"P" -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 10/17/09

 

 

A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing, especially if the subject is witchcraft. In the Thai horror film "P" (2005), a backwoods village girl named Aaw is taught the ways of magic by her aging grandmother, but unfortunately for her, she pays more attention to the "do's" than she does to the "don'ts." And when she starts practicing magic on her own, those don'ts get her in a bloody heap o' trouble.

The naive, innocent Aaw is thrust into the sinful and decadent world of Bangkok go-go bars when she must earn money to pay for her ailing grandmother's medicine. The timid girl, renamed Dau by her new boss Mamasang, soon discovers that pole-dancing isn't her only occupation when a wealthy foreigner (director Spurrier) takes her to his hotel room and helps himself to her virginity. Dau's sympathetic roommate Pookie (Opal) shows her the ropes while diva-ish May (Narisara Sairatanee) and her snarky friends New and Mee develop an instant dislike for the country girl.

Growing jealous of May, Dau begins to use her magic to make herself more desirable. When May sabotages Dau's attempt to become a featured dancer, Dau casts a spell on her that has horrifying results. While continuing to use her powers unwisely, she also manages to inadvertently break the three cardinal rules of witchcraft, leaving her vulnerable to invasion by an evil spirit. When this occurs, Dau is transformed into a vile creature of unspeakable evil who prowls the night feasting on the flesh and blood of her victims. While New and Mee frantically seek the help of a boozed-up old witch doctor to protect them, Pookie tries to cure Dau of her affliction herself but may end up as her next meal instead.

A fascination with both Thai ghost legend and the Bangkok go-go bar scene prompted writer-director Paul Spurrier to become the first Westerner ever to direct a Thai film. Beautifully shot in Cinemascope, the lighting and cinematography are meticulous and Spurrier's direction is stylish but low-key. The story is deliberately-paced and only gradually works its way into real horror territory--without the supernatural elements, much of it would work simply as a borderline soft-porn portrait of a young girl's transformation from a timid waif into a calculating exhibitionist selling herself for money. (Sort of like an art house version of SHOWGIRLS or STRIPTEASE.) But this aspect of Dau's saga becomes the slow-burning fuse that will ignite a series of chilling supernatural setpieces.

By modern standards, the carnage is relatively restrained and much is suggested rather than explicitly shown. Spurrier isn't out to gut-punch us with gore but would rather give us an extreme case of the creeps, which he succeeds in doing pretty well. Although I've seen scarier Asian fright films that affected me a lot more deeply, the ghost-possessed Dau is a pretty memorable horror character. There are the usual jack-in-the-box jump scares, in addition to several spooky images such as the glowing-eyed Dau floating after a fleeing victim or lurking on a shadowy ceiling like a spider. Spurrier's original score adds to the effectiveness of these scenes.

First-time actress Suangporn Jaturaphut, who was only seventeen at the time, gives a solid performance as Dau and is convincing in each stage of the character. Opal is funny and endearing as the flighty go-go bar veteran Pookie, with whom we begin to sympathize more and more as she risks her own life to help Dau. Spurrier and his friend Dean Barrett, an unabashed fan of the Bangkok go-go bar scene in real life, ably portray a couple of typical rich, horny customers--the latter is featured in a grinning, hairy-shouldered closeup from the reclining Dau's POV that is one of the film's most unsettling images.

The DVD from Palisades Tartan Asia Extreme has an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo sound. Language is the original Thai with English subtitles. Director Spurrier offers an intimate and informative commentary track. There's a very brief "Behind the Scenes" clip, production photos, the theatrical trailer and teaser, and a featurette, "Soi Cowboy Go-Go Bars", in which host Dean Barrett gives us a tour of some of his favorite carnal nightspots. A music video for Underground's awesome end credits song "Rawang" features a slow, sensuous dance by Suangporn Jaturaphut as "Dau", interspersed with scenes from the movie. I prefer the actual end credits version in which the hypnotically gorgeous dance sequence plays uninterrupted.

With its story of a young witch coming to the big city to ply a new trade while learning to develop her supernatural powers (only to find them going distressingly awry), "P" is almost like a shadowy flipside to KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE. But more than that, it's also a deliciously dark and erotic visual confection that should have your blood running hot and cold at the same time.

Official site

"P" -- DVD Review by Porfle

BORN TO FIGHT -- DVD Review by Porfle

Panna Rittikrai is the godfather of Thai action flicks--he's written, directed, choreographed, and/or starred in fifty of them over the past twenty-five years, most notably ONG-BAK and THE PROTECTOR starring his protege' Tony Jaa. (I know all this stuff because I just looked it up on the Internet.) In 1984 he directed and starred in his first film, BORN TO FIGHT, (aka Gerd Ma Lui), featuring some of the most amazing stunts I've ever seen. Which is good, because if this movie had to get by on its acting, story, and production values, it would probably be lining a cat box somewhere at this very moment.

