| | | A Film by Oxide and Danny Pang.
Features: DVD
Kong, a professional killer, has been mute since childhood. He plies the city's bitterest streets, with silence his only response to the killings and assassinations he performs. He is deadly. He is numb. He enacts his grisly tasks with a sociopathic coldness - his steady, impersonal revenge on the world. Ultimately, the chance for his transformation (and redemption) finally arrives in the form of a girl able to provide the only tenderness and warmth he's ever known. It could save him. It could kill him. A gritty story, the film is a powerful thriller, with strong emphasis on style, suave cutting techniques, effects, and urbane production values. Fast-paced, bloody and exciting, this film shows Bangkok's darker world, and the glimmer of hope in the dimmest of lives. It's a film about cities, a film about death. With its high-speed chases, its gunfire and action, its intensity, Bangkok Dangerous is a killer.
"A high-voltage, ultra-stylish dive into the lethal, shadowy underworld!" Los Angeles Times
"...Mongkolpisit as the hit man keeps [the film] afloat. He comes across as something of a Thai Johnny Depp." Bob Graham, San Francisco Chronicle
"Hypercaffeinated gangster flick...a jumpy jolt of unbridled energy!" New York Daily News
"A violent, hyperkinetic film noir!" The New York Times
"Equal parts John Woo and Quentin Tarantino!" Time Out New York
Editor's Note
Twin brothers Oxide and Danny Pang make their first feature together with this raw attack on the senses. BANGKOK DANGEROUS is like Pop Rocks candy: it leaves a funny taste in your mouth and the stinging pop is strangely alluring. It's a unique mixture of kinetic editing, textured visual sensuality, and aural assault. It's so incredibly gory and fantastic it literally vibrates.Kong (Pawalit Mongkolpisit) is a killer. Because he is deaf and mute, he isn't scared of the sound of gunfire. Working as a professional hit man, he stalks the seedy streets of Bangkok carrying out orders or drinking at the nightclub where the boss's moll, Aom (Pisek Intrakanchit), moonlights as a stripper. Joe (Pisek Intrakanchit) is Kong's best friend (and Aom's ex), who retired from working as a hit man when his hand was injured in a shoot out. With nothing to do, Joe is always drunk and depressed. One day, Kong meets Fon (Premsinee Ratanasopha), a sweet innocent who works in a drugstore. He falls in love and begins to question the life he leads. But it happens too late. When Joe is murdered, Kong decides to seek redemption by turning against his crime bosses and assaulting the Thai underworld.
| Features | Audio: Thai Dolby Digital Stereo | | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English |
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
| | Studio: First Look Pictures |
| Release Date: 5/5/2009 |
| Running Time: 105 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2001 | | Catalog ID: 91209-DVD | | UPC: 00687797912091 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: Thai | | Available Audio Tracks: Thai | | Available Subtitles: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Standard 1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
|
| | Professional Reviews | Sight and Sound
"...Stylish, imaginative..." 03/01/2002 p.36-7Total Film
"...[The film has] raw energy and palpable passion....The film draws its force from neon-doused ultraviolence, frenetic editing and a teeth-loosening loud techno soundtrack..." 03/01/2002 p.105 Chicago Sun-Times
"...A beautiful, gory film....The film assaults your senses with its stylized brutality....The acting and the photography make it a worthwhile trip..." 12/14/2001 p.29 San Francisco Chronicle 7 of 10
The minimalist dialogue, abstract images and flashy editing let viewers put together the pieces of this thriller about a gang falling-out... Pawalit Mongkolpisit as the hit man keeps it afloat. He comes across as something of a Thai Johnny Depp. - Bob Graham
Variety 7 of 10
A mute Thai hit man seeks redemption through a pretty shop assistant in "Bangkok Dangerous," a super-slick guns 'n' roses actioner that tries for a fresh spin on generic material. Enjoyable in an undemanding way, and with a few interesting flourishes, pic -- produced by Nonzee Nimibutr, helmer of last year's Thai smash hit "Nang Nak" -- ultimately isn't as original as it thinks it is. In the crowded East Asian action market, look for this one at specialized events, as midnight filler at regular fests or on ancillary...Though of Thai origin, both Oxide Pang and his twin brother, Danny, learned their technical smarts in Hong Kong, where they were born -- the former as a digital colorist and the latter as an editor. Essentially a series of action sequences strung together by the subplot of a tentative romance between pro assassin Kong (Pawalit Mongkolpisit) and pharmacy assistant Fon (Premsinee Ratanasopha), "Dangerous" is most impressive on a tech level, with sharp cutting, textured photography and a score dominated by throbbing drums...Story is totally routine, following Kong on various assignments (including a shooting on Hong Kong's subway) until he starts to use his skills against the very people who manipulate him...Though a far more accomplished piece of cinema than Oxide Pang's solo debut, "Who Is Running" (1998), it's actually far less original and ranks several notches below other Thai gangster pics in that respect. Having proved their technical prowess, the brothers can now, hopefully, move on.
Reel.com 9 of 10
Most often, when writers bandy about the term "Asian action," it's because they're sick of saying "Hong Kong action." But there's a lot more to Eastern action cinema than John Woo, Tsui Hark, and Takeshi Kitano -- it's just that outside of those living near special-import shops, few Americans get the chance to see Thai or Filipino shoot-'em-ups...Hopefully Bangkok Dangerous will change all that. Exploding soon onto an art-house screen near you, this Thai import crackles with a beauty and intensity not seen since The Killer back in 1989. And while obviously owing a debt to their Hong Kong peers -- particularly the gritty violence of Johnny Mak and the color-saturated melodrama of Wong Kar-Wai -- co-writer/directors Oxide and Danny Pang have cooked up a bracingly fresh look at the underbelly of the Orient...Bangkok Dangerous consistently surprises with twists on a well-worn formula. Besides embracing a Menace II Society-like fatalism, the brothers Pang also include many too-cool tricks reminiscent of the chase scenes of Le Samourai or The French Connection. Even more appealing is their attention to detail; the close-ups on beads of sweat, trapped insects, and other minutiae take on an almost totemic symbolism, especially when slathered in cinematographer Decha Srimantra's Technicolor grit. The Pangs also have a knack for deconstructing time during gunplay that's reminiscent of Sergio Leone's spaghetti-Westerns. This kind of sight, sound, and fury makes Bangkok Dangerous a fistful of baht that you shouldn't let slip through your fingers. - Tor Thorsen
|
| |
|
|
|
