When some Thai casino owing gangsters decide to dispose of a drug dealing thug on their turf, they hire a hitman to do the dirty work. Contacted via his underwolrd connection, a very noir gun moll nightclub owner, ex-Communist guerilla rebel Thanthai executes the hit with cold efficiency. But, this, along with Thanthia's rescue of a kid being beaten up in an alleyway, sets in motion string of events that has all the corrupt powers gunning for Thanthai. The drug dealer's gang wants Thanthai dead because of the hit, and a powerful politicians son was one of the assailants of the boy that Thanthai rescued. Powerful generals, henchmen, other gangs, and a cop are all looking for Thanthai, a small fish in a crooked sea.

I'm being a bit reserved with my description because I really would need some kind of flowchart graphic to explain who is who and how they are aligned to one another. I tried to write it out, but it is my failing as a writer that I couldn't make it not look confusing or silly. Needless to say, characters all have surprising twists of fate and they all don't take the paths you would expect.

Looking around for info about the film (its imdb entry, for instance, is apparently non-existent), I found an article from the Bangkok Post that gives some background on the film's director Sananjit Bangsapan. Apparently he was a protester turned film critic, known for his harsh criticism, who eventually turned to making films, Hit Man File being his second feature, his first was Butterfly in Grey, a drama about Thai prostitutes. His desire to creep into the corner alleys of society seems to be summed up in this evocative quote attributed to him, "I have friends who're whores, hitmen, and ministers." One gets the feeling from Hit Man File that Sananjit Bangsapan finds little distinction between them, an opportunist is an opportunist, the trade doesn't really matter.

Oddly enough, I probably like the film more than I should purely for how it didn't meet my preconceived notion of an Asian hitman flick. You watch enough Asian crime flicks with guys sporting guns on the cover, you just come to expect certain things. The first image that pops into mind is a gallant white suited Chow Yun Fat slow motion flying through the air with double pistols blazing. But here we get a very different man, trained to kill for a fruitless revolution, any sort of ideology he fought for ending up so much as dust. It is an interesting backstory, a man who learned to kill as sort of a necessary evil for a cause and left with nothing but the damnation of his immorality after the cause collapsed. The film is very much about the hierarchy of crime with the politicians and generals at the top, the gangsters and drug dealers below, and guys like Thanthai at the bottom, just an employed pawn about to be crushed by the powers above him.

The plot is more muddled than it should be, one would think a writer would smooth out the basics better. But, in how it subverts, how it twists your expectations with conflicts that never happen and characters that suddenly die, it sets up an interesting underworld power play with many shades of grey. Slick production design, a breezy pace, and good performances add to the appeal.

The DVD: Kino

Picture: Anamorphic Widescreen. It is one of the better looking Thai films I've seen recently. It captures that essential urban neon and scummy street grit that makes for a good crime film. Color details reveal nice fleshtones and striking hues. The film has some intentional soft focus and grainy photography, again keeping with that crime thriller appearance. Technically some minor compression issues are present which lead to some slight ghosting and blur.

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Thai language with optional English subtitles. Decent audio track. It has some source quirks, those being from the actual production where the vocal levels are a bit low in certain scenes. Good subs.

Extras: Original Trailer (plus a few more Kino release trailers)— Still Gallery.

Conclusion: A decent crime thriller that gets a little muddled with its details, but has some surprising turns for its characters, who don't turn out to be quite as genre stock as you think they might be. The DVD presentation is sparse, so it leans towards a rental for Asian crime fans.