‘The Furious’: How Japan’s Tanigaki Kenji Elevated a Steaming Bangkok Red Light District Into a Temple of Martial Arts Action (EXCLUSIVE)
variety.comPatrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The “police station” built in a few days from an old retail unit in Surawong, central Bangkok, is so realistic from the outside that several pedestrians stop and stare, perhaps wondering if this is the place they should come to report some petty crime in the adjacent Patpong red light district.
Inside, the building’s temporary reality as a set for the martial arts action movie “The Furious” is quickly revealed. Among the scuffed and rusting gray metal desks, the ground floor has all the trappings of an active and dow- at-heel cop shop.
There are notices on every wall: wanted posters, mission statements, job ads and regulations. But the giveaway — revealing that the film is set in an unnamed part of Southeast Asia, rather than any specific country — is that the background verbiage is largely in English.
And that in between the police paraphernalia there are piles of lighting and camera equipment being readied for the next take.
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