Bangkok Dangerous ***½ (1999, Pawarith Monkolpisit, Premsinee Ratanasopha, Patharawarin Timkul) – Classic Movie Review 2016

The Pang Brothers make an international splash with their joint directing debut, this stylish looking, atmospheric, deliriously violent and luridly sentimental 1999 gangster thriller about the life, loves and crimes of a Bangkok deaf-mute hitman and his partner. It is both written and directed by Oxide Pang and Danny Pang.

It stars Pawarith Monkolpisit (as Kong), Premsinee Ratanasopha (as Fon), Pisek Intrakanchit (as Jo) and Patharawarin Timkul (as Aom).

A box office and critical success, it swept all the major awards at the Thai Academy, including best picture, director, actor and editing, and won the Fipresci Foreign Press Award at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2000. The Foreign Press said this ‘fiercely assured movie is beautifully crafted, with a deft eye on the sights and sounds of Bangkok, and shows a love of the poetics of cinema and of violence.’

The Pang Brothers directed a big-budgeted remake of this 1999 Thai thriller in 2008 with Nicolas Cage.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 2016

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