Panna plays Tong (or "Tony" as he's called in the badly-dubbed English soundtrack), a former cop who has been called back into action to protect Sianfong, a lawyer for a wealthy Hong Kong family. Sianfong has come across some documents revealing that Tungseung, the Yang family's eldest son-in-law, has been embezzling from the family fortune for years. Tungseung puts out a contract on Sianfong and enlists his old gang, the Green Dragons, to carry it out. After Sianfong flees to Thailand, Tong must track him down and keep the Green Dragons from getting their mitts on him.

The opening scenes of Sianfong discovering the documents and subsequently having to flee for his life look like an old Super-8 home movie from the 60s that somebody dug out of their closet. The source print used for this DVD is pretty beat-up, which only compounds the overall ineptness of the direction and photography. I'm willing to cut low-budget filmmakers a lot of slack, but this is as bad as it gets--I kept expecting to see the MST3K guys at the bottom of the screen, doing a running commentary.

When the Green Dragon boys show up at a warehouse on the trail of Sianfong, we get our first taste of the kind of action we can expect from BORN TO FIGHT. And although the camerawork and editing leave much to be desired, the fight choreography and stunts are awesome. Rarely have I seen stuntmen risk physical injury with such abandon. These guys actually punch and kick the crap out of each other, with several of the best blows repeated, at various speeds, up to three times--and sometimes we see two different takes of the same stunt back-to-back.

As the movie progresses and Tong proves to be a magnet for every two-fisted punk who lays eyes on him, the stuntwork keeps getting cranked up to a point where we often see things that we doubt the stuntman was able to walk away from. One guy wrecks his motorcycle, flies over the handlebars, and crashes through a billboard onto solid ground several feet below it. Another motorcycle gag shows the stuntman doing a head-on with a pickup truck and flying over it, again landing on solid ground. Not only do these guys eschew wirework and other fakery, they also work without a net.

A 35-minute bonus featurette called "Fearless Maniacs" shows young men coming from all over to audition as stunt performers in this and other films like it, and I got the impression that they'd do anything to be in the movies, regardless of the possible consequences. This suspicion seems to be borne out by the reckless abandon displayed by the stuntmen in many of these hair-raising action scenes.

The hand-to-hand fights are filmed in long takes with extensive choreography that is expertly performed, especially by Panna Rittikrai. He may not be much of an actor, but as a fighter he really knows his stuff and gets plenty of chances to demonstrate it. I haven't mentioned the plot of this movie much, and I'm not going to because it really doesn't matter. It's just an excuse for a succession of fights and stunts, all of which are a lot of fun to watch. Besides, the story is boring, and Tong's comedy-relief sidekick, Ruay, makes Jerry Lewis look like Sir Cedric Hardwicke.

I can't give BORN TO FIGHT a very high score because, as a movie, it's just awful. But the fights and stunts that appear frequently throughout are sufficient reason to give it a look--especially if you're an aficionado of either Asian action cinema or really bad movies.

Features:
Languages: Thai (Dolby Digital 2.0 - Stereo - Dual Mono)
English (Dolby Digital 2.0 - Stereo)
Subtitles: English
Full Screen/Stereo/Mono
Interview With Tony Jaa & Panna Rittikrai (16 mins.)
Interview With Producer Chokchai Melewan (4 mins.)
"Fearless Maniacs" Featurette (35 mins.)
"Ong Bak" Spoof (14 mins.)
"Ong Bak" Commercial Spoof (33 secs.)

BORN TO FIGHT -- DVD Review by Porfle

MUAY THAI GIANT -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/22/11

 

An odd buffet of kid-friendly comedy, violent crime, and bone-crushing fight action, MUAY THAI GIANT (aka "Somtum", 2008) goes down pretty easy. 

Seven-foot-tall former wrestler Nathan Jones (THE CONDEMNED, THE PROTECTOR) plays Barney Emerald, an Australian tourist stranded in Thailand without money or passport after being mugged.  When Dokya (Sasisa Jindamanee, BORN TO FIGHT) and her adopted sister Katen (Nawarat Techarathanaprasert) are menaced by thugs in an alley, they run to Barney for help, but he turns out to be as meek as a kitten despite his size.

The girls take Barney to their mother's humble cafe' where he is urged to try some of her somtum.  The spicy dish drives him wild and he wrecks the place in a fit of mindless rage.  Vowing to pay for the damages, Barney enters a local fight competition but is a washout.  Kickboxer Dokya is also thwarted when her larger male opponent cheats.  During the fight, pickpocket Katen steals a key from some jewel thieves and our heroes get caught up in a major heist operation with some ruthless characters.  Will Barney conquer his fears and come through for the girls?

