5.10.08

Bangkok Dangerous: Too Dangerous To Watch

“My name is Joe,” says the all-too-familiar, droopy, slow voice. “And this is what I do.” If his calling is making Bangkok Dangerous a bad film, then he’s right.

A remake of a Thai thriller by its original makers no less, Bangkok Dangerous tells the story of a hitman, Joe (Nicolas Cage), who goes to Bangkok for a month-long assignment to kill four people for a gang lord. The original film’s main character is a deaf-mute hitman whose disability makes him a fearless, unflinching gunman. Unable to hear the mercy cries of his victims, he is a ruthless killing machine.

In the remake, we get Nicolas Cage who is anything but ruthless. Cage decimates people on screen with his guns blazing and audiences at home with his overt under-acting. It’s a shame to see him doing roles like these when we’ve seen him do so much better. Matchstick Men, Adaptation, City of Angels and Leaving Las Vegas are just a few that show off his acting prowess, and it’s not like he can’t act in action adventures either. Films like The Rock and the National Treasure franchise prove that he can bring his game even when the going gets tough. But frankly, Cage falls flat on his face here.

Joining Cage on the acting reins is Shahkrit Yamnarm who plays Kong, a petty thief who helps Joe along with small jobs. Yamnarm is an established Thai actor and holds up against the likes of Cage on screen, but with Cage doing such a bad job, it’s no wonder actors like Yamnarm are called “supporting” actors. To help with the “support” is Charlie Yeung Choi-Nei, a Hong Kong actress, whose character is Cage’s love interest and the obligatory pretty face.

The Pang Brothers directed the original and they’re no stranger to Hollywood re-making their originals. Danny Pang Fat and Oxide Pang Chun startled audiences with a new kind of horror with their hit, The Eye. Spawning two lackluster sequels, the duo sold the re-make rights to Hollywood and we got the terrible US re-make with Jessica Alba in the lead role. But for Bangkok Dangerous, they were given the opportunity by Cage to direct the remake themselves, since the Oscar-winning actor had purchased the rights.

Remakes are tricky business. Like the sword that cuts both ways, film-makers have to be careful with the amount of changes that they make or not. A bad example of a remake would be Godzilla. The 1999 film by the people that brought us Independence Day, Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, wasn’t much different and the acting was sub par, even by the CGI monster. A good example of a remake would be The Departed. Originally, titled Internal Affairs, this 2002 Hong Kong blockbuster’s remake in 2006 gave director Martin Scorcese his first Oscar and widespread critical and blockbuster acclaim.

Coming back to Bangkok Dangerous, this film is vastly inferior to the original. For one, Cage’s choice to star as the lead defeats the purpose of the original character. “We’d like to keep him the same, but we understand that from a marketing point of view Nic needs to have some lines,” Oxide Pang Chun told International Herald Tribune. And by giving his character lines they ultimately ended up changing the entire concept of the original plot.

For a moment let’s forget this is actually a remake. But looking at it from a completely open perspective doesn’t even change a thing. The film or perhaps the directors don’t ask anything from Cage. They have at their disposal one of the better actors (forget the fact that he makes bad film choices) and they let him sleepwalk through scene after scene.

It’s a shame to see Cage doing roles like these when we’ve seen him do so much better. Matchstick Men, Adaptation, City of Angels and Leaving Las Vegas are just a few that show off his acting prowess, and it’s not like he can’t act in action adventures either. Films like The Rock and the National Treasure franchise prove that he can bring his game even when the going gets tough. But frankly, he falls flat on his face in Bangkok Dangerous.

The story isn’t given time to develop, the characters appear and disappear which is disappointing as the best action films give their characters room to breathe. On the contrary, Bangkok Dangerous chokes the very life out of its characters with its plot threads.

