Bangkok Dangerous (1999, R)

This film is quite different from the 2008 Hollywood remake starring Nicholas Cage.  They both feature a hitman and take place largely in Bangkok, Thailand, but the tone and storytelling styles of the two are almost polar opposites.  The original film is about a deaf-mute, living and working in Bangkok his whole life and has two close friends who also work in the industry (one is a male fellow hitman with whom he has partnered in the past and the other is a woman who gives them their assignments); the remake is about a distinctly non-hearing impaired American lone hitman whose current assignment is in Bangkok.  The dialogue of the original film's script could probably fit on a couple sheets of paper, and the story is told mostly with the music, a home-video style montage and some brief interactions; the remake is a full-scale action movie with a tremendously higher budget and full-conversations.


The opening scene of the film is shot in black and white (it reminded me of Following or Pi) but afterwards changed to color film.  One minor flaw that stuck out to me early on was that the credits late in the opening sequence were red words on red splashes so that they were almost impossible to read.  But I don't read the language anyway, nor would I recognize the names if  I did, so I don't think I missed out on much.  The film stock was low-res, as you'll often find in independent foreign films.  The main character was very non-communicative even for someone without the power of speech.  I would have expected some sign-language (though I don't know it's prevalence in Thailand) or hand gestures of some kind to indicate his wishes, intentions and/or queries.  At first I thought he would be a flat non-character, but over the course of the movie I got a little more of a feel for him, though the characters still felt more like those from a short story compared to a novel.  I found it surprising how much they were able to tell a story without words (though at first it felt amateurish, it worked out better as it went on).  I kind of expected his lack of hearing to be a factor in some of his missions (such as he doesn't know how loud his footsteps are, he can't hear a gun cocking behind him, etc) as Daredevil's lack of sight is often a factor, but it never came up other than his communication with friends.  I feel like there was a missed opportunity there, but the film seemed more to be about him and the events of his life rather than crazy action (though there are gunfights and chase scenes).  The musical score was one of the largest contributing factors in the storytelling, and I found it confusing to hear "Jingle Bells" a couple of times in the movie.  It took me a moment to place the tune each time because it was played in different ways, but it seemed out of place to me as there was no theme of winter, Christmas or Christianity in general.  Maybe the song has another significance in Thailand, I don't know.

It's a subtitled movie with kind of a lower-budget feel, so most American audiences probably wouldn't get a kick out of this movie, but it does give a nice taste of foreign cinema.  I want to compare it to Tony Jaa movies (Ong Bak/Thai Warrior, or The Protector) but despite a common country of origin, they're so different that I can't really say that if you like one you'll like the other.  I think if you liked The Professional/Leon/The Cleaner (it goes by several names, depending on the country you're in, but this film with Jean Reno, Gary Oldman and a young Natalie Portman is a phenomenal hitman movie), Bangkok Dangerous might be up your alley.  Or if you want to see a decent independent foreign film.  Otherwise, you'd probably be just as happy with something else.  For me, the film is about 3 stars (middle of the road): the film making itself was good but I like more characterization and/or plot complexity in my movies.