As the gentle giant Barney, Nathan Jones is a likable lug who takes to this sort of light comedy pretty well--his early scene with a tiny, curious girl in a police station waiting room is charming--and is convincing enough as a lily-livered lummox.  He seems to enjoy playing the pratfalling oaf who shrinks from violence until his character gets a mouthful of somtum and goes Popeye on the bad guys.  One of the film's funniest moments is a fantasy segment in which he imagines himself earning extra money as a male stripper.



Jones also has great chemistry with the two young female leads, who are exceptional actresses both in the lighter moments and the more dramatic ones.  Nawarat Techarathanaprasert handles the latter with the most feeling, while junior national Muay Thai kickboxing champion Sasisa Jindamanee throws herself into the frenetic fight scenes like an old pro.

Thai action legend Panna Rittikrai, the film's fight coordinator, comes through with a series of clashes that combine slapstick with his trademark hard-hitting style.  Food is a major theme with one fight taking place in a kitchen and involving various cooking utensils as well as some blinding lime juice, with guest star Dan Chupong (ONG BAK series) managing to dice a few vegetables while mopping the floor with various opponents.  Later, Dokya is accosted again by neighborhood thugs in a sidewalk marketplace and gets some help from Kessarin Ektawatkul (CHAI LAI ANGELS, FINAL TARGET) as a papaya vendor who uses her wares as high-speed projectiles. 

Everything leads up to the climactic free-for-all between the good guys and the diamond thieves in a wild mish-mash of Muay Thai, wrestling, and the kind of go-for-broke stunts common to many Thai action films (along with a few instances of realistic gangster-style violence that seem somewhat out of place).  Here we get to see the kind of dazzling stunts and choreography that we're used to seeing from Panna Rittikrai, as the actors and stunt players perform with fearless abandon.
 


Obvious wirework is kept to a minumum and the main emphasis is on sheer physical mayhem and destruction, with Sasisa Jindamanee getting right into the middle of things along with the big boys.  Jones finally gets to show his stuff when a fresh dose of spicy somtum turns him into a rampaging human rhinoceros who takes on a private jet full of escaping bad guys head-on.

The DVD from Magnolia's Magnet label is in 1.78:1 widescreen with English and Thai Dolby 5.1 sound and subtitles in English and Spanish.  Extras consist of "making of" and "behind the scenes" featurettes, the international trailer, and trailers from other Magnet releases.

A lightweight comedy that never takes itself too seriously, MUAY THAI GIANT also has its heartfelt moments as well thanks to some appealing performers playing likable characters.  Best of all, it delivers a full order of the kind of action that should leave wrestling and kickboxing fans well satisfied.

MUAY THAI GIANT -- DVD Review by Porfle

ONG BAK 3 -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 2/10/11

Martial arts superstar Tony Jaa and his mentor Panna Rittikrai have collaborated once again to give us ONG BAK 3 (2010), the final film in the trilogy they began in 2003.  While pretty to look at, you have to wait for the fists and feet to start flying before things get really interesting.

Taking place once again in 15th-century Thailand and resuming where the previous film left off, the evil Lord Rajasena (Sarunyu Wongkrajang) has captured Tien (Jaa) and orders every bone in his body broken.  Tien doesn't submit to this quietly, hence the film's first frenetic fight scene which is pretty impressive.  What follows after he's subdued is a gratuitous martyrdom sequence that may remind you of PASSION OF THE CHRIST, especially since Tien is later resurrected after his body is returned to his village. 

In addition to this prolonged execution scene, the subsequent passages showing Tien's agonizing struggle to recover from his injuries and regain his fighting abilities show the tendency of directors Jaa and Rittikrai to overdramatize.  Heavily stylized almost to abstraction, these fever dream-like scenes come at us one after another with a vengeance, striving for one emotional crescendo after another until the viewer is numbed by them.
 

It's almost as though the film itself were a hardnosed drill sergeant relentlessly prodding our emotions along--"FEEL, two, three, four!"--with the grandiose musical score working overtime to drive it all home.  Sometimes this works, but at other times, such as when Tien's beloved Pim (Primorata Dejudom) urgently sings while Tien lurches his way through dance therapy, come off as somewhat goofy.  A later, quieter scene with Pim and a recovering Tien sharing a romantic dance together turns into yet another superficial slow-motion montage of lap-dissolving images rather than a truly meaningful exchange.

Despite all of this, however, ONG BAK 3 turns into a real dynamo whenever the action kicks in. The creepy Crow Ghost, Bhuti Sangkha (Dan Chupong), a supernatural entity who takes on Lord Rajasena in his quest for power, has a ruthless fighting style and plows through scores of opponents with acrobatic abandon.  When he usurps Rajasena's crown and kidnaps the people of Tien's village (including Pim) as slaves, Tien wages a spectacular one-man battle against his guards that ends with a showdown between him and Crow Ghost that pulls out all the stops.

