Among a plethora of recent Asian "street movies", most of them little more than action sequences with MTV-like backdrops, Bangkok Dangerous stands out. Its harsh amalgam of guns, sex and crime is typical of the genre, but Danny and Oxide Pang have put together more than just a filmed video game. The comradeship between Kong, deaf mute and quick-witted hit man, and Joe, accident-blighted marksman turned mentor, is strong enough to withstand whatever the city can throw at them. The love element, in which Kong falls for the wide-eyed chemist's assistant Fon, hardly detracts from the violence and mayhem, but is enough to make Kong face up to his existence on the margins of society and his inability to choose another course. As high-impact as the visuals are, it's the balance between stasis and dynamism--with virtuoso camera work and editing--that makes for compulsive filmmaking.

On the DVD: Bangkok Dangerous has an anamorphic widescreen picture that gives the visuals a garish immediacy. English subtitles are included, as are a selection of promo pictures and filmographies for the Pang brothers and star Pawalit Mongkolpisit. Mark Wyatt's film notes set the background succinctly, but an interview with either or both of the Pangs, or a location feature would have been even more welcome as context. As it is, those drawn to the idea of hard-hitting action with substance will not be disappointed. --Richard Whitehouse

An old-fashioned omnibus spooker, Bangkok Haunted is framed by scenes in which three young, apparently modern Thai women sit in a deserted cafe on a rainy night and tell each other their own ghost stories. "Legend of the Drum" is closest in style to traditional Far Eastern horror, with an antique dealer troubled by a drum that seems to invoke the spirit of a girl who disappeared 80 years ago after befriending and then rejecting a hooded, disfigured outcast. "Black Magic Woman" is a more lurid tale in video nasty style, about a girl who uses an extract of corpses as an aphrodisiac perfume with unpleasant consequences for her lovers--who have spells of vomiting, demon possession or become psychotic ghosts. Oxide Pang, director of The Eye, takes over from Pisuth Praesaengaim for the final episode, "Revenge", about a cop investigating the death-by-hanging of a young woman with whom he was involved and learning nasty things in the process. Though each 45-minute story is a tad overextended, the film is full of genuinely creepy moments, ranging from delicate ghost scares to splatter gruel. --Kim Newman