LIFE, DEATH AND REBIRTH
The makers of DarkKarma talk about why Bangkok was the best choice for their movie
As any honest Thai person can tell you, Bangkok is a city of dualities. Walk down one street and you’ll find the most serene parks, bombastic highrises and venerable temples. Turn down the wrong soi, however, and you’re suddenly in a seedy alleyway filled with drugs, alcohol and questionable “massage parlours”.
It’s a city that tries to tell its people to live simply within their means, while building condos and highend malls on top of each other. It’s a melting pot of people from all walks of life, from the richest to the poorest. The City of Angels can certainly make you feel like you’re on top of the world, until you take a wrong step and realise that the long, long fall.
This juxtaposition between the various levels of Bangkok life lies at the middle of Dark Karma,
a film by director Jonathan Finnigan. Currently in preproduction, the film follows Tim, a Western expatriate who initially enjoys the height of Bangkok’s decadence, only to find himself in dire straits when he loses everything to a criminal-run, high-stakes poker game.
With a planned production window of early next year, the film is in the process of raising funds. Much of the details surrounding the film are yet to be finalised, though the final cast has been confirmed and will include, among others, Tom Sizemore, the versatile American actor who’s been in Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, Black Hawk Down, Natural Born Killers, among others. Last month Sizemore was in Bangkok for the launch party and joining him were Dark Karma’s writer and producer Matt Rickard, writer Don Linder, director Finnigan and Tom Waller, owner of a well-known local production company. The Thai cast who’ll star along Sizemore includes David Asavanond ( Countdown, Samui Song) and Vithaya Pansringarm ( Only God Forgives).
To learn more about Hollywood’s latest return to Bangkok, Life spoke with Finnigan, Rickard and Sizemore about the film and their thoughts on Bangkok. Matt Rickard: It’s a crime/dark comedy, about a cocky, thrill-seeking expatriate who loses everything in a high-stakes poker game in Bangkok. He ends up on the wrong side of the law and local gangsters, and gets thrown into local Thai life that teaches him more about himself than he did from his ivory tower. Tom Sizemore is attached in a supporting role, as well as in a production capacity. That means he’s helping us to attach more talent or find the right lead. We’re currently midway through fund-raising and intend to begin shooting in Bangkok early next year.
What made you want to get on this movie in a production capacity?
Tom Sizemore: It’s just a really good story and I like a good story. As soon as I met the characters they grabbed my interest. I wanted to know what happened to them and that’s usually how I gauge whether I like a script. I want to know what happens to the guy or girl in the beginning, and if I’m not interested then I may not even finish it.
What makes Bangkok a good backdrop for this story?
Jonathan Finnigan: Originally, Matt wanted to shoot in Singapore, but I preferred Hong Kong or Bangkok. You have much more cultural depth here, the diversity of the shades of characters. You only need to walk the place at night and you can see very modern and gritty visuals all within the same space. Bangkok comes alive at night visually. Nothing is set in stone yet, but I think a lot of the film will probably be shot at night, with the neon lights and smoke and street food. Texturally and visually I can see it looking like that.
The fact that the film is called Dark Karma, with karma being a primarily Buddhist idea and with Buddhism so deeply ingrained in the culture here, Bangkok makes it much more appropriate than Singapore or Hong Kong. Visually you can explore how the characters — especially the Thais — see life. The character played by Vithaya Pansringarm, who is a reformed bad guy enlightened by religion, he’s the one who helps our lead character, the Western guy Tim.
TS: Thailand in Hollywood has a reputation as a land of permissiveness, of physical joy. So in the story, the main character Tim is the kind of guy who has never had bad luck visit him. In a certain way he feels superior to those around him, sort of like a Western, male vibe, thinking he can outsmart everyone. And so he learns to be humble, which is a very common idea in Eastern culture.
You originally wanted to film in Singapore, before making the decision to switch to Bangkok. How much of the script was affected by its location?
JF: The story has changed a little bit after the decision to come here, but it was, in essence, always about the transformation of someone who is spiritually and ethically lost, who finds himself by losing everything. We picked Thailand because there are many opportunities for us to communicate that contrast between Tim’s high-life and the comparably humble circumstances he later finds himself in.
In Bangkok, we have the opportunity to show fancy high-rises alongside quaint riverside communities, which are far more visually interesting than a Singaporean housing block. Here, you can find these nooks and crannies, these little locations tucked away behind abandoned buildings, stuff like that.
They can be visual metaphors for the story. An abandoned building can be a metaphor for the lead character’s internal emptiness, not to be too artsy about it. At the moment, all we’ve done is shoot a trailer. When we shoot the film, these visual ideas will come to life a lot more strongly.
How was the experience like working with Thai actors?
JF: Fantastic. The actors are actually another reason I wanted to shoot here. I’ve been in Asia for 24 years and I’ve shot films all over the place. I can say honestly that the Thai crew are the best film crew in Asia. I’ve also always known that Thailand had some very good actors. Singapore, the original planned location, definitely has some good actors, but there are just much better actors here, generally speaking.
What is your impression of Bangkok as a city?
JF: There is such diversity here. I know little parts of Bangkok like the parks where you can go for a little morning run and it’s very peaceful. On the other hand, you could be walking down any one of these sois and there’s sin in your face. Sex is very overtly expressed here. Just juxtapositioning those two things alone is interesting. It’s a very colourful, very visually expressive city.
The themes of spirituality and the juxtaposition between Bangkok’s varying areas and its people seem to be often explored in Hollywood films that are set in the city. What new or interesting perspectives will this film explore?
JF: Just in terms of the bigger picture, I think this could be reflective of not just Thai culture, but the state of the world in general. The craving for the material and consumerism versus a more peaceful mindset can potentially be something that is explored.
MR: Our character goes through a transformation throughout the course of the movie and he comes out the other end as a guy with nothing, but a level of wisdom he didn’t have as an expat living in Thailand. And that comes through his interactions with the Thai characters and their spiritual aspect.
There is such diversity here. Sex is very overtly expressed here. It’s a very colourful, very visually expressive city