Understandably, critics round the world have panned the film. Nahtan Lee of the New York Times writes: “Of all the shoddy, insipid qualities of Bangkok Dangerous, the most egregious is the most fundamental: The film is simply dreadful to look at. We have at long last reached the nadir of the Malnourished Mood at the cinema, that sickly palate of grimy greens and blues, ubiquitous since The Matrix, employed by thrillers with atmospheric pretensions.” The film looks like something is about to happen — you can feel the tension mounting only to have the bubble burst by the annoying pin of anti-climax.

Hollywood powerhouse magazine gives a similar critique, “Heavy on the spice and cheap on the meat, Bangkok Dangerous adds plenty of Thai seasoning to the Hollywood lone-assassin recipe, but the result is only mildly pungent. Rehashing certain elements — including striking location shooting — that marked their much grittier 1999 feature of the same title, Hong Kong’s Pang brothers increase the decibel level of the gunshots and the schmaltz level of the scenario, but such embellishments, not to mention a Nicolas Cage doused with Clairol, make this hefty remake seem less dangerous than incongruous. Low September B.O. body count should be surpassed by acceptable ancillary returns.”

The film grossed $7.8 million in its opening weekend, which was good enough for the studio to get its money back but not good enough for it to regain the entire $40 million. It was also the lowest grossing films to reach the No. 1 spot.

If you have to see a good action movie with Nicolas Cage in it, this is probably not the one for you. You’re better off trying to see Next which was released earlier this year or the National Treasure sequel which was surprisingly much better than Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

All in all, you’re better off renting Bangkok Dangerous when there’s nothing else to watch and preferably watch it with friends. At least that way there will be fun on the expense of Cage’s bad acting, receding hairline and haircut, and awful costumes.
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Soulspeakers: Kaavish and their debut album Gunkali...

“I can’t imagine us on billboards holding mobile phones or something,” scoffs singer/pianist Jaffer. Maaz, sitting next to me, shakes his head imagining it, “No way, that’s just not right.” Raheel would also agree with both his band members.

Sitting in Faisal Rafi’s studio, I’m flanked by two members of Kaavish. Drummer Raheel is at work but was kind enough to speak to me afterwards, and he too agreed: As a band, the last thing on their minds right now is fame. They are busy at the studio polishing away track after track of their debut album, Gunkali.

And what a time it has been. After a long and tedious wait the album is now in final stages of production. “Well, we did say that the last time and that was a couple of months ago,” quips Maaz, “but hopefully, we’ll get it out after Ramazan.” And the young guitarist seems confident that it will be so because Kaavish has come a long way from when the band first started to work on this album some six years ago.

Says Jaffer, “It wasn’t until two years ago that we figured out what we wanted to do with the album. Before that we hadn’t even decided that the sound was going to be live.” A fateful intervention by Omar Anwar introduced the band to producer Faisal Rafi, and it was then that the proverbial ball started to roll.

Rafi is responsible for the Indus Music Project. He usually maintains his privacy and shirks from the limelight. Jaffer recollects how they started the collaboration, “Faisal wasn’t doing any commercial projects at the time so we were lucky that he took an interest and helped us out.” With the start of the collaboration the band took a do-or-die attitude towards making the album. “We had no excuses after we had booked a shift with Faisal. We had to show up, play and get things done.” says Jaffer.

But getting things done was a bit tricky for Raheel. “It was my last year studying abroad,” the drummer says, adding, “I could only come back during the summers, which is when I’d lay down the tracks for the drums, do shows or anything else that was required.”

Though Raheel’s involvement was actually limited, it didn’t mean he was cut off from the group in any way. In fact, he was privy to a very interesting point of view, one that his fellow band members didn’t see. “When I came back and I heard the sound again, it was a vast improvement. The sound had progressed thanks to Faisal.”

Listening to the tracks, one can tell that the chemistry between the band and the producer is clearly there. The resulting sound is probably the most organic yet to be heard with every instrument being played live. This real sound reaches out to the listener and evokes a myriad of emotions...but more on the album later.

Faisal Rafi’s involvement changed the entire element of the album for the band. “Before we came here (to Faisal) we would ask friends, musicians to tell us about our music.” Jaffer relates. “Although our friends loved our music, we couldn’t get a critique out of them. That’s where Faisal came in. He critiqued us and we needed that.” Raheel adds, “We got a grander, richer sound as he opened us up as musicians.”


