Chai Lai Angels
 
    

Director:  Poj Arnon
Year: 2006
Rating: 6.0
Country: Thailand

Aka - Dangerous Flowers

Clearly inspired if that is the correct word for it by Charlie's Angels, this has five Thai women who are sent on missions by Mr. Somsak, who is adorned in a dreadful blonde wig and pink shirt. Much of this makes no sense with barely a nod to continuity or logic. But that isn't really the point. It is an action comedy and the comedy is very Thai. If you are not familiar with Thai comedy you might consider yourself lucky. It is totally unsophisticated, juvenile, filled with sexual innuendos, gay humor, physical idiocy, lady boys, toilet humor, grotesque characters to be made fun of - as non-PC as comedy is allowed these days. In America. In Thailand there is no concept of political correctness. Everything is a potential target of humor or insult. And much of it can be funny. In this film it is a rat-a-tat machine gun of gags and silliness and more of it lands than not. Throw on top of that some enjoyable action set-pieces that are also zany as hell. This sort of film may be an acquired taste - just go into it with an open mind and open eyes. Did I mention that three of the Angels are stunners. And often dressed accordingly. And the camera takes every opportunity to make the most of it.



Mr. Somsak gives them their mission. Protect a young Japanese girl named Miki who knows the location of the Andaman Pearl. This magical pearl keeps the oceans in balance. Somsak is played by Mum Jokmok, probably the most popular entertainer in Thailand. He has these comedy shows on TV that are basically ad-lib and pie in the face ridiculous. The Thais in the live audience are in hysterics throughout. I don't understand a word. But to Westerners, he is the star of the Bodyguard films and the buddy of Tony Jaa in the Ong-Bak films. It begins on a plane when a group of thugs try and kidnap a girl - on an airplane you might ask - yes it makes no sense - but four of our Angels are flight attendants or passengers and a huge fight breaks out - while back on earth the fifth Angel saves the girl's father and chases off a few bad guys. She is Rose played by my favorite Thai actress back then, the gorgeous Bongkoj Khongmalai (Bang Rajan, Tom Yum-Goong) or Tak to her friends.  



The bad guys headed by Dragon want the Pearl in order to auction it off - in his gang is of course the necessary transvestite, a midget and a cross-eyed woman who keeps shooting the wrong people. I don't know if Thailand has ever made a comedy without a transvestite or Lady Boy (transsexual). In a country now like the USA where gender identity has become part of the Culture War, it is hard to explain just how common and accepted it is here. Nobody cares. You go to a restaurant and the lovely waitress who comes to your table will have the voice of a tuk-tuk driver.



There are a bunch of action set-pieces and they are not bad considering. One is right out of Supercop with one of the Angels on the top of a speeding van. Another begins in a sauna with the Angels in towels and goes from there into the mall and then into the street. Towels unfortunately always in place. It is all nutty. The bad guys bring in five killer bounty hunters and suddenly it turns into a wuxia with wires and flying. But the girls have a plan, the old "Trick a snake into a hole". Hmmm. Not sure what that is but it sounds dirty. Just when you think the film is over, they must have realized they still had money left over in the budget and give us a preview of their next mission. And it's a huge gun battle out in the rice fields against an army that goes on for five minutes. The young girl Miki is now part of the Chai Lai Angels - did I mention she is a martial artist who beats up most of the bad guys - and she is behind a machine gun mowing down people. Don't go looking for anything that resembles a film from the West.