Movie Review: Bangkok Dangerous (2008) directed by Oxide Chun Pang and Danny Pang
Joe (Nicolas Cage) is very good at his job. Very professional. He stays anonymous, doesn’t ask questions, doesn’t get personally involved with people, and erases all traces. This is very important to be a successful international hitman. How did he get into the business? How do his clients hire him? How do his clients even know he exists? Not important. We see him complete an assignment in Prague, then murder his go-between, the one person who’s seen his face in this country, with a drug overdose.
Still, the profession’s beginning to get to him, and it’s time to get out. He’s got a contract for four hits in Bangkok, Thailand, and this one last job will net him enough money to retire on. Wait. Dangerous occupation? One last job? Action movie? I think I know where this is going.
After some scouting, Joe picks out local pickpocket and street grifter Kong (Shahkrit Yamnarm) as his courier to make contact with the client. Kong…means well, but is a bit of a weak link. He gets the hots for Aom (Panward Hemmanee), the exotic dancer who acts as the client’s go-between. She’s not entirely resistant to his charms. But he also owes money to bad people who mug him. He manages to get away, but the case is damaged and Kong realizes Joe is an assassin, and the very bad man whose picture is inside is the target.
Kong, who despite his entire life to this point is still something of an idealist, asks Joe to train him. Joe knows he should just kill Kong now, but takes pity on the young man and starts treating him as a protege. Joe also starts a relationship with Fon (Charlie Yeung), a deaf-mute pharmacist he meets. It turns out to be harder to keep his professional and personal lives separate than he had hoped.
Meanwhile, mob boss Surat (Nirattisai Kaljareuk), the client, knows that the final hit will be too hot for Joe not to be a liability afterwards, and plans a double cross with the aid of his lieutenant Aran (Dom Hetrakul). Who, if anyone, will be left standing?
This movie is a remake of the Pang Brothers’ 1999 Thai film of the same name for the American market. Sadly, I have not seen the original to compare. From descriptions, it appears quite a bit was rearranged, starting with making the lead a hearing and speaking American rather than a deaf-mute Thai man.
Good: Excellent pacing, use of scenery and action sequences. I can see why Oxide is considered an outstanding director.
Nic Cage is mostly well-used in an underacting manner–a man who’s largely made himself dead inside in order to be able to do his horrible job at peak performance. But he’s fraying at the edges, and the cracks in his emotional armor keep getting wider. We also learn that political assassination isn’t normally in his wheelhouse. As discussed in Suddenly, it’s easy to kill major politicians, but almost impossible to get away afterwards.
Yamnarm is also quite good as Kong. He’s not a good person, but would like to be. He jumps to the conclusion that Joe only kills bad people, (darkly humorous since we know that Joe fully intends to kill him) and is hopeful that maybe the politician he likes will be the one person in government who isn’t completely corrupt.
Yeung is charming as Fon, who needs to use body language, facial expressions and sign language (which is not translated well) to communicate her feelings. The romance gives the director a chance to show off some of the nice touristy parts of Bangkok in addition to the sleazy areas usually seen in Thai action movies.
Less good: Cage and Yeung have no chemistry as a couple, and I found Fon being willing to give Joe the time of day the least believable part of the movie. Aom is basically eye candy, rather than a character in her own right.
Silly thought: Given the complete blankness of his background, one can imagine this Joe being an alternate universe version of the one from Joe; there are certain echoes in their characters.
Content note: Lots of violence, often lethal, sometimes gory (including a severed limb.) Suicide. Extramarital sex (on screen, no genitals), nudity, mention of human trafficking. Physical abuse, implied torture. Drug abuse. Rough language (you can learn some Thai obscenities.) This is a hard “R” so not for younger or sensitive viewers.
Overall: This was apparently a box office bomb, I think rather unjustly. (Nic Cage had a career slump afterwards that may have made this disappear down the memory hole.) The action bits are good, the romance bits don’t quite work. Recommended primarily to Nicolas Cage fans, and to action fans (but the hardcore action fans who are okay with subtitles might want to see the original instead.)
