Magnolia Pictures | 2006 | 102 mins. | Rated R
A screwball comedy actioner from Thailand, Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers, has borrowed heavily from Aaron Spelling’s Charlie’s Angels, and thrown in a dash of Hong Kong ‘girls-with-guns’ style filmmaking for good measure. Not to be accused of lacking originality, the filmmakers have infused their own brand of black humor, plenty of bikini clad romps, and a rather strange, if well meaning, pro environment message. Be warned; this is strictly low brow entertainment. Most of the action sequences are as zany as a typical Three Stooges skit (though The Stooges were hilarious), consisting of mediocre martial arts fighting, lots and lots of guns, and a big tank.
Dragon (Nithichai Yotamornsunthorn) and his criminal organization of misfits, including a male transvestite named King Kong (Wanasak Srilar) and an idiotic, cross-eyed underling, are intent on finding the priceless Pearl of Andaman. There’s only one guy who knows where the pearl is, so they decide to kidnap his daughter Miki (Narawan Techaratanaprasert) to try and find out the location.
Enter five beautiful female agents who live in a mansion, work for a mysterious secret agent (Petchtai Wongkamlao) who sends them on various missions, and are all code-named after flowers. Rose (Bongkoj Khongmalai) is the sweet yet fierce high-society beauty with a baby-faced beau she hopes to marry. Pouy-sian (Kessarin Ektawatkul) is an attractive agent with strong martial arts skills. Lotus (Supakson Chaimongkol) is a revenge-seeking agent still haunted by the death of her husband-to-be during an assassination attempt at her wedding. Hibiscus (Jintara Poonlarp is ordinary looking, and would be considered the klutzy member of the group. She gains unexpected support from her new boyfriend, Chen (Krit Sripoomsed), a resourceful young police officer who looks like a front man for a boy band. Last but not least there is Spadix (Bunyawan Pongsuwan), the most aggressive member of the team who aquires near-superhuman strength when angry. The girls are tasked with protecting Miki and stopping Dragon from acquiring the pearl.
From an altercation on an airplane to a chase through city streets, the girls find themselves in one action sequence after another. It’s worth noting that they seem to do all of this in as little clothes as possible. Heck, the battles with Dragon’s thugs are so intense, that at one point the girls are seen coming out of a massage parlor wrapped in towels to fight King Kong and his cronies around a lobby escalator. Later, when the girls are attacked at their residence, they appear to be outnumbered and down for the count until Hibiscus and Chen arrive with reinforcements; by way of a military tank.
Miki is eventually kidnapped but not before unloading a world of hurt upon her captors. She eventually inadvertently reveals the location of the pearl to Dragon. The bad guys and three of the Chai Lais, sporting bikinis, converge on the spot for a brief exchange before Dragon escapes with the treasure.
In the end, Dragon holds a private auction for the pearl that the Chai Lai’s and police predictably crash. The bad guys scatter, and the Chai Lai’s run them down.
If you’re looking for looking for a cheesy, over-the-top Thai actioner for a rainy Saturday night, give this one a look. Otherwise, there’s plenty of other fish in the sea to choose from.
The video in this release is given in an anamorphic 1.78:1 ratio widescreen color format. The picture quality is adequate. It suffers from a noticeable grain, which appears to occur as a result of video compression. During the action sequences, it is not uncommon for the camera to slightly jerk up and down.
The audio track is dubbed English and Thai 5.1 Dolby digital surround. The sound quality is good. It sounds lot better than it looks, although some of the dubbed dialogue sounds almost out of place. It also does not match up with the English subtitles. In addition to English subtitles, it is subtitled in Spanish.
The film includes the following special features:
• Making of Chai Lai Angels: Dangerous Flowers (13:58): is a subtitled behind the scenes featurette. It opens with director Poj Arnon talking about what the movie is about and its message to the audience. It continues with more interviews and behind the scenes footage from various cast members.
• Music Videos (7:58): are included for “We Are… Chai Lai” and “Chai Lai”.
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