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BKO Bangkok Knockout
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Magnolia Pictures Review written by and copyright: Anthony Arrigo (29th January 2012). |
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The Film
 I’m not the biggest fan of Thai martial arts films. It isn’t that they aren’t visually thrilling, but the general rule when making one seems to place all the emphasis on fighting and very little on the actual plot. That isn’t to say Thailand isn’t capable of producing legitimately good films, but I’ve yet to see one that really blows me away. Perhaps the best example of this is Tony Jaa’s “Ong Bak” (2003), a film that had friends of mine frothing at the mouth, eager to talk about how good it was. Once I’d finally seen it, I didn’t get it. Sure, Jaa’s skills are beyond impressive, but the onus of the film was placed squarely on his techniques. What was the movie’s plot? Hell if I know. Something about an elephant or a statue… who really remembers? The only thing I can recall is Jaa throwing A LOT of elbows (that seems to kinda be his thing). I never bothered with the second film, but I did review “Ong Bak 3: The Final Battle” (2010) last year and found it to be even more of the same, only with a plot so convoluted I might as well have been watching it with the subtitles off. If there’s one thing Jaa’s original film is responsible for, though, it’s the influx of Thai martial arts films that have been flowing from that country in the years since. Without knowing any titles, I can recall seeing a number of Thai fighting films being pushed into the marketplace after Jaa gave their industry a minor resurgence. One of the latest of which, “BKO: Bangkok Knockout” (2010), arrived Stateside last year through Magnet releasing. And wouldn’t you know it, but it’s more of the same I’ve come to expect from this genre. Amusingly enough, the film was even promoted as “Ong Bak: The Next Generation” in some foreign markets, so that should tell you how indistinguishable many of these films can be. I think their deficiencies boil down to spending an inordinate (and probably necessary) amount of time choreographing the extensive fighting scenes and very little time is spent on crafting a cohesive plot and characters memorable enough for audiences to get invested. While the fighting is glorious eye candy in every sense of the phrase, as soon as it ends you’re left scratching your head wondering why they even bothered making a theatrical film. Some of these movies would be better served if they were a highlight reel of action, set to music, and clocking in at a brisk 60 minutes. Bloating that out to almost 2 hours makes this less of a spectacle and more of an endurance test. Now, I’m not going to make a blanket statement (one which some might consider marginally racist) and say that everyone here looks the same, but I’ll be damned if I didn’t have a hard time keeping up with who’s in the cast. For one thing, there are way too many guys. The main squad alone has almost a dozen team members, so when you add in the other squads, henchmen, bad guys, bosses, etc. things tend to get murky. The only one who stood out was a short, squat little guy who looked like Kim Jong-Il with a bad Monkees haircut and Ringo Starr shades. He also had a tendency to speak with an annoying, high-pitched tone. If you ever wondered what a Thai Jack Black would look like, wonder no longer. One thing I’ll give the main men of the film credit for: the hair. Oh, lord, these guys had some of the most well-styled, blown out hairdos I’ve seen since the 80's. I was already impressed with the styles, even more so that they all managed to remain relatively unscathed despite hours of ass kickery; Thailand must produce some serious hairspray. The standout here would have to be Random Evil White Guy and his trailer of international, wealthy criminals. I don’t know what it is about putting Americans in low-budget foreign films, but this guy and his entourage are among the worst actors I’ve seen in anything in a looooooong time. It’s almost embarrassing, except then you remember what film they’re in. Random Evil White Guy spends the entire duration of the film chomping on a cigar and spouting off lines that aren’t even unintentionally hilarious – they’re just terrible. I should probably clue you in as to what this plot entails, so here goes: a group of young, talented fighters compete against other groups for the chance to become Hollywood stuntmen. They win the contest, but it’s actually a trap wherein the group is drugged, one of them kidnapped and the rest are forced to fight against opponents in a high rise tower full of obstacles. An organization, run by Random Evil White Guy, places bets on who will win various match-ups that occur during the melee. That’s about the extent of it. The tissue paper plot is just enough to justify stringing together a series of brawls interspersed with horrendous acting from everyone else who isn’t fighting. I can’t deny the skills these dudes possess, but after you’ve seen 13 kicks to a head or someone getting their face rearranged courtesy of a fist your mind will start to wander. The best thing the film had going for it was an unstoppable monster of a man, wearing a metal hockey mask, who was impervious to any and all attack methods. He’s like the Thai Jason Voorhees that just won’t die. When you’re making a ridiculous film like this, you might as well pull out all the stops. I’ll say this: there might be a lot of guys (almost too many to really keep track of) but they’ve all got unique personalities that aid in making their fights more entertaining. This isn’t played with a straight face; the movie is unquestionably tongue-in-cheek, and that levity means it can get away with a bit more than if they were trying to make this something serious. Honestly, on paper the plot sounds like it was ripped straight from a video game. If I were 12 years old again, I’d be stoked beyond belief to watch a movie like this. But, at my age, I just grow tired of seeing talented actors showcasing their moves under the guise of a legit theatrical film.
