Bangkok Dangerous was a labor of love—love for the Thai capital and its culture

“First time in Bangkok?” —KONG

For James Newport, the show’s production designer, Bangkok Dangerous was a labor of love—love for the Thai capital and its culture. “Thailand is a second home for me and I’ve always wanted to show modern day Bangkok on film. Bangkok stands in for other cities quite often, but today’s Bangkok is a very exciting city, visually, and showing it was a great challenge of the project,” said Newport.

Finding a temporary home in the city for the protagonist provided Newport with an opportunity to blend old and new Thailand. “Joe’s employers got him a place that’s out of the city, very remote,” he says. “There’s some very exciting architecture going up in this town and then we looked back at traditional Thailand and we blended the two.”

One of the most exciting scenes in this movie is also one of the most picturesque, being set in a location unique to Thailand: the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market. In a complex and thrilling set piece, Joe chases an assassination target through the area’s canals. “It took us at least a week to complete the scene,” says Danny Pang. “The market attracts masses of people, which makes it much more difficult to shoot. Nevertheless, the merchants and residents in the area welcomed us warmheartedly, as they understood that this movie is a chance to show the world the charm and beauty of their simple lifestyle.

“We have a wooden boat chase, rarely seen in movies, and also Nic rides a motorcycle chasing after the long-tailed wooden boat. As we like to do, we split the work up, so I shot the boat scene and Oxide the motorcycle scene.”

“The floating market is spectacular; it’s a magical place for an action scene,” says Sherak. “Western audiences aren’t used to seeing anything like it, unless it’s a set, but we didn’t change anything. There are people really there with those grocery carts and those little boats and that’s how they live every day.”

The villain Surat’s fortress captures another facet of Thailand, notes Sherak. “In reality, it’s a tannery. It smelled just terrible, but we thought it was a cool place for the scene. I loved the juxtaposition of the compound itself being so rundown and then Surat’s office at the top of the compound so clean and perfect.

It’s a bit like how he views himself versus all the people who work for him.”
Golightly is extremely impressed by the country’s extensive filmmaking resources. “Thailand is lacking nothing in terms of film production. The locations are absolutely unbeatable. This has been about the best experience I have had working on a film in terms of talented and efficient crews. Everyone was absolutely wonderful on our crew from top to bottom.”