Why SPL 2, Not Ong Bak, Is Tony Jaa’s Most Important Film

Tony Jaa first broke out with Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior, but it was 2015’s SPL 2: A Time for Consequences that truly launched him to the mainstream. Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior jumpstarted the career of Tony Jaa, but SPL 2: A Time for Consequences is his most important movie. Tony Jaa is a name synonymous with massively raising the bar for martial arts films, having done exactly that with 2003’s Ong Bak, his first big break out after his years as a stuntman. These days, Jaa is a frequent presence in Hollywood action films, but the seeds for that were planted with his 2015 Hong Kong debut, SPL 2 (released in Western territories under the title Kill Zone 2).

After Ong Bak, Jaa followed up with 2005’s Tom Yum Goong (aka The Protector), before embarking on Ong Bak 2: The Beginning. Unfortunately, the film went through a bitterly difficult production and was split into two parts, with Ong Bak 2 arriving in 2008 and Ong Bak 3 landing in 2010. The experience understandably took a lot out of Jaa, and he stepped back from movies to become a Buddhist monk for a time. Jaa later returned to action films with 2013’s Tom Yum Goong 2, while 2015 ended up being the most pivotal year of his career. Jaa kicked off 2015 as the nimble henchman Kiet in Furious 7, with the film pitting him opposite the late Paul Walker.

He was also seen in a more central role in the human trafficking-focused action movie Skin Trade alongside Dolph Lundgren and Michael Jai White that same year. SPL 2 was Jaa’s third movie to debut in 2015, released in the West as Kill Zone 2 the following year, and his Hong Kong debut solidified his return. Though its title positions it as a follow-up to the Donnie Yen action movie Sha Po Lang (which bore the Western title of Kill Zone), SPL 2 tells its own story of martial artist Tony Jaa as Thai prison guard Chatchai. Initially finding himself opposed to Wu Jing’s undercover cop Chi-kit, the two eventually team up against their common enemy, the corrupt prison warden Ko Chun, played by Max Zhang.

In both their beginning as enemies to their eventual team-up, Jaa and Wu Jing were absolute dynamic side-by-side, with the film’s first action scene, a prison fight between Chatchai and Chi-kit, showing how much of an action-packed good time viewers were in for despite the relative brevity of their confrontation. SPL 2 quite possibly betters its predecessor with furious and powerful action scenes, and it remains one of the best Hong Kong action movies of the 21st century. Coming on the heels of Furious 7 and Skin Trade, it also cemented 2015 as the year of Tony Jaa’s epic return, solidifying him as a mainstream action star in the East and the West. In the years that followed, Jaa’s breakthrough would be undeniable.

Aside from appearing in the third film in the Sha Po Lang series, Paradox, Jaa’s also been seen in numerous Hong Kong and Hollywood action films, such as xXx: Return of Xander Cage and Master Z: Ip Man: Legacy, the latter a spin-off of the Ip Man movie franchise. He’s also become a big player in ensemble action movies like Triple Threat and Jiu Jitsu. Jaa currently has several projects in the works or awaiting release, and is clearly here to stay as a living legend of martial arts films. Ong Bak: Muay Thai Warrior might’ve first put him on the map, but after he returned from his sabbatical, SPL 2: A Time for Consequences launched him right to where he is today.