Was it the elephants that sent a Thai action star over the edge? Tony Jaa, the memorably acrobatic actor and martial arts expert from Ong-Bak: The Thai Warrior and The Protector, disappeared while filming his directorial debut, Ong-Bak 2. Reportedly he became so stressed out that he sought solace in the jungle for two months -- with the film only 70% completed.

He emerged on Monday with tears in his eyes and vowed to return to work. Veteran director Prachya Pinkaew, who previously had a falling out with the star, agreed to come on board and help get the movie finished in time for its planned December 4 release. Jaa was expected to appear with his parents and production company execs at another news conference yesterday, but instead sent his lawyer with a list of seven demands (pictured). Wise Kwai's Thai Film Journal has been doing a bang-up job covering the story; as Wise Kwai comments, "This case is becoming increasingly weird."

Speaking of increasingly weird scenes, check out the trailer for Shinya Tsukamoto's Nightmare Detective 2 at Nippon Cinema, (which I found via Don Brown's ryuganji). I finally caught up with the first Nightmare Detective on Region 1 DVD last week; although the basic premise -- serial killer inhabitating a nightmare can make people wake up dead -- might sound like a simple riff on A Nightmare on Elm Street, Tsukamoto is such an amazing, visually inventive director that he stretches things far beyond the ordinary, in a way that's strikingly different than, say, the apocalyptic ambitions of Satoshi Kon's Paprika. Watch the trailer for the upcoming second installment, and rent the original to see Tsukamato's excellent, illuminating one-hour "making of" doc.

As Richard von Busack reported in June, specialty distributor Tartan Films, which released tons of Asian horror flicks and European arthouse pics, folded in June. The company's assets were acquired through foreclosure by Palisades Media, but Media Asia, a leading Hong Kong production and international sales group, claimed they had retrieved rights to seven films, including the great Infernal Affairs police thriller trilogy.

Palisades Media head Vincent "Vin" Roberti disputed Media Asia's claim, and asserted to Grady Hendrix at Kaiju Shakedown in an extensive interview: "We're going to be big buyers. We're going to be out there buying everything that isn't nailed down." Roberti also said he intends to grow the "Asian Extreme" line (started by Tartan) into a "2000 title library by 2010," which means, as one of the commenters pointed out over there, "by the end of it you'd be pretty deep into the dregs of direct-to-video crapola." What a staggering thought: 2000 "extreme" titles.

Mark Schilling in The Japan Times reviews Children of the Dark (AKA Yami no Kodomotachi), a "serious indictment" about children caught in a Thai prostitution ring. Despite two hot young stars and director Junji Sakamoto's solid critical reputation, the film has been passed over by festivals and is only getting a very limited release in Japan. Schilling says: "By being so visually graphic ... Sakamoto treads a dangerous line between hard-hitting social drama and stomach-turning exploitation."

On the lighter side, Stephen Hammond, who co-wrote "Sex and Zen & A Bullet in the Head," a wonderful guide to Hong Kong cinema, explains "Why I'm a Film Snob." It's not all related to Asian cinema, but among other things, he writes: "Films which may deserve 90 minutes of my time may not deserve 140 minutes," says ' no thank you' to feature-length animated films, and declares: "Most Korean movies are mediocre."