Mahouts Gone Mad

Sunday, as I was flipping through the New York Times, I was surprised to see this headline:

Caution: Elephants Break for Food on Bangkok's Roads

Of course I had to read the article. It was about how more and more manhouts (elephant handlers) are bringing their animals into Bangkok to earn money from tourists. The manhouts sell bananas and sugar cane to travelers, who then get the thrill of hand feeding an elephant.

Any number of things could go wrong when a giant beast is allowed to roam a city's streets -- traffic jams, human injuries, elephant injuries, damage to private property.

The article reminded me of a movie we recently watched called The
Protector. It features Tony Jaa, a Thai martial arts star. Jaa specializes in Mui Thai, a rather violent form of kickboxing.

In the film, Jaa plays a mahout gone mad when two of the elephants in his charge are kidnapped and stolen away to Australia.

Poor Sydney has no idea what damage is about to befall it when a worked up, revenge-minded Jaa comes to town.

Last year I saw Jaa's other film, Ong Bak, and was quite entertained, so I had high hopes for The Protector. Unfortunately, those hopes were dashed. The storyline wasn't very plausible, and given that I've seen a number of martial-arts films, I'm used to going along with the outrageous family-revenge theme.

There were some wicked fight sequences and as far as action-packed goes, The Protector certainly was. It wasn't the worst way to pass a Friday night and we did get quite a few laughs -- even if those laughs were from the far-fetchedness of it all.

* Photos
- elephant close up taken in Thailand
- The Protector cover art