two months after disappearing from the set of his latest martial arts picture - one which the young Jaa is directing as well as starring in - and after very public mud slinging about finance, not to mention the bizarre reports that Jaa spent the past months in a cave practicing black magic, Jaa appeared on Thai TV yesterday, making his first public appearance since this all began.

Accompanied by his lawyer - an interesting choice, that - Jaa broke down in tears as he denied the black magic rumors and stated his desire to return to the film and complete it as its director. Now, crying in public is really not the sort of thing action stars are supposed to do - can you imagine Stallone breaking down in the middle of an interview? - but in this case I really can't do much but feel bad for Jaa. He was cautioned against directing this project himself by a host of older, more experienced professionals and his refusal to listen was one of the factors that killed Jaa's relationship with Ong Bak director Prachya Pinkaew. Clearly he was just not ready for the day to day challenges of directing a film, particularly not a big budget one - huge budget by Thai standards - in which you are also starring. He's a very sincere man, one very conscious of how he presents both himself and Thai culture in general and this very public humbling has got to be hard for him to swallow ...