Bangkok Haunted

Tartan's DVD of Bangkok Haunted, released as part of their Asia Extreme collection is Region 0, meaning it will play on any machine, so long as it also supports the PAL format.

There are no problems with picture or sound, with a decent anamorphic widescreen transfer and a 5.1 sound mix that allows for some nice ambient effects.

The film is presented in Thai, with optional English subtitles, which seem to be free from translation errors and are legible throughout.

The most substantive extra is a half hour Making Of documentary. Sounds good. Alas, it's one of those made-for-TV pieces that is more about promotion than critical analysis, or insight.

When you've seen one well-groomed young presenter exchange banalities with scarily identikit guests, as some MTV wannabee production team endeavours to invest the proceedings with their pathetic notions of visual style, you've seen them all. Be it the USA, the UK or Thailand, it's all the same. US cultural hegemony is a wonderful thing, non?

The image also has a permanent "snow" to it - more pronounced on the programme than the film clips - perhaps as a result of PAL conversion.

Other extras comprise the original Thai trailer, an art gallery, star and director filmographies and film notes by Justin Bowyer. In other words, the usual.

The package is rounded off with a trailer gallery for other releases in the Asia Extreme collection: Pang's The Eye and Bangkok Dangerous, Takashi Miike's Shinjuku Triad Society and City of Lost Souls/Hazard City, and Freezer

Overall, an average DVD of an average film.