Jaa jumps for joy: Goodbye, "Ong-Bak", hello, Jackie Chan?
ACTION-MOVIE STAR Phanom “Tony Jaa” Yeerum has accepted – presumably with much relief – the olive branch proffered by his former boss, Somsak “Sia Jiang” Techaratanaprasert, which Soopsip reported here yesterday.
Responding to the news that Sia Jiang had called off a pending breach-of-contract lawsuit, the kick-boxing hero took to Facebook, where he has 3.8 million followers. In separate posts, one in Thai and the other in English, Jaa for some reason took a share of the credit for ending the contract tussle with Sahamongkol Film. “We,” he wrote, meaning him and his ex-boss, “have decided to end all legal actions against each other”.
Jaa said he appreciated Sia Jiang stating clearly that he was now free to pursue his career without worry. Though he regretted that their relationship had soured, he was grateful to the studio for removing a major roadblock to his acting ambitions and wished both the studio and Sia Jiang well.
Interestingly, Jaa signed his posts “Japanom Yeerum”, prompting one fan to ask if that was his real name. He said it was, so it looks like we’ve got to revise our celebrity moniker files again.
Jaa’s fans were delighted that the mess has been cleared up, clicking the “like” button almost 80,000 times and adding more than 400 cheerful comments. Among these, Jaa was hailed as “a humble master”, “a wonderful art and culture ambassador”, “a superstar” and “a man with a heart of gold”.
One lingering question is whether there can still be more “Ong-Bak” movies, or at least an “Ong-Bak 4”, now that he’s split with the studio that launched the series that made him an international star in the first place. “‘Skin Trade’ wasn’t up to your usual action standard,” a follower remarked. And, another wondered, how about finishing “Ai Num Gangnam” (“A Man Will Rise”)? Jaa was in the process of directing that picture, as well as starring in it, when the whole lawsuit thing blew up.
In the midst of all this there were calls for Jaa to make a movie with the venerable Hong Kong action superstar Jackie Chan. One fan, Phoom Suakow, recalled a photo that circulated of Jaa with Brett Ratner, director of the Jackie Chan hit “Rush Hour”. On the Kevin Bacon scale of celebrity relationships, that’s just one degree of separation. “I could sense something going on for sure, LOL!” Phoom wrote.
The giddy exchange on Facebook tended to obscure the remarkable fact that Jaa clicked “like” on well over a hundred comments and even replied to many fans. Of course that might have been the work of his actively hands-on manager, Michael Selby, but the interaction was impressive nonetheless.
Jaa (or Selby) was asked if Somsak is a common name and said it is. He (or Selby) assured a fan in India that Japanom Yeerum is his real name (Jaa’s name, not Selby’s). It was good strategy, showing why Jaa is beloved around the world and has a fan base that keeps expanding. The man doesn’t even need to arrange a press conference – everyone’s waiting for him on Facebook.
