Wych Kaosayananda

The son of Thai diplomat Kaosayananda, he lived and studied in Pakistan, where his father was posted in Islamabad as an ambassador. His directorial debut was Fah, released in 1998, which at the time was the highest-budgeted film in the history of the Thai film industry, but failed in the Thai box office.

His second film and American debut (which he directed under the shortened name "Kaos") was the 2002 thriller Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, which upon release was widely panned by both critics and moviegoers as one of the worst films ever made. In March 2007, Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film #1 among "The Worst of the Worst" movie list.[1]

Kaosayananda's post Ballistic films include Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge (2014), Zero Tolerance (2015) & One Night In Bangkok (2020).

Wych Kaosayananda disowned the film and claims to hate it. On producer's interference with the film and his reaction with how it turned out, he stated: "Well, I'll try to explain this as best as I can: I did my first cut which as I understood it was just that-my first cut which was the script as shot and fine tuned. There were scenes I wasn't sure of, but liked. And we also tested the movie; One scene in particular lost the audience and the experience wasn't very good. It was a little heavy on melodrama, and I own that. I loved the scene, but also was afraid it wouldn't work and could easily be cheesy. But again, I honestly felt that was what the tests were for, and I was wrong. We didn't score well and based on that test, two producers who I was already having issues with for various reasons basically just took over the movie. I found out as I was on my way to the editing room two days after the test screening and just a day after having a big meeting with Warner Bros. executives and marketing people, who were terrific by the way. By the time I got to the edit suites, my editor was Caroline Ross, a wonderful person and a great editor, was also fired and replaced, after all those hours and weeks I spent with her. And I wasn't too pleased to say the least. So, after consulting with my agents at CAA, it was decided it was best to just walk away quietly and they'd focus on getting my next job. I still had a great relationship with the executives at Warner Bros. I had things in development with Fox 2000 and RKO and we'd just move on. The problem was, I couldn't. I'd shot an old school actioner in 2002 with the Steve McQueen classic Bullitt (1968) as my template. My DP and I had specific needs to be met with the way we shot it, especially when it came to all the action scenes I choreographed while working with Joel Kramer - one the best stunt coordinators in his field. But despite our best efforts, the movie was butchered to the point where certain shots were flipped because the edit no longer made sense. And yes, this also affected the sequencing and pacing of the action - it was horrible to watch. Just so you know, I had only ever seen the theatrical cut once with no audio, during the colour grade with Julio, my DP. At the premier I waited until the movie had been playing for thirty minutes before taking my seat. I did this because I knew the movie was bad. I pretty much hyperventilated for the whole evening."

He released a statement on changes made to the film, saying: "After casting, the real challenges started. We were going to shoot everything in Bangkok while we retouched the script to fit the location. Then the notes came in, and I won't get into the details but there are only two things anyone needs to know about the changes that were made by request from the studio. One: In the original draft, Sever kidnaps Ecks' son, and the whole time, the boy is basically kept in a kid-sized glass box just big enough for him to sit in, placed on top of a kilo of C4. That was changed. Two: There was no other motivation for the characters. It was all about family. Gant "kills" Ecks and takes his wife, Vinn, and their son, with both believing each other to be dead. Meanwhile, Sever wants revenge for the death of her family at the hands of Gant and his men. So, believing it was Gant's son, she kidnaps him and Ecks springs into action. It was all about love and family and nothing else. The nano technology included in the final draft had nothing to do with what I wanted for the story. Granted, we had a fantastic writer. Franchise Pictures brought Peter M. Lenkov to rewrite Alan B. McElroy's script and he did a great job with the instructions he was given. Yes, there were changes made that watered it down to my chagrin, but it was as satisfactory as it needed to be at the time and everybody was on board. Then, tragedy struck in September 2001 and we had to relocate from Bangkok to Vancouver for safety reasons. Those moving expenses ended up in cutting more action scenes out, but thankfully our terrific crew made things feel much easier."[2]

Zero Tolerance was previously completed and released only in Vietnam under the title of Angels. Unfortunately, Kaosayananda found it difficult to sell his film to distributors because Angels was more of a drama than an action film. Therefore, Kaosayananda decided to add action star Scott Adkins into the mix for marquee value and to reshoot and re-edit the entire film in order to craft more of a stream lined actioner that would interest buyers. This re-edited version, entitled Zero Tolerance, is the cut of the film that has been released to the rest of the world.[3]

Dead Earth tells a parallel story to Kaosayananda’s The Driver, focusing on events that happen within the same post-apocalyptic world, with characters and locations intersecting between both films.[4]

Director

• Fah (1998)
• Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
• Angels (2012)
• Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge (2014)
• Zero Tolerance (2015)
• The Driver (2019)
• Two of Us (2020)
• One Night In Bangkok (2020)
• Maxx (TBA)
• Bangkok Love Story (TBA)

Producer

• Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)
• Angels (2012)
• The Lost Medallion: The Adventures of Billy Stone (2013)
• The Driver (2019)
• Two of Us (2020)
• One Night In Bangkok (2020)
• Maxx (TBA)

Writer

• Fah (1998)
• Angels (2012)
• Zero Tolerance (2015)
• The Driver (2019)
• Two of Us (2020)
• One Night In Bangkok (2020)
• Maxx (TBA)
• Bangkok Love Story (TBA)

Cinematographer

• The Mark (2012)
• The Mark: Redemption (2013)
• Once Upon a Time In Vietnam (2013)
• Tekken: Kazuya's Revenge (2014)
• Zero Tolerance (2015)
• The Driver (2019)
• Invincible (2020)
• One Night In Bangkok (2020)
• The Gunrunner (TBA)

• Wych Kaosayananda at IMDb
• Wych Kaosayananda Interview on Anchor