Bangkok Dangerous, 2008

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Hear you loud and clearly. We all don’t trust remakes. They’re as unnecessary as Rambo IV. Heaven forbid they’re talking of Rambo V! But hey, Nic Cage is coming to town with a “Bangkok Dangerous” remake. Still – should I say – anti-revisionist?

Bangkok Dangerous 2008 is a remake of Bangkok Dangerous 2001 – a mainly Thai movie directed by the Pang brothers: Danny Pang and Oxide Pang Chun. Twins born in Hong Kong. And guess who’s directing the remake? The Pang brothers.

In their 2001 flick the Pangs absolutely kicked the thing out with exquisite photography, editing and music. It was a visually snappy Thai urban romance/crime thriller. Now Bangkok Dangerous goes Hollywood. With Nic. Who’s got again hair! Promising, to say the least. Watch the trailer, filmed on the notorious Soi Cowboy.

The plot? The title says it all. A professional hit man, a depressed drunk, stalks the seedy streets of Bangkok, while somebody is sweet and innocent and somebody moonlights as a stripper.

Borrowing heavily from both the bittersweet nocturnal vision of Wong Kar Wai’s “Fallen Angels” – which also featured a mute gunman seeking retirement – and displaying an over-fondness for John Woo-style bloodletting, the film makers signaled their aesthetic intentions in a monochrome opening scene, where a slaying is witnessed from the upside-down perspective of a lizard on a ceiling.

Driven along by its techno soundtrack and some frantic cutting, Bangkok Dangerous 2001 had a feverish visual sensibility: Black and white gave way to color, childhood flashbacks unfolded in super 8mm, time was speeded up and slowed down, chronology reordered, filters bathed interiors in sickly hues.

And guess what: Bangkok Dangerous 2008 involves a political assassination. Will Nicolas Cage drop any name me wonders? The plot sounds pleasantly realistic.

We know since Tibet: Sport and politics don’t mix. Neither do Hollywood and politics. Or so they really say?

Fact is: Nic’s about to murder a politician in Bangkok. But let’s wait with the name-dropping until the movie is released – which won’t be before August ‘08.

Last but not least: Welcome to Bangkok Nic! Hope you had fun here hunting down that politician.

Time to watch the trailer:




Wanna know more? Ok.

Kong, a professional killer, has been mute since childhood. He works the city’s toughest streets. Silence is his only response to the killings he performs. He’s numb, acting with a sociopathic coldness as he brings down his steady, impersonal revenge on the world. Ultimately, the chance for his transformation – and redemption! – arrives: Fon, the sweet and innocent shop assistant.

Fon is able to provide the only tenderness and warmth he’s ever known. Suddenly stricken with remorse and guilt for his past actions, he fights back against those who would force him to remain a killing machine.

A man forced to choose between the codes of his profession and the tenderness of romantic love – predictably familiar.

Not much new about this foreigner’s transformation after embracing LOS.

For you to compare – here’s the trailer of the original flick, a very other genre:






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  1. Sorta Henry Miller? Lawrence Osborne’s Vulgar-Prose “Bangkok Days”
  2. Dangerous Ground
  3. Chris Coles’ Bangkok Vanilla Sky
  4. Navigating The Bangkok Night
  5. Bangkok In Ten Years Time
  6. Bangkok Poetization

March 29, 2008 | Filed Under Being Farang, Books & Movies, Culture & Arts, Truly Bangkok 

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