Before Danny and Oxide Pang made the jump to Hollywood, they would have done well to speak with some other Asian cinema mainstays that likewise. Ang Lee has done well. His particular brand of complex family melodrama (The Ice Storm), meditation on repressed emotion (Brokeback Mountain), and lyrical romance (anything he's done in any language) suit western critics' tastes and make him a daring filmmaker at home. Ringo Lam and John Woo weren't quite so lucky. Lam's take on the seedy pseudo-noir (City On Fire) didn't translate very well, and it certainly didn't help that he was saddled with Jean-Claude Van Damme. Ditto for Woo, whose balletic gun operas dated quickly; Face/Off doesn't hold up so well a few years later. And it certainly didn't help that he was saddled with Jean-Claude Van Damme.

The Pangs, so far, have taken it slow. Their first foray into big studio filmmaking was the little-seen The Messengers, where the biggest star was Kristen Stewart (the upcoming Twilight), and approval for a remake of their moderate horror hit The Eye. With that in mind, a reboot of their own urban actioner Bangkok Dangerous isn't much of a surprise, what with Hollywood mining every industry it can find for "new" material when they can't find a good comic book. George Sluizer (The Vanishing), Michael Haneke (Funny Games), and Shimizu Takashi (Juon/The Grudge) all met with varying degrees of success when re-interpreting their own material. The biggest challenge is in making a geographically specific narrative work elsewhere. Ghosts just aren't taken as seriously in Middle America as they are in Tokyo.

The original Bangkok Dangerous featured a deaf-mute hitman going about his business in the neon city, falling for a "nice" girl at a pharmacy, and then having an epiphany about his wretched job. He lets go of his baggage and then it all ends miserably. This time around, an American hitman, Joe (Nicolas Cage, in one of the most hang-dog performances ever) is a rather angsty assassin who needs to constantly remind himself of the rules of his particular game - chief among them don't get up close and personal with anyone, and know when to get out. He's chosen one last job - in hitman movies, it's always a last job, the equivalent of pending retirement in buddy cop movies - that has considerable financial benefits. He has four targets, as chosen by local gangster Surat (Nirattisai Kaljaruek). Why Surat wants these guys eliminated is anyone's guess, but it seems that they're "bad guys," if Joe's assistant Kong (the charming Shahkrit Yamnarm) is to be believed. Everything goes according to clockwork until Joe meets Fon (Charlie Yeung), a deaf-mute (convenient for Yeung's likely level of Thai fluency), and kinda, sorta, falls in love with her. Needless to say, Joe has a change of heart and is double-crossed by Surat, which leads to the final showdown. There's really no need to explain how this unfolds.

There are absolutely no surprises in Bangkok Dangerous, but to be fair there were none in the original either. Both films are exercises in atmospheric style with an existential chaser. The difference this time: Joe's a little more mysterious (he has no tragic backstory) and he's blessed with the added bonus of being a proverbial stranger in a strange land. There are hackneyed sentiments regarding the nature of right and wrong, good and bad, and being solitary and being alone, but those flights of philosophic fancy really just lay the groundwork for some creative violence.

Cinematographer Decha Srimantra returns and once again creates an almost surreal, menacing Bangkok that's all grainy, bleached-out blues. The first time around, there was a sweaty, organic tone that told half the story; the second go smacks of a Western, exoticized fantasy of what Bangkok is. Think Chess' "One Night in Bangkok" on the screen. Still, there are more than a few visually striking moments that work in their own right, namely Kong's red light-bathed rescue and Joe's nighttime hit by swimming pool - if you ignore the fact that his hat miraculously stays in place. This reviewer is from Canada and she knows what happens when a toque gets wet.

Clichs that allow the plot to move forward abound in Bangkok Dangerous: A good woman always points the way to redemption, Joe and Kong learn gradual respect, Surat's thugs are lousy shots, etc. Joe's aforementioned moment of clarity is a classic example. It's dragged out for far too long, inspiring the urge to scream, "Shoot the guy!" at the screen. But of course, he can't because then he wouldn't be discovered by security and then couldn't be betrayed by Surat. But narrative logic has never been the Pangs' trademark, and by sticking to what they do best (pretty pictures) and not knuckling under to the convention of anti-hero salvation, Bangkok Dangerous could prove to be a minor downbeat treat.

Bangkok Dangerous opened in Hong Kong on September 4.

(HK Edition 09/05/2008 page4)