Tony Jaa, the thrice star of Ong Bak has announced that he is going to quit movies and join a monestary to become a monk. I believe the Thai equivilent of “take this job and shove it was used” but that is just hearsay.
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.
I enjoyed seeing this exciting athlete do his thing on screen, but he has had a bit of a downward spiral. Maybe joining a monestary will help him find some sort of focus and stability. It was rumoured that during the filming of Ong Bak 2, Jaa lost his shit Bale style and spent two months studying black magic… honest – that’s the rumour.
And Ong Bak 3 is already a reported failure in Thailand, so it might have been the straw that broke his nerve sending him off to gather his thoughts and center himself.