For Kaavish, live sound is important. “If it hasn’t been played by a real person,” Maaz says, “there’s just no feeling in it.” However, the sound isn’t what describes Kaavish’s music. I asked the band what would be that one word that describes it. Initially, all three of them didn’t know what to say as it’s not easy for them to limit themselves to one particular word. Then they went on to say how they’d like their music to ‘speak to the soul’.

The three tracks that have made Kaavish familiar to the masses underwent a re-thinking process. Says Jaffer, “It wasn’t a re-thinking, actually. What happened was that we were now looking at things from a proper recording process. We had access to a live recording studio and with that we just had to arrange the songs in a different manner, particularly towards a live sound.”

“It was just a tweaking of the instrumentations, and bit by bit the sound changed from electronic to live,” adds Raheel.

For Kaavish, live sound is important. “If it hasn’t been played by a real person,” Maaz says, “there’s just no feeling in it.” However, the sound isn’t what describes Kaavish’s music. I asked the band members what would be that one word that describes it. Initially, all three of them didn’t know what to say as it’s not easy for them to limit themselves to one particular word. Then the band members went on to discuss how they’d like their music to ‘speak to the soul’.

“We’re trying to revive tradition, of how they did it in the old days with the melodies and the compositions, and so on and so forth.” Jaffer’s sentiments are understandable, considering the fact that he is the son of Nayyara Noor, the venerable ghazal singer. And Maaz, having being friends with Jaffer for nearly a decade, echoes the singer’s sentiments. The discovery of Raheel — who also agrees to the acoustic sound — is what completes them as a band.

The conception of this album and of each song is a very interesting process. “We didn’t write the lyrics beforehand, all we had were compositions,” says Jaffer. “One of us would play something and we’d like the melody and then work the sound around it.” But Kaavish isn’t alone on this album. “Anwar Maqsood has written two tracks for us, my mother has written two tracks, and so has my father…and Maaz has written a track, too!” While Raheel was away in Canada, he had help back at home. “Gumby was kind enough to fill in the drums while I was away. He’s done a tremendous job.” Besides them, guitarists Shallum Xavier and Aamer Zaki also contributed.

Any musical band’s journey cannot be complete until they’ve recorded an album. After having signed a record deal, were Kaavish under pressure to release the album immediately? “They (the company) knew we’d been working on it for nearly six years now and that they might as well wait out the smaller delays.”

The band members usher me into the studio where we listen to six out of the 10 tracks. Sitting at the helm of the controls, Faisal Rafi doesn’t speak much about the songs but his mannerism shows that he’s quite proud of Kaavish. We hear Dekho first, a quiet, melodic track that not only showcases the talents of the band but also the sound. Listening to it, one can understand how such music would speak to the soul. Dil Mein is where we hear the classical sound, a sound from years past echoing its way towards the present where it meets with the contemporary, and a guitar solo by Aamer Zaki himself. Sun Zara, penned by Anwar Maqsood is the first upbeat song on the album. It is an optimistic track, quite appropriately titled since Kaavish wishes to speak to its listeners.

Speaking of the production, Faisal Rafi finally says, “It should sound like it’s performed live.”

Chand Taare is a song that stands out. “We needed to have a song like this,” Jaffer says about the need for at least one commercial track, “so we’ve put it in as the first track to get it over with as quickly as possible.” Bachpan is a track which was re-processed for the album. Says Raheel, “It was an older sound, we had changed so much with Faisal that we had to re-process it to fit it in this album.” Finally we hear Chaltay Rahe, a poignant track with traces of classical music but a powerful contemporary base.

Kaavish as a band has come far with Gunkali, an album that has been six years in the making. Both have seen tremendous change, along with the surroundings and the music industry, too. Now the only thing left is for audiences to listen to the sound that will, in all possibility, talk to their souls.
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