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.

A detective, a zebra and revenge! What more could you ask for when seeking out Japanese films newly-released on DVD? I've been hearing terrific things about Nightmare Detective since it came out in Japan early last year. Directed by Shinya Tsukamoto, who also made Tetsuo, the Iron Man and A Snake of June, among other wonderfully weird and twisted concoctions, the film was described by Mark Schilling of The Japan Times as probably "too dark and disturbing for the average punter expecting, from the title, something in the X Files line. ... Be prepared for not just the usual goosebumps, but a viral infection of your dream life." The DVD from Dimension Extreme includes a documentary by the director and a "making of" feature.

Originally released in Japan three years ago, Takashi Miike's Zebraman finally sees the light of digital day in Region 1. This is the lighter side of the notoriously edgy Miike, a comic fantasy about a schoolteacher who pretends that he's a superhero, only to discover he is "fated to become the real-life protector against an alien invasion," wrote Aaron Hillis for The Village Voice. "Miike's most accessible exploit to date ... is still deliciously insane." The DVD from Tokyo Shock includes a motley collection of extras, such as a look at the singer of the theme song and TV spots, according to SciFi Japan.

• Bukowski: Born in to This - There is a morbidly fascinating fly-on-the-wall vibe that pervades John Dullaghan's profile of the late Beat writer Charles Bukowski, a base familiarity that parallels the Ham On Rye author's own inimitable hard-lived life and style. Epic in scope (and length), first-time director Dullaghan compiles dozens of meticulously screened hours of archival footage, coupling the best of it with new interviews with Bukowski survivors to present a terrifically real character study of a little-studied real character. The watchable Chuck-alike Happy Hour, starring Anthony LaPaglia as a booze-addled writer, is also just out.