What a viewNetflix crime thriller Bangkok Breaking shines spotlight on Thailand capital’s mean streets, while Museum of Shadows investigates haunted places
- Struggling to earn a living in the big city, a man investigating his brother’s death soon realises he must unravel a shocking conspiracy in Bangkok Breaking
- Amazon Prime’s Museum of Shadows takes a look at some spooky exhibits that have produced ‘real encounters with the paranormal’
It’s the first time in the big city for Wanchai (yes, that’s really his name), who takes a bus into Bangkok to meet his brother, Jo, who has promised him a job. But before they can meet, an out-of-control sports car – looking like a Fast & Furious escapee – flies through the air at their rendezvous point, crashes into a street market and leaves 12 people dead.
Among them is Jo – who, it appears, wasn’t a spotless good guy as thought, but was enmeshed in dodgy underworld dealings orchestrated by a hippie left over from Woodstock calling himself Hardcore (Bhasaworn Bawronkirati).
Such is the intriguing set-up for taut Thai action thriller Bangkok Breaking (Netflix, series one now streaming), which pitches us straight into a conduit for crime few might expect.
With a lamentable safety record on its roads (see above), Thailand and particularly Bangkok (at least in this series) have given rise to private, voluntary organisations whose ambulance crews regularly beat the official rescuers to accident scenes. But as Wanchai discovers, the volunteers also steal valuables from victims and use emergency vehicles to ferry drugs around the capital.
Not surprisingly, corruption’s tentacles reach higher than the tarmac: to a newspaper proprietor who fires journalists rather than publish the truth; a publicity-addict entrepreneur always ready for a photo op; and government representatives who hand out sole-supplier contracts when palms are sufficiently greased.