Pangs’ Remake Dangerous

The first film by the incomparable Pang Brothers was the gritty 1999 thriller Bangkok Dangerous. The film won an award at the Toronto International Film Festival and sent the Pangs on their way to bigger and better things including the horror hit The Eye.Recently, the Pangs decided to enter the re-make game by using the same storyline of the 1999 Dangerous to film a new version staring Nicholas Cage. I guess the Pangs figured that casting the balding, squinting Cage and putting him opposite a girl with more sex appeal than the one in the original film would be the way to Hollywood’s hearts and wallets.Here’s the trailer of the 1999 version of Bangkok Dangerous.Will the new film work? Honestly, the Pangs are long overdo to cash in on some of the success they have had in the past. Still, the original was so well done that it seems a shame. In the 1999 film, Pawalit Mongkolpisit played the lead character, a deaf hitman who starts to feel guilty for his past deeds. His chemistry with the Pang’s story and camera work was what made the film stand out. Can Danny and Oxide duplicate that chemistry with Cage. It seems unlikely, but I am pulling for them, or at least, pulling for a big box office showing that will open some doors in Hollywood.

Going to Goa

Above and Beyond, the new stars of electronic music, are heading to the place where their genre began. A huge beach bash is scheduled for December 28th in Goa, India. This from DJ magazine:

Above & Beyond will headline with a blazing four-hour DJ set and will also showcase some of the hottest acts from their Anjunabeats stable, including Finland’s Super 8 & DJ Tab, Dutch technoid king Stephen J. Kroos and Australia’s one-to-watch, Jaytech. The event will be televised by MTV India and broadcast on Above & Beyond’s worldwide syndicated radio show ‘Trance Around The World’.

Aside from a handful of Dutch superstars, the future of trance music seems to rest on Above and Beyond’s shoulders.  The group is relatively ne to the scene, beginning to enter the limelight in 2002.  Still with remixes of song by the likes of Madonna, members Jono Grant, Tony McGuinness, and Paavo Siljamäki seem confident in their sonic skills.Where will trance music go in the next decade?  Wherever Above and Beyond take it.