Kane Kosugi Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Bloat,’ starring Ben McKenzie, Bojana Novakovic, Malcolm Fuller, Sawyer Jones and Kane Kosugi

April 14, 2025

by Carla Hay

Ben McKenzie (pictured at top) and Sawyer Jones (pictured at bottom) in “Bloat” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

Directed by Pablo Absento

Culture Representation: Taking place in Japan and in the United States, the horror film “Bloat” features a white and Asian group of people representing the working-class and the middle-class.

Culture Clash: A U.S. Army official, whose wife and two sons are temporarily living in Japan while he is on duty in the U.S., finds out that his younger son has been infected during a drowning accident and appears to be possessed by a demon.

Culture Audience: “Bloat” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and who don’t mind watching boring and idiotic horror movies.

Kane Kosugi in “Bloat” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

Much of the insipid horror movie “Bloat” consists of people looking at computer screens and being confused. That’s because this atrocious movie (about a father trying to do online help for his demon-possessed 10-year-old son) is a terrible and boring mess. The editing is sloppy, the plot is often nonsensical, and “Bloat” isn’t even that scary. And the ending of the film is absolutely horrible because it leaves a big question unanswered.

Written and directed by Pablo Absento, “Bloat” is his feature-film debut. Horror movies that rely heavily on scenes were people are just looking at screens that are on computers and phones have to maintain a certain level of suspense and tension. “Bloat” completely fails in this regard. The movie is often unfocused and has a contradictory timeline with too many plot holes.

“Bloat” begins by showing home video footage of U.S. Army official Jack Reynolds (played by Ben McKenzie, one of the producers of “Bloat”) and his wife Hannah Reynolds (played by Bojana Novakovic) in a hospital delivery room as she gives birth to their third child: a daughter named Ava. (Jack’s military title is never revealed in the movie, but conversations imply he’s a mid-level official.) Ava (who looks red and bloated when she is born) is suddenly taken away by alarmed medical professionals in the room. Hannah shouts with fear when she asks why they are taking Ava away.

The movie then abruptly cuts to text messages that are being sent between Jack and Hannah. The messages reveal that Ava died at the hospital. The cause of death is never revealed in the movie. It’s also never made clear how long ago Ava died, but Jack and Hannah are understandably grieving.

Hannah texts this message: “Jack, we lost a child, she’s gone. Let’s make sure we don’t lose what we still have.” It’s soon revealed that Jack and Hannah have two other children: Their son Steve (played by Malcolm Fuller) is about 12 or 13 years old. Their son Kyle (played by Sawyer Jones) is 10 years old.

To help with their grief, Jack and Hannah decide to take a family vacation trip with their sons to Japan. They book an Airbnb house in Tokyo to stay at during the family’s visit to Japan. However, right before they are supposed to go on the trip, U.S. military bases and facilities are attacked in Iraq and Syria. Jack is ordered to stay in the United States. He tells Hannah that she, Steve and Kyle should still go ahead with the trip to Japan.

“Bloat” is so poorly written, it has contradicting information on what year that Kyle became possessed. In one part of the movie, it says he became possessed in 2018. In another part of the movie, which is supposed to take place abut four to eight weeks later, the year is shown as 2020.

After Hannah, Steve and Kyle arrive in Japan, Hannah sends videos and does live video calls with Jack so he can see their activities. On a family outing at a lake, a tragedy occurs: Four boys who were on a school trip drowned in the lake. Kyle had also been swimming in the lake at the time and almost drowned, but he survived because a Japanese friend of the Reynolds family—a nurse name Iriko—happened to be there too and saved Kyle from drowning.

Iriko is never seen or heard from in the movie. It’s a weird loose end that is never explained, considering all the medical problems that Kyle experiences in Japan when he is far away from home. Why mention a “family friend” nurse character who saved Kyle from drowning, and then never bring the character into the movie? What kind of “nurse friend” never checks in with the family of the child she saved from drowning? It’s an example of the sloppy screenwriting in “Bloat.”

