As with the last time out in Tom Yum Goong, Tony Jaa plays Kham, a guy fighting to retrieve his beloved elephant. Here, too, he teams up with director Prachya Pinkaew, known for his fights-come-first films like Chocolate and Ong-bak. If for some reason you don’t know what’s in store, one thing’s for sure: when Kham’s elephant is taken away, a lot of people will get hurt. 

Kham and his beloved elephant Khon are living peacefully upcountry before a mafia gang pays them a visit. After refusing to sell Khon to them, Kham makes a trip into the village only to return home and find that the elephant is gone. He tracks down the mafia’s headquarters. But once he gets past the bodyguards inside, he finds that the gang leader is already dead. Amid all the chaos, Kham must flee from the mafia’s enraged twin stepdaughters who happen to be Chinese-style assassins (Jeeja Yanin plays one of the pair) as well as the arriving police officers by calling on his interpol friend Mark (Mum Jokmok) to help him escape. Continuing on his search, he gets into tussles with also sorts of people, including a caravan of dek vaan motorcyclists. He then discovers the hard way that the elephant has been captured by a powerful underground terrorist leader, LC, who plans to use Khon to lure Kham into his gang of prize fighters.

Did we forget to mention Yaya Ying? Well, she plays a sexy, deadly fighter of very little significance to the storyline. Somehow this fits in perfectly with the director’s ideal of an action-loaded flick where fighting sound effects drown out dialogue. In fact, Jeeja doesn’t utter a single word. Also, no matter where Kham finds himself, a pack of woefully inept fighters show up to get their asses kicked.

Predictably, the director’s need to fit in as many spectacular scenes as possible doesn’t make the film epic but rather stupid. Prachya may have the audacity to blatantly lift scenes from Iron Man, but he doesn’t know how to weave together the bogus sub-plots and gratuitous violence. What you get are a lot of wows under one big, juicy why. Kham might fight hard to win back his elephant, but just what the villain wants with him is undecipherable, especially as all the focus turns to his pachyderm friend towards the end.  

Yes, the fight scenes are something to behold, but they only reinforce the missed opportunity here. Tom Yum Goong 2 is another example of a Thai film that hasn’t made the most of Tony Jaa’s undoubted talents—we can only hope his upcoming Hollywood flick Fast 7 will change that.