Elephant White (2011)

An assassin is hired by a businessman to avenge the murder of his daughter by white slave traders in Thailand.

Director:

Prachya Pinkaew

Writer:

Kevin Bernhardt

Stars:

Djimon Hounsou, Markus Waldow, Kevin Bacon

Cast

Credited cast:
Djimon Hounsou	...	Curtie Church
Markus Waldow	...	The Man with the Stopwatch
Kevin Bacon	...	Jimmy
Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul	...	Mae
Weeraprawat Wongpuapan	...	Boss Katha
Apichart Chusakul	...	Advisor Bhun (as Abhijati Jusakul)
Suteerush Channukool	...	Number Two
Sahajak Boonthanakit	...	Rajahdon
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Gigi Velicitat	...	The Drunk Man

Storyline

In Bangkok, the assassin Curtie Church (Djimon Hounsou) is hired by a businessman to kill six men. Job done, the employer proposes another contract to Curtie to kill the lord of the traffickers that had addicted, prostituted and murdered his daughter. Curtie seeks out the Englishman Jimmy that is an arm dealer and he rents heavy weapons. Then Curtie provokes a war between gangs to eliminate the greatest number of white slave traders. Meanwhile, the young prostitute Mae meets Church and helps him to release other girls. When Mae vanishes, Curtie seeks her out and finds the truth about Mae.

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Plot Keywords:

envelope of money | assassin | girl | prostitute | thailand | 

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, language, sexual content, some nudity and drug material

Did You Know?

Trivia

Djimon Hounsou and Kevin Bacon also appeared in Beauty Shop (2005).

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Goofs

When Curtie is talking to Mae, he pulls out a bag of .50 caliber rifle bullets and starts sharpening the tips of them with a file. While that looks very sinister, it is something a serious shooter would never do. A hand filed tip on a bullet could dramatically alter the flight path and make it highly inaccurate. A filed down bullet would also have a negative impact on the air pressure over the projectile and would compromise the expansion and/or overall penetration. It looked very cool, but a pro would never do that.

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Quotes

Curtie Church: We make our own luck.

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Soundtracks

Torn Dee Gwa
Written by Khanngoen Nuanual, Prinya Intachai,
Nay Myo Thant, Jason David Roth
Performed by Khan. Way, Day, Big Calo
Published by Thaitanium Entertainment Music Publishing Group LLC.
Courtesy of Thaitanium Entertainment

User Reviews

Kevin Bacon suited the part.

Elephant White is a B Grade movie. But does that necessarily mean it's bad? NO it doesn't! Djimon Hounsou really impressed me - or should I say, his character did. I get really sick of movies where the hero only disables bad guys so that, after a remarkably fast recovery, they come back to give him more aggravation. Not so Curtie. He is a professional killer who eliminated low-lives very effectively and permanently! Of course, as is so typical with films like this, the bad guys are always terrible shots and probably couldn't hit a barn door at ten paces which is always annoying. Nevertheless, in this movie Curtie (Djimon) does get hit. Fortunately, of course, it wasn't fatal but it certainly gave the film a bit more credibility.

Kevin Bacon really suited playing an Englishman. I have never been much of a KB fan but, for some reason that I can't pinpoint, as a "pom" he was excellent. Someone else (an American) has written that Kevin's English accent was terrible and I would like to ask him how he knows. Kevin's English accent was great and really suited the part! Jason Statham eat your heart out!!

Since I didn't read the IMDb page about this movie, I didn't know that there was a fantasy element - which may or may not have been a good thing depending how you look at it. So when some weird things started happening I was quite taken by surprise. I'm not sure that the film actually needed that either.

Viewers should also bear in mind that this is a Thai film. The director Pracha Pinkaew is Thai and had six previous exploits as a director (half of those with Thai titles) and so they should remember that cultural differences are bound to be evident. He is obviously respected among his peers enough to have been elected president of the Thai Film Directors' Association.

So watch Elephant White with an open mind and enjoy it for what it is. The messages at the beginning of the end credits make it obvious that a statement was being made as well as presented in an entertaining manner. And next time you go to Thailand for a holiday, just think about it.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 May 2011 (USA)

Also Known As:

Elephant White

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Millennium Films, Swingin' Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

91 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1