A BIGGER BANGKOK

By Ben Walters

Nicolas Cage and Shahkrit Yamnarm in "Bangkok Dangerous, and on set with co-director Oxide Pang.

Posted: 3:23 am
August 31, 2008

"I always think it's interesting to see different cultures cooperating, co-existing and getting along." That's Nicolas Cage talking about the relationship between his hitman character in "Bangkok Dangerous" and his young sidekick, a Thai street kid. But he could also be talking about the process by which the film was made - one that marks a new closeness between the Thai and American film industries.

The story of a loner assassin who learns the value of human relationships, "Bangkok Dangerous" is a remake of a 1999 Thai thriller directed by Danny and Oxide Pang, twin brothers who also directed the Hollywood version.

"Sometimes a foreign director imagines a country to be a certain way and adds the elements of his imagination," they have said. "We tried to shoot this movie in the real Thailand, to show the culture of Thailand and the country's spiritual life."

It's not clear how grateful the Thai tourist board will be for the picture which turns the celebrated Damnoen Saduak Floating Market into a crime scene, but it's notable that the film retains its original Thai locations. Other recent Hollywood remakes of Thai films - such as this year's horror movies "The Eye" (also originally directed by the Pang brothers, and remade by Bollywood as well) and "Shutter" - relocated the action to the US and Japan, respectively.

The 2003 martial-arts action thriller "Ong-bak: Muay Thai Warrior," starring Tony Jaa, first gave Western audiences a window into popular, accessible Thai moviemaking. And other remakes are set to follow.

US studios have already bought the rights to: "6ixtynin9," a thriller about a woman who finds a stash of mob cash after losing her job; "Alone," a conjoined-twin horror flick by the director of the original "Shutter and the supernatural suspense franchise "Art of the Devil."

Although Thai cinema has a rich history reaching back over a century, until now there has been limited interaction between its filmmakers and those from the US. After a number of Thai-American co-productions in the silent era, Thai cinema enjoyed its own Golden Age in the 1930s, with output ranging from musicals to politically rousing features.

Homegrown pictures remained popular in the post-war decades, but rarely reached overseas audiences, so Thai cinema remained largely unknown to American audiences, even as other Asian movies got the Hollywood treatment. Hong Kong's "Infernal Affairs" became Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," and Japanese horror hits like "The Ring" and "The Grudge" were also adapted. "The Lake House" was based on a South Korean picture.

At the front of the Thai wave are the Pang brothers, who have had aptly international careers, including directing in Hollywood (2007's "The Messengers"), and in Hong Kong, where they were born.

In the original "Bangkok Dangerous," the hitman was deaf and mute - a symbol, the brothers said, for his disconnection from the world. Now, Cage's character is set apart by his inability to speak Thai. More and more, however, the two national film industries are speaking each other's language.