MY REVIEW OF IT

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BANGKOK DANGEROUS(1999)
(Directed by the Pang Brothers)

Plot: The story of an assassin who falls in love.

Review:
Recently there has been quite an annoying trend in Hollywood. You see, Asia has been delivering some of the top stuff(mainly in terms of horror), and our lazy asses seem intent on remaking everything. The result is watered down, bland versions of the originals. “Bangkok Dangerous” is not a horror flick, but it is an actioner that was probably inspired by John Woo’s movies. Recently, it was remade into the 2008 movie of the same name. Now how the hell did the complete opposite happen? How did the remake actually surpass the original? Why doesn’t anyone else seem to agree with me?

I’ve never seen a movie that’s plot doesn’t actually begin until the third act. It would work if the camera would just calm down and explore the characters. The first act introduces Kong, Joe, Aom and Fon. Kong is the main character, a deaf and mute hitman. Joe is his good friend and teacher, who was injured awhile back and is sort of washed out. Aom is Joe’s estranged girlfriend, who still loves him but he won’t take her back for some reason that I never really got. Fon is Kong’s love interest. The first act has a few hits and is mainly a montage of who everyone is. The second act focuses more on the love story. The third act is really when everything comes together. Perhaps it’s the fractured structure that made this movie surprisingly boring. I’m not sure.

The Pang Brothers REALLY go all out on style here. It seems that not a scene goes by without some sort of style. The editing is over-the-top in terms of being kinetic, which didn’t work for me. Besides making it difficult to tell what was going on, they do it during the romance scenes. Really, SLOW DOWN! I want to get some depth out of this! The movie does have it’s own unique colors about it, which is mostly cool. The flashbacks are often told in almost a news reel way, which is kind of cool. The cinematography is dark and almost suffocating, which I thought worked.

In many ways, the style here reminds me of Takashi Miike. Both often rely on hyperactive style, and the cinematography is similar. In Miike’s older films, he stressed the claustrophobic setting of Tokyo, making it somewhat menacing. The Pangs do that with Bangkok, and it works. However, Miike also knew when to restrain himself. He could slow down and give us some ample drama. His movies rarely felt style-over-substance. The Pangs never pull that off here. The leads are supporting characters to the Pangs camera work, which I don’t really care for.

As for the characters, they are surprisingly dull. In all fairness, they aren’t developed really well and once again, it’s often difficult to tell who was who. Kong gets a decent back-story, but his personal feelings aren’t really focused on. What does he feel about his work? I don’t know until the end. When Fon realizes he clearly isn’t innocent, his guilt arises but that guilt seems to be stemmed from getting caught. In the remake, his inner conflict is quite obvious before he was caught, but I didn’t get any of that here. Joe is a bit more interesting and well developed, but I didn’t get his relationship issues. Aom actually is sympathetic, especially when something terrible happens to her. Fon is cute, but that’s about it. None of the villains are shown enough for me to give a damn.

Some of the other aspects are quite amusing. Apparently every movie that takes place in Thailand has to have either a strip club scene or a Muy Thai kickboxing scene. The strip club scenes show up quite often. Another odd aspect is the score. I liked the main theme enough, but the rest of the music felt like bad B-movie drivel. Also, what was up with playing Christmas songs? I caught “Jingle Bells” and “Deck the Halls”, which was random as I don’t think this doesn’t take place around Christmas.

How does it compare to the remake? Well, oddly they switch around the main characters. Kong becomes the sidekick, while Joe becomes the (anti)-hero. Aum’s part is heavily reduced. Fon becomes the deaf-mute, which was sort of an interesting change. Incidentally, The Pang Brothers also directed the remake and toned down their style, opting to make a character understudy. Both films are quite different in terms of plot, structure and style. Personally, I feel that the remake was an improvement, but it doesn’t seem like a lot of people agree with me.

Even though I’m slamming this movie, I can’t say I hated it. It was a harmless waste of time and I appreciated the style to a degree. I believe all films need some substance, which “Bangkok Dangerous(1999)” didn’t deliver until the very end. But while that was a flare of substance, it didn’t redeem the whole movie. This is in contrast to “Citizen Kane”, which didn’t really establish much substance until the final shot. That final shot made everything clear, but once again, I didn’t get any of that from this movie.

Jeez, I so hate Thai names. Pawalit Mongkolpisit(Kong) is very believable in his role, and even devastated me near the end. It’s just a shame that the directors wouldn’t let the camera focus on him until then. Premsinee Ratanasopha(Fon) is cute and likable as the love interest. Patharawarin Timkul(Aom) also does very good. Pisek Intrakanchit(Joe) is amusing in his limited screen time. The acting is good and these actors deserved better.

Violence: Some grisly scenes and a rape.

Nudity: A rape, but I don’t think you see any nudity. Lots of strip club scenes with nothing explicit shown.

Overall: “Bangkok Dangerous(1999)” is all style over substance. If this is your thing, then check it out. If over-the-top hyperkinetic editing annoys you, then I’d avoid it. It was an alright movie, but I felt detached and bored throughout it all. Nothing jumped out at me.

2/4 Stars

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