This fight sequence takes place amidst several elephants with the participants coming dangerously close to getting trampled at times.  The huge beasts figure into the action in other surprising ways as well, as stuntmen bounce off of them like rag dolls or swing on their tusks to launch themselves at each other.


You really have to hand it to these fearless Thai stuntmen who literally throw themselves into their work with such reckless abandon--several times I had to rewind and watch certain stunts over again just to make sure I really saw someone do something that dangerous.  With masters of such stunning physical prowess as Jaa and Chupong working with these amazing and dedicated stunt performers, and directors that know how to shoot it all to its best advantage, the thrilling fight sequences are truly a wonder to behold. 

The DVD from Magnolia's "Magnet" label is in 2.35:1 widescreen with Thai and English soundtracks (Dolby 5.1 and 2.0) and English and Spanish subtitles.  Extras consist of the brief featurette "HDNet: A Look at Ong Bak 3" and a trailer.

ONG BAK 3 is extravagantly photographed but rarely reaches the emotional intensity it labors to achieve.  Only when Tony Jaa cranks it up and dazzles us with those famous martial arts moves does the film become as much fun to watch as we want it to be, and when it does, it's riveting.

ONG BAK 3 -- DVD Review by Porfle

CHAI LAI ANGELS: DANGEROUS FLOWERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 12/9/09

 

 

Judging by the cover art and synopsis, the Thai action-comedy CHAI LAI ANGELS: DANGEROUS FLOWERS (2006) looked so dumb that I expected to have a fun time by not taking it too seriously. After a few minutes, however, it became clear that the only way to enjoy this movie at all is to take it super-duper unseriously, and even then you might have trouble sticking with it to the end.

The story concerns five beautiful (more or less) female agents who live in a mansion, work for a mysterious slob (Petchtai Wongkamlao, ONG-BAK) who sends them on various missions, and are all code-named after flowers. Rose, Lotus, Hibiscus, Pouy-sian, and Spadix are ordered to prevent the Dragon crime syndicate from kidnapping a litle girl named Miki who knows the secret location of an enormous pearl of great value--removal of which from its ocean environment may upset the balance of nature and destroy the ecosystem.

Of course, Miki gets kidnapped and the Chai Lais must spend the rest of the movie trying to get her back while battling the Dragon minions, including a big, prissy transvestite named King Kong and Miki's evil stepmother Mei Ling, who's in on the whole thing. Along the way they encounter a band of super-powerful bounty hunters and an army of what appear to be rejects from the Crazy 88s, while still finding time to fall in love, dance around in skimpy clothes, and look semi-fabulous.

I wasn't sure exactly what the movie's tone was going to be until I started to hear cartoon sound effects during the first kidnapping attempt on a plane. This scene lets us know right off the bat that whenever an action sequence is about to start, all the cameramen suddenly spaz out and start doing the watusi. Rarely have I seen such seriously bad Shaky-Cam, rendering much of what's going on almost incomprehensible and a real headache to try and follow. This occurs in every action scene, which is a major detriment that gives the entire film an overall slapdash quality.

With better direction and choreography, some of this stuff might've been almost spectacular. There's lots of promise to these setpieces, particularly the one in which the Chai Lais are attacked at a beauty spa and must go into battle in the middle of a shopping mall dressed only in towels. A car chase through city traffic has them hanging from a speeding van and leaping from vehicle to vehicle with some impressive stuntwork. Again, however, we're left with dizzying camerawork that turns everything into a kinetic mush.

The fights themselves feature very little actual choreography--they're mainly just a lot of very simple moves edited together. The only person who looks like she's really performing anything of this nature is Miki, who proves quite a handful to her captors. Her fight against a mob of bad guys is pretty funny, especially when some over-the-top wirework has her leaping over their heads and spin-kicking them all into dreamland like a top.

There are the occasional seriocomic romantic interludes thrown in here and there, mainly between Rose and her boyfriend Gus. Her job as a Chai Lai Angel will become a sticking point in their marriage plans, especially after the Dragons capture him to use as a hostage. This subplot provides the film with one of its few really serious moments. Hibiscus, who's cute and shy even though their boss says she has a "hillbilly face", finds herself the object of affection from a handsome young cop who gets involved in the whole mess.

The level of humor varies wildly between occasionally clever parody of films such as CHARLIE'S ANGELS and the kind of live-action superhero stuff Filmation used to do on Saturday mornings, with generous dollops of Adam West-style "Batman" silliness mixed in. SCTV's Johnny LaRue seems to be behind some of the more girlie-show sequences such as Rose's underwear bedroom dance to the film's theme song. Lotus' club dance inside a big plastic ball is also way hot, and of course the girls end up in bikinis before it's over.

