Back in 1999, the writing/directing brothers Oxide and Danny Pang made their impressive debut with a little film called Bangkok Dangerous. I saw the film a few years back, and while the details escape me (I need to revisit it), I remember the film as visually impressive with a story focused on an intriguing character. The film told the story of a deaf-mute assassin who rose through the ranks of the Thai underworld, before making friends with a woman at the pharmacy, leading to a change in his way of thinking and an ultimate violent showdown.
Since that time, the Pang Brothers have made a series of well-received films, most notably The Eye series (which jumped across the Pacific earlier this year and starred Jessica Alba). In 2007 they made their English language debut with The Messengers, a less than stellar horror film. Now, they take another shot at Hollywood by revisiting their debut film.
Bangkok Dangerous is not exactly a remake of the 1999 film; using the current crop of buzz words, it's more a "re-imagining" or a "re-invention." This fact could, perhaps, also be used to attract fans of the original or just of slightly more adventurous foreign cinema. In some ways that would be accurate. I doubt that you will ever find a film featuring a deaf-mute assassin coming out of Hollywood, not to mention a star willing to go an entire film without saying anything (remember Stallone in Judge Dredd? He wouldn't do the movie if he couldn't take the helmet off).
So, the Pang Brothers teamed with screenwriter Jason Richman, who also wrote the recent Kevin Costner film Swing Vote, to rework the story for a new audience while still retaining some of the flavor that made the original work so well. Even with the changes, the film has a very distinctive feel and is quite different from your standard Hollywood fare. It is an action film that isn't an action film, a thriller that isn't a thriller, a film that is as much about atmosphere and the metaphysical as it is about visceral violence and the overall plot. This is the movie that the Pangs should have made their English language debut with rather than the lackluster The Messengers. Better late than never, I guess.
As the film opens, we are introduced to Joe (Nicolas Cage), a hit man for hire. He lives a lonely life, as dictated by his rules. Those rules include never leaving a trace, always finishing a job, never taking an interest in people, and knowing when to get out. Good rules to use when you take up this line of work, and rules that will be put to the test over the course of the film.
Joe - if that's his real name - has landed that one big job that will put him over the top and send him into retirement. He is to go to Bangkok for four hits and then fade into the world. Joe arrives in the Thai city and begins to size up the situation. He goes about setting up his operation, obtaining suitable help and getting down to it.
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