“Kill Zone 2”

Not rated (martial arts violence)

***1/2

Opens today at Pearlridge West

The Chinese martial arts film “Kill Zone 2” has a serpentine plot that doesn’t just verge on the incomprehensible, but also practically celebrates it. Watching it gives you the feeling that you must have gone to get popcorn, called a few long-lost friends from the lobby, and then taken a nap in your car, thus missing entire chunks of story — even though you’ve been sitting in your seat and awake the entire time.

But never mind that. What makes “Kill Zone 2” remarkable is the head-pounding martial-arts action, a ballet of brutality that makes up in murderous choreography what it lacks in narrative cohesion. No one goes to a movie called “Kill Zone 2” for plot anyway.

Thai martial arts star Tony Jaa (“Ong-Bak”) is Chai, a prison guard whose daughter has leukemia and is waiting for a bone marrow transplant from undercover cop Kit (Wu Jing), who’s out to expose a crime organization dealing in human organs. The syndicate is run by Hung (Louis Koo Tin-lok), who suffers from heart disease, and plans to harvest his brother’s heart to survive. Kit’s cover is blown and he is tossed into a Thai prison run by the evil but sharp-dressing warden Ko (Max Zhang Jin).

This is the broad outline and any more would just make your brain hurt. But the action set pieces — like the fierce battle between Jaa and Jin — are breathtaking displays of moviemaking muscle. This is Jaa’s best role since the original “Ong-Bak.”

Pou-Soi Cheang, who has 17 films to his credit stretching back to 2000, may not be as well-known as some of his Hong Kong action contemporaries. But, after this, he deserves broader recognition.