An alarmed Jack sees news video footage of Kyle being pulled from the lake. Kyle has strange green bile coming out of his mouth. Visitors’ cell phones aren’t allowed in the hospital where Kyle is getting medical treatment, so it takes a while before Jack can find out what’s going on from Steve and Hannah. Eventually, Kyle is discharged from the hospital and stays with his Hannah and Steve at the rented Airbnb house in Tokyo.

Through video calls and text messages from Steve, Jack finds out that Kyle just hasn’t been the same since Kyle’s near-death experience. Kyle has become moody, withdrawn and occasionally violent. Kyle barely talks and has become almost mute. He also has a vacant look in his eyes and doesn’t seem to connect with people who try to talk to him.

There’s a disturbing incident that Jack sees in a video call. Steve and Kyle are fighting over a small frog that Kyle wants to keep with him. Kyle has a temper-tantrum meltdown where he repeatedly shouts, “Get away from my frog!”

Kyle then bites Steve hard enough on Steve’s right arm to break the skin and leave a noticeable injury. When Jack plays back the video and does a freeze-frame right after Kyle has bitten Steve, Jack sees that Kyle’s eyes appear to be demonic and glowing. Jack wants to think it’s a technical glitch, but over time, he begins to wonder if Kyle is possessed.

Kyle is put into therapy with Dr. Shinji Ishikawa (played by Motoki Kobayashi), an English-speaking therapist based in Tokyo. Dr. Ishikawa, who treats children and adults, has diagnosed Kyle with having post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The doctor advises Jack that it will takes some time before progress can be made in Kyle’s recovery.

However, Jack becomes impatient. And he starts to believe Steve’s theory that Kyle could be possessed by an unknown entity. Steve has been using a “baby cam” to secretly record Kyle in his bedroom and finds out that Kyle has been hoarding and eating dead insects and rotten cucumbers that Kyle hides underneath his bed.

Steve shows Jack this disturbing footage, which is enough for Jack to be even more convinced that something else is going on with Kyle that is not PTSD. Jack goes on the Dark Web and finds a support group called Parents of Possessed Kids. The only way to join the group is if access is approved, so there’s period of time where Jack has to wait for access.

Hannah is in complete denial about how serious Kyle’s problems are. Steve also tells Jack that Hannah is starting to drink more alcohol and might be taking pills again. Conversations between Steve and Jack imply that Hannah was in recovery for an addiction problem but she has now relapsed. As time goes on, Jack grows concerned that Hannah seems to be drunk every time he calls.

Hannah, Steve and Kyle are supposed to be on vacation, but the movie acts like they’re expected to stay in Japan during Kyle’s recovery, which is for an extended and undetermined period of time. “Bloat” doesn’t have any realistic discussions about visa issues for an extended stay or why Kyle isn’t getting treatment in the United States. After all, if Hannah, Steve and Kyle went back to the United States to live with Jack, there would be no need for the movie’s botched gimmick of Jack only able to see his family through video chats.

“Bloat” goes off on several tangents that are clumsily handled. Jack has an Army buddy named Ryan Aoki (played by Kane Kosugi), who accepts Jack’s request to go to Tokyo to check on Hannah, Steve and Kyle. A screenshot in the movie shows that Ryan goes to visit the Reynolds family in Tokyo in September 2020. And yet, earlier in the movie, it shows that Kyle’s near-drowning accident happened on February 18, 2018. But based on the way the timeline is explained in the movie, the Reynolds family has been in Japan for only four to eight weeks (at the most) by the time Ryan goes to visit.

Jack’s family problems cause distractions for him at work, where he shows up late for meetings, so his commanding officer gets increasingly frustrated and angry with Jack. The movie’s explanation for Jack not going to Japan, even though he has a family emergency, is he has been strictly ordered to stay at his military base in the United States and could be charged with going AWOL (absent without leave) if he leaves without permission. Because of the contradictory timeline, the movie does a horrible job of explaining how long Jack has been away from his family.