Some of the slapstick becomes quite violent as King Kong gets shot, loses body parts, and gets squirted in the face with his own blood, all for comic effect. A late character in the film, King Kong's dimwitted, severely crosseyed protege, ends up shooting him every time she aims at someone else. She and Miki, who's such an effective fighter that she eventually joins the Chai Lais herself, are probably the funniest characters in the film.

The DVD from Magnolia's Magnet label is in 1.78:1 widescreen with Dolby 5.1. You can listen to the original Thai soundtrack with English or Spanish subtitles, or an English dub. Extras include about fifteen minutes of cast interviews, two "Spice Girls"-style music videos, and an international trailer.

CHAI LAI ANGELS: DANGEROUS FLOWERS is a loud, colorful mess of a movie that is lighthearted dumb fun one minute and cheap-looking tedium the next. It's loaded with action, but it's so poorly shot that you might go crosseyed yourself trying to focus on what's going on. And it's so cartoonish at times that it almost makes CHARLIE'S ANGELS look like CASINO ROYALE.

CHAI LAI ANGELS: DANGEROUS FLOWERS -- DVD Review by Porfle

SICK NURSES -- movie review by porfle

 

(This review has appeared online in 2007 and again in 2012.)


SICK NURSES (2007) is a mind-boggling horror flick from Thailand that plays around with all those Asian ghost-story cliches and offers some of the most flabbergasting, over-the-top death scenes I've seen in quite a while.  It's a wickedly fun tale of revenge, summed up pretty well by Michael Madsen's "Budd" in KILL BILL:  "That woman deserves her revenge...and we deserve to die."  But Budd got off easy in that movie, because if he'd been in this one, he would've ended up worse off than Paula Schultz.

Dr. Tar (Wichan Jarujinda) is a celebrated young doctor who's engaged to the lovely nurse Tahwaan (Chon Wachananon).  But when she catches him fooling around with another nurse--her own sister, Nook (Chidjan Rujiphun)--she goes ballistic and threatens to expose the dirty secret that he sells bodies on the side.  As the rest of the nurses hold Tahwaan down, one of them stabs her to death.  Exactly seven days later, right before midnight, the ghost of Tahwaan returns to the hospital to wreak bloody vengeance upon Dr. Tar and the other nurses. 

This is one weird, gory, surrealistic movie.  Tahwaan's ghost is jet-black with piercing eyes and long, long black hair, which she uses for all sorts of fun things like cocooning people or hanging them from the ceiling.  And that's just for starters.  She can also turn your arms and hands black and take control of them, causing you do commit grave and usually very ironic injury to yourself.  A bulemic nurse who spends most of her time binging and purging ends up stuffing herself with some extremely unhealthy items until her jaw-dropping demise, while a couple of cute twins who deeply admire one another's beauty are eventually compelled to lay into each other with hacksaws.  As for Nook, who is pregnant with Dr. Tar's child...well, you can imagine her ironic fate.

The setting is what must be the emptiest hospital since HALLOWEEN II--there isn't a patient in sight--and the nurses all seem to have their own private, girly bedrooms and don't ever actually do anything except scamper around in sexy uniforms.  It's more like a big giddy sorority house run by SCTV's Johnny LaRue than a hospital.  This doesn't matter, though, because once the terror begins, logic would just get in the way.

At first it seems as though there's barely any story at all, but little scraps of the narrative fall into place along the way, mostly in flashbacks, to make things interesting between bursts of bloody horror.  And there's an awesome twist ending which, I must admit, I didn't see coming at all.  It doesn't make total sense, but that's one of the endearing things about this movie--it's so freakishly entertaining that it doesn't have to.

The simple premise is similar to dozens of killer-on-the-loose borefests we've sat through over the years, but here, lots of visual style and a truly imaginative sense of the bizarre set it apart.  SICK NURSES benefits from an enthusiastic young cast (composed mainly of lovely young ladies), impressive gore effects with a minimum of bad CGI, and an attitude that's as gleefully sick as those titular nurses.