Video
Although there’s nothing particularly distinguishing about the film’s 1.78:1 1080p 24/fps AVC MPEG-4 encoded image, it’s a solid effort. I can’t find anything to back me up, but I’m almost positive this was shot on digital video. That’s the only reason I can think of to explain why it looks so damn crisp. There’s no evidence of post-production color filtering, tweaking, grading or noise reduction that I was able to discern. The film also displays virtually no grain; basically a dead giveaway that this transfer was likely sourced directly from the digital files. Though it might lack any stylish appearance, the straight forward approach to its aesthetic lends itself well to this film. All the flash is in the fighting, so the image should be akin to looking through a window so that every detail of these masterfully choreographed battles can be witnessed in full clarity. What these guys are doing is real stuff – and it’s not easy – so I prefer the simplistic approach taken here. Every drop of blood, bead of sweat and perfectly coiffed hairdo looks crisp in full high definition.
Audio
Some people just hate subtitles; others simply don’t care about original language tracks on “kung-fu” (to throw out an incorrect blanket term) films. So, what we get here are two equal value lossless audio tracks – both English & Thai DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround sound tracks mixed at 48kHz/24-bit. Neither track sounded particularly stronger than the other, so I chose the Thai track since I wanted to be a purist and hear the film as it was recorded. The only thing that really stood out to me was the score, which was a bizarre mix of techno tunes, some of which sounded like instrumental TLC tracks. Weird, I know. The score does a good job of maintaining the film’s frenetic pace, especially when it veers into overdrive during some spectacularly over-the-top battles. Those match-ups also get the LFE track rockin’, with brutal body shots and slams reverberating through the subwoofer with some real force. Otherwise, it’s got all the standard bells & whistles you’d expect. Subtitles are included in English, English for the hearing impaired and Spanish.
Extras
There’s not a whole lot here, but Magnet still brings their standard goods. In this case, that’s a couple featurettes, theatrical trailer and some bonus trailers. “Making of BKO: Bangkok Knockout” (480p) is a featurette that runs for 14 minutes and 21 seconds. Presented with subtitles, we get some interviews with the film’s cast & crew that discuss how the story came about, selecting the actors, you know… all the usual stuff they can cram into a brief EPK on the film. “Behind the Scenes” (480p) is a featurette that runs for 10 minutes and 39 seconds. This is a standard feature found on most Magnet titles, and they’re all the same: B-roll footage of the film being shot with no narration or direction. It can be interesting to see raw footage of the film coming together, outtakes, that sort of thing, but it gets boring after a while. The film’s theatrical trailer (1080p) runs for 1 minute and 33 seconds. Bonus trailers (1080p) are included for the following Magnet titles: - “13 Assassins” runs for 1 minute and 56 seconds. - “Trollhunter” runs for 1 minute and 21 seconds. - “Hobo with a Shotgun” runs for 1 minute and 27 seconds. - “The Perfect Host” runs for 2 minutes and 17 seconds. - “HDNet promo” runs for 1 minute and 2 seconds. The disc also features a bookmarks feature for tagging scenes, as well as being BD-Live enabled, though no content specific to the film is available as of this writing.
Packaging
A single 25 GB disc comes in a keep-case with rather uninspired cover art.
Overall
This might be fun to watch with your friends on a drunken night, but I can’t really recommend going out and buying it unless you’re a major fan of Thai cinema, or you don’t think they’ve put out enough movies with this exact same format. The actors possess some ridiculously awesome moves, but the trick is keeping you engaged enough to make it through to the end. It doesn’t take long for repetition to take its toll on you – it didn’t for me – and you’ll be left wishing they’d employed a better story to let these guys cut loose with.
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