Bangkok Dangerous 2008

Bangkok Dangerous 2008
Directors: The Pang Brothers
Writer: James Richman
Starring Nicolas Cage, Shahkrit Yamnarm, Charlie Yeung, Panward Hemmanee, Nirattisai Kaljaruek, Dom Hetrakul and Steve Baldocchi

The genre of Asian action Cinema has been widely popular for a long time, and in the forefront lately have been the action films coming from Thailand like Ong Bak. Bangkok Dangerous is the latest in the Thailand action films and is a remake of one that was made in 1999. It has by far the best action role since Face/Off. The film has some tremendous action sequences, but also has a heart behind all the action that is rather reminiscent of the Killer. The themes of the film also kind of remind me of the old boxing film, The Champ. The cast is anchored by a solid performance by Nicolas Cage. The rest of the cast is filled with Thailand actors and they help make it seem like the film is totally a foreign affair and that really is what makes the film work so well. The Pang brothers are some of the best directors out of Thailand, as they are behind the compelling and scary The Eye horror series. The way the set up the action along with the conflict that ends the film, is intriguing and really pulls the viewer deeply into the movie.
The plot basics are this, Joe (Cage) is a professional assassin who chooses someone off the street to do errands for him so no one ever knows his true identity and then kills that person when his target is eliminated. His next target takes him to Bangkok, where he then again hires a street kid, Kong (Yamnarm) to run his errands for him. But, after a close call where Kong almost gets killed and he finds out what Joe really is. He asks Joe to train him in the art of being a assassin and at first he is against it, but Kong is stubborn and Joe finally agrees to it. Joe also meets a deaf girl who works at a drugstore and begins courting her, breaking his cardinal rule of never getting involved and showing true feelings. While all this is going on, the people who hired him are breaking his number one rule of anonymity and trying to find out who he is, and this causes Joe to go on the offensive with them. The question is will Joe be able to cover his tracks and survive or is he doomed to die in a hail of gunfire?
This is a excellent action film. The direction by the Pang Brothers is fast and loose. There is a great fluidity to the action scenes. I especially enjoyed the scene on the boat and all the explosions and acrobatic gunplay they used. What also really works is how they slow the action down with the relationship between Joe and Kong and between Joe and the shop girl. It brings some much needed humanity to the film that most action filmmakers like Michael Bay are lacking. The script is solid too. The way it has Joe narrating the story works really well. That is a form of storytelling that always works well for me and it also seems to correlate this film with film noirs. Joe is at first a cipher but as the story progresses he gains some humanity and that is what makes the ending all the more tragic. The cast is excellent. Cage is the anchor of the film and the viewer is totally with him through the entire film. His burgeoning relationship with Kong really works too. You hope that Joe will survive this mission and be able to live a real life after all is said and done. Shahkrit Yamnarm is also great as Kong, the protege to Joe. He is at first very annoying and does not seem all that important to the story, but as the film progresses it becomes more and more apparent that he is a focal point of the film. The SFX and effects of the film are astounding too. Some of the kills are very bloody and are a delight to watch, like Joe's initial assassination in the opening moments of the film. This is a great action film and one of the best I have seen in awhile. For Asian cinema action fans, I highly recommend this one.
This one gets 5 out of 5