SICK NURSES -- movie review by porfle

"BKO: Bangkok Knockout" Arriving On Blu-ray and DVD August 30

FROM THE DIRECTOR AND FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHER OF BORN TO FIGHT AND THE ONG BAK FRANCHISE -- "BKO: BANGKOK KNOCKOUT"

Only The Strong Will Survive In The Action-Packed Thriller Kicking Its Way To Blu-ray Disc And DVD August 30 From Magnolia Home Entertainment

 “The action is extreme, extremely dangerous and extremely fun.” - Twitch Film


When a group of old friends come together they end up doing more then talking about the past in BKO: Bangkok Knockout, arriving on Blu-ray Disc and DVD August 30 from Magnolia Home Entertainment. From Director and Fight Choreographer, Panna Rittikrai (Ong Bak Franchise, Born To Fight), Thai action cinema legend, action superstar and mentor to many of today’s top martial arts legends including Tony Ja (Ong Bak), Dan Chupong (Dynamite Warrior) and Jija Yanin (Chocolate), BKO: Bangkok Knockout takes fight sequences to a whole new level.

A group of ex-marital arts students attend a reunion party to reminisce about their old ‘fight club,’ but this reunion is not all fun and games when some of the members are kidnapped by a group of deadly assassins, leaving the remaining members to save their friends in the ultimate battle for survival. Packed with death-defying action and highlighting a range of martial arts disciplines from Muay Thai to Capoeira, Kung Fu to Tai Chi, the BKO: Bangkok Knockout Blu-ray Disc and DVD features explosive bonus materials including a behind-the-scenes featurette and an international trailer, and will be available for the suggested retail price of $29.98 and $26.98, respectively.

Synopsis

A group of ex-marital arts students attend a reunion party to reminisce about their old ‘fight club’ but things go array when a bomb is set off and everyone is left unconscious. When everyone wakes up only to realize that some of their friends have been kidnapped by a group of assassins who are coming after them next.  Now the only way to survive is to fight their way out.

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"BKO: Bangkok Knockout" Arriving On Blu-ray and DVD August 30

VANQUISHER -- DVD review by porfle

The Thai action flick VANQUISHER, aka "Final Target" (2010), is loaded with action but it's a hit-and-miss deal, with several sequences that don't quite live up to their potential.

CIA black ops agent Claire (Jacqui A. Thannanon) is sent to Thailand to capture a terrorist.  She's also ordered to liquidate her "Vanquisher" task force once the job is done, so she takes off in a helicopter with her captive and then blows up the dock that the ladies are standing on. 
One of them, a Thai police force agent codenamed "Gunja" (Sophita Sriban), survives and returns to duty.  When Claire is ordered back to Bangkok two years later in pursuit of another terrorist, she runs into Gunja again, and this time the two warrior women are on decidedly less-than-friendly terms. 

VANQUISHER is nicely directed and shot for the most part, but the fact that this is Manop Udomdej's first action film is pretty obvious.  Camerawork and editing are all over the place in several scenes even though the choreography is good enough not to need such cosmetic misdirection.  The action is often confusing as we try to make out what the seemingly capable performers are doing through a barrage of shaky-cam images.



Still, the film manages to be exciting once things pick up around the halfway point and there aren't so many scenes of people sitting around spouting exposition.  Once all the plot details are ironed out the pace stays pretty brisk through a steady series of gunfights, sword battles, and chases, all featuring an impressive variety of stunts.  The frustrating thing is, you keep wanting these scenes to be better than they are--with more skillful handling, this movie could've been downright exhilarating.

Doing their part to keep us on the edge of our seats are the three leading ladies, who are not only beautiful but can kick some big-time ass in the action setpieces.  At first, Sophita Sriban looks way too cute and likable for the role of Gunja, but this impression is quickly dispelled as soon as she starts slinging a sword or blasting away with twin automatics.  Like Bruce Willis, she has a great "war-face", which director Udomdej captures exquisitely as he does the other female leads--the guy does love to photograph these ladies at their best.

As the duplicitous Claire, Jacqui A. Thannanon has a strong presence and is both sinister and exotic.  The only downside to her performance is that she seems to stumble a bit over the English dialogue--when speaking her native tongue (the film has a bilingual screenplay) she's terrific.  Lovely and lithe Nui Ketsarin plays Sirin, a Thai cop who teams up with Gunja against Claire and her ninja goons, and matches Sophita Sriban's acting skills in the frenetic fight scenes.
 

A late plot development has Bangkok on the verge of being racked with explosions which the bad cops plan to blame on the terrorists, and, while this angle isn't explored as fully as it should've been, it does give the SPFX guys an excuse to cook up some fake-looking fireworks.  Other digital effects range from fair (the scene where Gunja jumps a dirt bike onto a moving train which is then blasted with a bazooka) to not-so-hot (a ninja turns into a cartoon during an upwards leap).  One of the film's strengths is a robust, percussion-heavy musical score by Patai Puangchin.

The DVD from Magnolia's "Magnet" label is in 1.78:1 widescreen with English and Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 sound.  Subtitles are in English and Spanish.  In addition to the international trailer, extras consist of an eight-minute "making of" featurette and another which gives us a look behind the scenes during filming.

