Bangkok not so dangerous

As far as coups go, I guess this one in Thailand has been very peaceful and relaxed. There's no curfew imposed and people are generally able to go about their daily lives - unless, of course, their daily lives had something to do with the old government and being close to the deposed prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

Stores are open, movies are still playing, HBO and Cinemax are still on the air, and the Internet is running at full speed.

Still, according to news reports, the producers of what's being called Big Hit in Bangkok thought it might not be such a good idea to make a movie about folks who are running around pointing guns, what with soldiers hanging around with M-16s at the ready (even though those M-16s don't have ammo clips). So they are taking a break from filming, which might it delay its planned wrap-up in October.

Conflicting rumors had star Nicolas Cage fearfully jetting out of the country, but as far as I can tell, he's still hanging out, enjoying the good life in Bangkok, though a private plane is at the ready, should those ammo clips start being clapped into place.

Having Cage and the Pang Brothers around to film this remake of 1999's Bangkok Dangerous has proved handy for local film distributors. United International Pictures got Cage to sit for a press junket last week to talk about World Trade Center, which opened here this week, so of course most of the interviews had to be devoted to his work on the Oliver Stone film.

The Nation Weekend did manage to ask about what it's like working in Thailand and working with an Asian crew. Cage reminded folks that he's worked with an Asian director before (John Woo on Face/Off) and said that since he married a former sushi waitress, Alice Kim (the Korean-American mother of his 11-month-old boy, Kal-L), he considers himself "half Asian."

Meanwhile, Re-cycle has opened in Bangkok, and Angelica Lee and her boyfriend, Oxide Pang, were on hand for a Mongkol Cinema's press screening last week at Siam Paragon. It was all in Thai and Mandarin, though, so I didn't get much out of what was said.


(Cross-published at Rotten Tomatoes; photos via my Flickr set and May in April)