Bang is a Thai action picture from the director/cinematographer known as Kaos (Wych Kaosayananda). It is a routine shoot-’em-up (hitman develops a conscience), but there are some interesting positives, so I’ll focus on those:
Kaos has never made a respected movie, but I swear the man has talent. This film looks great. The location shots are well-chosen and gorgeous, the action scenes are always comprehensible, and the technical quality of the photography is superb.
Kaos must drive his investors crazy. I respect the lush production values, but he’s like the Johnny Larue of real directors. He filmed a nighttime shot of Bang and his girlfriend making love in a transparent cabin on the very top of the Asiatique ferris wheel in Bangkok, as shot FROM ABOVE. I assume that he had to pay the ride operators to assure that the actors would be in the right cabin at the right time for a long enough time, and filmed the shot from a helicopter. (One commenter noted that the shot was probably filmed by a drone. That seems to make sense.) The scene lasts only a few seconds, the actors are barely visible, and the scene is totally unnecessary to the plot. It’s just there because he thought it would be cool. Remember when Johnny Larue just had to have his expensive crane shot in Polynesiantown? Well, Kaos did him one better. (And he was right. It is cool. It’s an impressive scene, with the ride lit up like a Christmas tree at night, and all of nighttime Bangkok as a backdrop! See below.)
The co-star of the film is Robocop. You could argue that he’s the star because he has the most dialogue – and in two different languages. (Robo, or should I say Professor Robo, is not Italian, but has studied the language and speaks it fluently. He has a Ph.D., and his areas of focus are the history and art of Rome and the Italian Renaissance.) Man, does he look old, but his voice still sounds the same, and he did a good job in an over-the-top part.
There is one clever, albeit totally preposterous, plot twist in the middle of the film. SPOILER FOLLOWS – hide your eyes until the next paragraph if you want to watch the film (or, of course, if you are one of those whiny snowflakes who feel obligated to complain about spoilers when they have no intention of watching the film). After the hitman develops a conscience, he keeps killing, or so his boss thinks, and so we think until the twist is revealed. He has faked all the killings and hidden the “victims” and their families in an abandoned pseudo-Venice theme park outside of Bangkok. (Such an attraction actually exists, but is not as pictured here.)
There is nudity in three scenes (seen below under “videos”), but Alisa Arunahiran is the only actress credited.
Anastasia Maslova is not listed in the film’s credits, but IMDb does list her as “prostitute.” Assuming that to be correct, she must be the one on your right in the pic below.