VANQUISHER survives a slow start to become a hokey but fun guns-and-swords fest with some very appealing female characters.  The main drawback is that you might wear yourself out trying to mentally reshoot and re-edit the action scenes so that they'll be as good as they should have been.


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VANQUISHER -- DVD review by porfle

VANQUISHER Coming to Blu-ray & DVD March 8

See why vengeance never looked so good in Vanquisher coming to Blu-ray and DVD from Magnolia Home Entertainment!

Actors: Ben Seton, Daz Crawford
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Number of discs: 1
Rated: R (Restricted)
Studio: Magnolia
DVD Release Date: March 22, 2011
Run Time: 90 minutes

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VANQUISHER Coming to Blu-ray & DVD March 8

Feel the rush of "BANGKOK ADRENALINE" on DVD and Blu-ray October 12th from Image Entertainment

“Some absolutely fantastic martial arts sequences.” -Kungfucinema.com

BANGKOK ADRENALINE FROM IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT

Racing Onto Blu-ray™ and DVD October 12th

Chatsworth, CA- When you gamble in Thailand , money isn’t the only thing you gamble with. And for five friends who thought they were just out for a good time, they’re about to learn that an adrenaline rush can mean the difference between life and death! On October 12th, Image Entertainment presents Bangkok Adrenaline, the heart-racing, kung-fu action thriller that’ll leave you breathless! Written, directed and co-starring Raimund Huber (Treasure Island ), Bangkok Adrenaline is available on DVD for an SRP of $27.97 and on Blu-ray™ for an SRP of $29.97. Pre-book is September 14th.

Five friends have come to Bangkok for good times and better action, but at night’s end, they find themselves broke and deeply in debt to a ruthless local mobster. They hatch a simple plan—stage a kidnapping of the rival mob boss’ daughter, demand a ransom and buy back their freedom. But the plan backfires when they discover the mob boss wants his daughter dead. The clock is ticking, the debt is due and now two mob bosses are closing in for the kill. The five will now have to fight with every ounce of skill they have to save the girl, get the money and get out of Bangkok … alive.

Unlike most big-studio action films, all the actors in Bangkok Adrenaline performed their own stunts. With a supporting cast featuring Daniel O’Neill (The Medallion, The Protector, Blackbeard), Gwion Jacob Miles and Conan Stevens, Bangkok Adrenaline is a cinematic rush of desperate gamblers staring into the inevitable snake eyes of fate.

Bangkok Adrenaline DVD
Genre:              Action/Adventure
Street Date:      October 12, 2010
Pre-Book:        September 14, 2010
Languages:       English
Format:            Anamorphic widescreen (1.78:1)
Audio:              Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:           English
Year:                2009
SRP :                $27.97
Length:             87 minutes
Rating:              R
UPC:                014381669428
Cat#:                SFP6694DVD
Bonus:              Behind the Scenes Featurette

Bangkok Adrenaline Blu-Ray
Genre:              Action/Adventure
Street Date:      October 12, 2010
Pre-Book:        September 14, 2010
Languages:       English
Format:            1.78:1
Audio:              DTS HD Master Audio 5.1
Subtitles:           English
Year:                2009
SRP :                $29.97
Length:             87 minutes
Rating:              R
UPC:                014381669558
Cat#:                SFP6695BD
Bonus:              Behind the Scenes Featurette

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DVD
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Feel the rush of "BANGKOK ADRENALINE" on DVD and Blu-ray October 12th from Image Entertainment

"Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers" Arriving On DVD December 15 From Magnolia Home Entertainment

ACTION HAS NEVER BEEN SO SEXY! From The Creators Of Ong-Bak, Five Sexy Spies Star In The Electrifying Thai Action Comedy, Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers, Arriving On DVD December 15 From Magnolia Home Entertainment under the Magnet Releasing label.

Code named Rose, Lotus, Poysien, Spadix and Hibiscus, the five “Chai Lais” (Thai for “gorgeous”) are charged with the perilous assignment to combat evil terrorists, foil a kidnapping and recover a national treasure. A mission unlike any they have known, the quintet of high-heeled undercover agents must use all their ingenuity and prowess to save the day. The heroines combine their unique abilities with ninja kicks and seductive stunts in a highly entertaining battle for victory.

Get a dose of girl power and sexy stunts with "Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers."

Actors: Jintara Poonlarp, Bongkoj Khongmalai, Supakson Chaimongkol, Bunyawan Pongsuwan, Kessarin Ektawatkul
Directors: Poj Arnon
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Language: Thai, English
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
Number of discs: 1
Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Magnolia Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: December 15, 2009
Run Time: 102 minutes

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Buy it at HK Flix.com

"Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers" Arriving On DVD December 15 From Magnolia Home Entertainment

DEMON WARRIORS -- DVD review by porfle

A supernatural action thriller that mixes bloody, bone-crushing fights and shoot-em-ups with some puzzling mysticism, Thailand's DEMON WARRIORS, aka Opapatika (2007), is a lot of sound and fury signifying something that I never could quite figure out.

