Thoughts in progress

I haven’t stopped thinking about Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games. I started the book with a view to reading a bit to see how she created so much tension and I got hooked. I couldn't put it down and may even have to read the second book, Catching Fire.

I’m afraid I’m not normally interested in the sci fi/post apocalyptic genre – having said that, I loved Cormac McCarthy’s The Road – and as Carol pointed out in the comments the other day, I also loved Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. Blimey, before I know it I’m going to be writing fantasy sci fi, futuristic world stuff. Maybe not.

Anyway what I’ve been thinking about is that it’s all about a creating a believable world isn’t it? And just because my book is set in 20^th and 21^st century Weald of Kent in England it doesn’t mean my book’s setting has to be less believable because it’s real. What was brilliant about Hunger Games is that I totally bought the world. It was a brilliant mixture of classical references and modern with a push to the extreme.

It makes me realize that the setting that’s another thing that’s not right about my work in progress. I’m considering putting the whole thing through the shredder and then sellotaping it back together to see if there’s any improvement.

Bangkok Dangerous

I’ve just been to see the Pang Brothers’ Bangkok Dangerous with Nicholas Cage. This version is a remake of the Thai film of the same name, which was released in 2000 and also directed by the Pang Brothers.

According to accounts in the local press the original was better. I’ve never been a big fan of Nicholas Cage and it was a bit violent for my taste but if Husband and don’t compromise with movies, we won’t ever see anything together.

My main reason for going was to see how they presented Bangkok. I like seeing places I know in movies – it’s worth remembering that setting is as important to those that know the place, as those that don’t. (I recently read Two Caravans which is set in my home county, and honestly, apart from the names of places, I could hardly ‘see’ the place. I enjoyed the book, but it didn’t feel ‘home.’)

Bangkok Dangerous didn’t feel a big Hollywood movie - despite Nicholas Cage – which is no surprise since the Pang brothers are predominantly Asia based (I think.) When they made the version released in 2000 it was an entirely Thai cast and Thai production team. I was delighted to see that the Nicolas Cage version was mostly a Thai production team too. One of the concessions they made to the second making of the film was the hit man in the original was a deaf mute – but my local rag says ‘Since the A-lister “needs to have some lines,” the twin directors make the hit man’s girlfriend deaf mute instead.’

Poor Nicholas Cage had to run around Bangkok in full motorbike leathers so he spent a lot of the film looking unattractively greasy. I did wonder what the love interest saw in him. The girls in the go-go club looked way too cheerful from the limited experience I’ve got of being inside those places. The majority of them have looked sad and bored when I’ve taken tourist friends inside.

They made our home look pretty real, I thought: filthy, polluted, busy, colourful, friendly and characterful.