One Take Only [DVD] [2001]

The movie is about a drug dealer called Bank (Pawarit Mongkolpisit who was deaf and mute assassin in Bangkok Dangerous) and Som (Chalermporn Paprach) a student who makes money buy selling her body. The two meet and start to form a relationship. When Bank finds out what Som does for a living he naturally wants her to give it up. So when Bank finds out about a huge and risky deal he decides to take it. The deal goes well, Som quits her job and the two can live a life of luxury. Their good fortune doesn't last for long however when their past catches up with them.

As with Bangkok Dangerous, One Take Only is lots of style and little substance. But where Bangkok Dangerous was new and exciting, One Take Only seems to be a bit slow and frustrating. I just found it hard to sympathise for the lead character. In Bangkok Dangerous we got to see the main characters childhood giving a reason to why he does what he does, yet in One Take Only he just seems to be a drug dealer who gets high and lives with his mother. Don't get me wrong Pawarit Mongkolpisit performance is just as good as in Bangkok Dangerous. I also found Oxide Pang's editing to get very frustrating. I know when you watch a Pang movie you should expect all kinds of flash and fast cut editing but he just used it for no good reason. Maybe he meant it to be ironic but the movie is called One Take Only and yet Oxide seems to like to have scenes where he loops the same few seconds of film so we see it about three times. I found this to be fine the first few times but when the entire movie is made up of things like this you can't help but get frustrated. The movie isn't all bad though; when Oxide doesn't get carried away his editing does give a nice feel to some of the scenes. The last ten minutes of the film is also well shot and the most exiting part of the movie. It also gives an interesting view of life in Bangkok where due to the huge amount people living there you could live in the same apartment as someone and ride the same bus with them everyday and not know even notice them.

Unfortunately the DVD doesn't seem to have that many extras, only film notes, filmoghraphies and trailers. By the way the trailer for One Take Only has some cool looking scenes in which Bank is in a high school with guns and a sword. These scenes aren't actually in the movie as later I found out that the film was made to make young people in Thailand aware of drugs.

Overall this is ok I suppose but will always be in the shadow of Bangkok Dangerous. I'd suggest renting first and only buying to complete your collection of Tartan Asia Extreme.