The plot borrows its story basics from any number of "hitman with a heart of gold" films, most notably Wong Kar Wai's Fallen Angels which also featured a main character who was a deaf hitman with a lovely, underworld gun moll contact. Our hitman hero is Kong (Pawilat Mongkolpisit), a relatively quiet and unassuming young man, who after a childhood of being picked on because of his disability, befriends Aom (Patharawarin Timkul) and Joe (Pisek Intrakanchit) at a gun range. Recognizing his talent or sharpshooting (Kong's deafness means he doesn't have the involuntary reflex of twitching or blinking when a gun goes off), Joe teaches Kong to stick up for himself, fight, and be a killer for hire, while Aom, a nightclub hostess (hooker) becomes his go-between to get assignments.

Kong's world begins to get sunny just before it falls apart. He meets a cute, kind pharmacist named Fon (Premsinee Ratanasopha) and begins to strike up a romance with her. When she finds out- in a very brutal scene- what he actually does for a living, she is horrified. Around the same time, Aom is raped by a scumbag gangster she had given the cold shoulder. Joe tires to take revenge but ends up getting killed. Kong is forced to take revenge and... well, if you know your heroic bloodshed hitman films, you can kind of imagine the action-tragic finale.

The performances are all pretty serviceable. Dealing in archetypes, the actors didn't have to do much other than hit one or two emotional notes: Fon is the dreamgirl, Aom is sultry and streetwise, Kong is all naive and sweet surface with a deadly underbelly. And, naturally, when your lead performance is that of a deaf-mute, his communication is mostly limited to wide-eyed puppy dog gazes.

So, story and characterwise, there is not really anything new or extemely inventive. But, following the standard new wave gunplay template doesn't hurt the film because Bangkok Dangerous offers some serious doses of style. The Pang Brothers really went all out to prove they could, even on a low budget, hang with the John Woo's, the Luc Besson's, and the Tony Scott's of the cinema scene. They inject almost every scene with visual energy. Their camera tilts, whizzes, whirls, tilts and tumbles. They use everything from Ronny Yu/Wong Kar Wai ?Blur-O Vision?, varying film stock, CGI, slow-mo, fast-mo, missing frames, all just for the Hell of it, really. More often than not, I find that the heavy editing and cinematography effects, the MTV video approach yields little entertainment, just hollow trickery, but in this case, the Pang Brothers get it right. Their sense of style elevates the simple material and performances, making for a very entertaining, if predictable, feature.

Co-incidentally, on the same day I'm writing this review, I find out that the Pang Bros, who've already made the US move with a forthcoming horror film for Sam Raimi's company Ghost House, have a US remake of Bangkok Dangerous in the works with Nic Cage attached. While I'm not one for remakes, I can understand why, in this case, it isn't quite as bad. After all, the Pang's started off by making a film that is more of less a slight carbon copy of so many others. Aside from the language, it is not really that culturally distinct, so why not make it one more time in the US? Of course, I wont feel the need to see it. Conclusion: Well, it is a good little hitman, Asian action film with a predictable story and routine characters saved by some severely interesting doses of directorial style...

One day, while experiencing a sickness after a hard day's killing, Kong walks into a local drug store where he meets a beautiful clerk named Fon (Premsinee Ratanasopha), who provides him with a remedy - not only for his illness but also for his heart. Kong instantly falls for Fon and returns to the drug store the very next day to ask her out. Despite communication issues, the two grow close, and Kong experiences things he's never felt before: warmth, joy and love.

Just as things are going well, Kong's sinister occupation gets in the way of things. Joe and Aom get on the ugly side of Bangkok's underworld. Acts of deceit, betrayal and revenge ensue, and in the middle stands Kong. Should he try and lead a normal life with Fon, or help his friends? Or maybe, it's too late for anything?

Considering it's extreme-low budget, Bangkok Dangerous is worth a billion bucks. Just like they did with The Eye (2002), The Pang Brothers (Oxide and Danny) sure bring entertainment to life. They do a good job of showing the audience what the characters are thinking, whether it's with music or with a unique choice of visuals. Although Bangkok Dangerous has shades of popular Hong Kong action flicks (mostly, John Woo's The Killer), it's style and on-the-dot direction classify it in a world of it's own. And when I say "style", I mean it. Pauses, extreme close-ups, ghost-shadows, quick-cuts, digital enhancements, film grain effects and of course, good ol' slow motion. Not to say Bangkok Dangerous is a "style over substance" film (i.e., Time and Tide), it's just one of those rare occasions where style and substance mesh perfectly.

Highly recommended.