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Bang half-cocked
"Bangkok Dangerous" is not as dangerous as its makers would like you to think — it's a predictable Thai gangster flick that's aimed more at Hollywood studios than your mind.
By GRADY HENDRIX
Offoffoff.com
The fact that the directors of "Bangkok Dangerous" expect audiences to sit
through their bland, previously chewed Hollywood calling card is enormously
offensive. Directed by brothers Oxide and Danny Pang, this Thai hitman flick
has a million different styles all happening at the same time, which wouldn't
be a problem except that the story and characters are so cloyingly cliched
and infinitely pointless that the experience is like staring at a flickering
fluorescent bulb for ninety minutes. Ultimately, "Bangkok Dangerous" is a
zombie. Hungry for the cash of the living it stumbles after you, reaching
its decaying fingers out for your wallet.
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| BANGKOK DANGEROUS |
Directed by: Oxide Pang, Danny Pang.
Cast: Pawalit Mongkolpisit, Premsinee Ratanasopha, Patharawin Timkul, Pisek Intrakanchit.
In Thai with English subtitles.
Related links:
Official site
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If you can keep your eyes open (many in the audience I saw it with
couldn't) you will see the following story unfold:
Kong is a mute hitman living in Bangkok. He has become desensitized to the
killings he carries out for The Boss. One day he meets the beautiful and
sensitive Fon. Through his romance with Fon, Kong learns to regret his
actions. Can Kong and Fon find happiness together? Can Kong leave his
hitman's life behind? Didn't we see this movie about a hundred times in the
'90s?
Made for $800,000, this flick mostly unfolds in slow motion, which has the
unfortunate effect of making it feel ten hours long, giving it plenty of
time to hit every cliche on the way down. A mute hitman? Redeemed through
the love of a child-like woman? A sacrificial shootout at the end? The
novelty of its Bangkok location is just that: a novelty. With all the
cultural depth and resonance of a whoopee cushion this movie could've been
shot in an NYU dorm room. Instead of a new take on an old genre, a breath of
fresh air, an invigorating jolt of adrenaline, or a new way of looking at
the world, we get the cinematic equivalent of the opening of a new
McDonald's. The performances (and the film itself) are completely plastic:
mass-produced and featureless. Everything onscreen here stinks like a carton
of milk way past its expiration date.
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NOVEMBER 23, 2001
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
Reader comments on Bangkok Dangerous:
hummm from janelle, Mar 26, 2002
Moron from Bucky, Aug 14, 2004
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