The "Opapatika", or "demon warriors", are former humans who committed suicide and then, for some reason, were able to return to life as superior beings with special powers. A young human, Techit, seeks out an old Opapatika master named Sadok in order to get one of those reincarnation makeovers and is promptly instructed to blow his own brains out, which he does. Sadok tells the newly-risen Techit that since he was unusually intuitive in his former life, his Opapatika power is the ability to read minds. Unfortunately, every time he uses this sixth sense his other senses begin to fade one by one. Sadok's power isn't revealed to us at first, but we do discover that using it causes his body to decay a little at a time.

Sadok is seeking out other Opapatikas for some unknown reason and puts Techit on the trail, along with his super-badass human assistant, Thuwachit. The ones they're searching for are: Paison, a contract killer with unerring aim whose body takes on the wounds of his victims; Aruth, a gentle soul by day who turns into a kill-crazy psycho beast after sundown; Ramil, who can manifest his evil side into a seperate entity with a face only an exorcist could love; and Jiras, who considers his immortality a curse of endless suffering. Weaving her way through their lives is the mysterious Pran, a beautiful woman who becomes an object of great conflict among them all.

Thuwachit narrates the story and doles out exposition like a gum machine although I can't figure out what he's talking about half the time. But mainly he leads group after group of armed soldiers into furious battles with the Opapatika, with the hapless humans getting the ever-livin' crap kicked out of them every time. These guys must be getting paid a ton of money because they just keep getting slaughtered by the dozens in several nicely-staged battle sequences drenched in cartoonishly spewing blood and flying limbs.

One particularly lively setpiece features an encounter between the soldiers and the deadly Aruth in the inner courtyard of an apartment building as they take the fight up and down stairs and across various landings, with lots of leaping and shooting and all kinds of horrible deaths. Thuwachit and his doomed army fare no better against the pistol-packin' Paison, who streaks amongst them firing off one kill-shot after another and racking up a death count that should keep the local morticians busy for months to come.

But as frenetic and action-packed as these scenes are, their one-sided nature--the Opapatika are practically invulnerable to physical harm--renders them a bit tiresome after awhile. The same can be said for the fights between the demon warriors themselves, which are filled with gunfire, swordplay, and carnage, but seem somewhat pointless since these guys just can't seem to manage to kill each other.

In the downtime between all this violence, the movie screeches to a crawl. There are some interesting backstories, Paison's being particularly moving, and some nice artistically filmed scenes of Pran gliding elegantly around the house in her windblown gown and listlessly playing the piano as Aruth and Ramil gaze at her like lovesick puppies. Jiras warns them to stay away from her, apparently knowing something about her that we don't know. Characters either talk a lot about being trapped between reality and limbo or sit around thinking about it, and Thuwachit does some more narration for us, which he is wont to do.

The Pran situation eventually erupts into another big gunfight in her house between all the demon warriors, including Techit, who hasn't really done much up till then besides smoke cigarettes. (According to the synopsis, he's supposed to be a detective, but I never really got that impression.) The rapidly-deteriorating Sadok eventually shows up and reveals his connection to all this, including a surprising link to Pran, and we finally discover just how sinister his intentions are.

By the time we get to the last two or three prolonged battle scenes with the Opapatika mowing down soldiers like so many cans of tomato soup or having generally pointless fights with each other, I was looking forward to seeing them all finally start to friggin' die already. Making things even harder to endure is the fact that for some reason, director Thanakorn Pongsuwan suddenly eschews the perfectly good style that he's employed for the first two-thirds of the film and starts doing everything in highly-annoying Shaky-Cam. This detracts from the dramatic finale in which the story of Thuwachit (my favorite character since he's such a hardcore badass for a human) is resolved along with the insidious scheme of his master Sadok. At least we get to see some of these invulnerable bastards getting killed at last, which comes not a moment too soon since by now things have started to list perilously toward the boring side.

The DVD is in 1.78:1 widescreen with 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital sound. You can listen to it in the original Thai with English or Spanish subtitles, or in an English dub. Included as a bonus feature is a 15-minute "making of" featurette.

DEMON WARRIORS has cool makeup effects, stunningly violent and bloody action (complete with massive spew), and some very nice production design and cinematography. But aside from the exciting early fight scenes, the story tends to get exceedingly dry and the action becomes repetitive. I did like this movie to a certain extent and appreciate the effort put into it, but the fadeout came as a bit of a relief.

Buy it at HKflix.com

DEMON WARRIORS -- DVD review by porfle