Thanks to the backing of a new production company called Film Bangkok, Thai cinema finally has a presence on the international scene. But judging from such early efforts as the formulaic comedy The Iron Ladies and the sleek, Hong-Kong-derivative Bangkok Dangerous, it has yet to find its own identity. Equal parts hyper-violent shoot-'em-up and neon-saturated urban romance, Bangkok Dangerous coasts on flash over substance, following the groundwork already laid by John Woo (The Killer) and Wong Kar-Wai (Chungking Express), two leading vanguards in the cinema of cool. Ten years ago, a warmed-over genre entry with deliriously trumped-up style would have seemed more impressive than it does today, when outrageous camera and editing tricks are par for the course. (The sole recent exception, Korean director Lee Myung-se's Nowhere To Hide, pushes its frenetic style to such abstract extremes that it could almost be classified as an experimental film.) Written and directed by the Pang brothers, Danny and Oxide, Bangkok Dangerous is all surface, but it effectively evokes the title city's seedy criminal underworld, a nocturnal subculture that struggles for limited power in the backrooms of nightclubs and strip joints. For all the blood feuds and violence that accompany the life, the rewards aren't especially lucrative: Pawalit Mongkolpisit and Premsinee Ratanasopha, two busy contract killers, both live in decrepit, single-room hovels. Mongkolpisit, a deaf-mute since childhood, appears to have no moral qualms about knocking off lowlifes, silently exacting revenge for his traumatic upbringing. Working in concert with Ratanasopha and his stripper girlfriend (Patharawarin Timkul), Mongkolpisit takes on a heavy workload after his partner catches a bullet in his shooting hand. But he reconsiders the life after he meets the beautiful Pisek Intrakanchit, a pharmacist so sweet-natured and giving that she's introduced handing her ice cream to a scruffy street urchin. A variation of sorts on the "Man With No Name" archetype, Mongkolpisit's silent hitman recalls a more sensitive Chow Yun-Fat hero, and his redemption through the love of a good woman is shamelessly lifted from the John Woo/Chow Yun-Fat classic The Killer. At the same time, the primary colors, kinetic camerawork, and pulsating pop soundtrack owe just as much to Wong Kar-Wai, who told a similar story to much greater effect in Fallen Angels. While it's fine to mine certain genre conventions, Bangkok Dangerous is missing any small spark of originality, the novelty that might have distinguished it from the Hong Kong also-rans. In their first feature together, the Pang brothers show plenty of technical flair, but lack a vision for it to support.