Jack and Ryan do some research that involves an unnamed Japanese monk (played by Hiroshi Watanabe) and a past news report about an American father named Derrick (played by Royce Johnson) whose son Gary went through a situation that was similar to what Kyle is going through. There’s some nonsense in the movie about an ancient water-dwelling demon named Kappa. Steve wants to play detective too, so he does things like secretly follow and film Kyle into a wooded area where Kyle sneaks off to at night.

The acting performances in “Bloat” are nothing special and are often very tedious. Most of the movie’s characters have flat and underdeveloped personalities. The not-surprising-at-all reveal of a demon monster is underwhelming. It leads to an inevitable part of the movie where an exorcism of Kyle is planned.

The last 10 minutes of the film bring an abrupt and slipshod turn to the story. “Bloat” could have been a much better movie if it had a clever screenplay, skilled direction, and engaging performances. Ironically, this movie about a fateful drowning accident purposely drowns itself in mishandled and dull filmmaking.

Lionsgate released “Bloat” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and on VOD on March 7, 2025.

Review: ‘One Night in Bangkok,’ starring Mark Dacascos, Kane Kosugi and Vanida Golten

September 7, 2020

by Carla Hay

“One Night in Bangkok”

Directed by Wych Kaosayananda

Culture Representation: This crime drama, which takes place in the Thailand capital of Bangkok, features a predominantly Asian cast (with a few white people) representing the middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A man on a deadly revenge mission hires an unsuspecting rideshare driver to take him to various places where he murders people.

Culture Audience: “One Night in Bangkok” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching dull, derivative and mindlessly violent movies.

Vanida Golten in “One Night in Bangkok” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

The crime drama “One Night in Bangkok” has nothing to do with Murray Head’s 1985 “Chess” musical song “One Night in Bangkok.” And unfortunately, logic and good storytelling had nothing do with this dreadful movie.

“One Night in Bangkok” is really just a vastly inferior ripoff of director Michael Mann’s 2004 thriller “Collateral,” starring Jamie Foxx and Tom Cruise as a taxi driver and a hitman who are caught up in the hitman’s murder spree during the course of one night. Foxx earned an Oscar nomination for his role in “Collateral,” which was also Oscar-nominated for its film editing. The only distinction that “One Night in Bangkok” has is that it’s one movie in a long list of bad movies written and directed by Wych Kaosayananda, who also directed and co-wrote the notorious 2002 stinker “Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever,” starring Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu.

“Collateral” was told from the point of view of the driver, but “One Night in Bangkok” shifts the point of view to the hitman. His name is Kai Khale (played by Mark Dacascos), an American who has traveled from Hawaii to Bangkok. When he arrives in Bangkok, he is picked up by an unidentified man on a motorbike. The mystery man gives Kai a duffel bag that contains cash, a mobile phone and a gun with a silencer. Kai’s demeanor is calm and measured, as if he knows where he’s going but he’s in no big rush to get there.

The next thing that Kai does is call a rideshare service. He books a ride with a driver named Vanida “Fha” Hoffstead (played by Vanida Golten). It’s now 8:10 p.m. Kai and Fha strike up a pleasant conversation on the way to his first destination, which is an insurance company. Kai says he’s going there to see a lawyer. It’s an unusual time to have an appointment at an insurance company, but Fha assumes that the lawyer must be working late.

Fha tells Kai a little bit about herself during their small talk. She says she prefers to be a rideshare driver at night because she has more time during night hours. But then Kai gets a little creepy and starts asking her some inappropriate personal questions, such as asking her how she deals with men who proposition her because she’s so pretty.

Kai also asks Fha, who tells him that she’s single, why she’s not married. “I never got around to it,” she replies. Kai is so polite when he makes these intrusive comments, and even apologizes in advance for being so nosy, that Fha openly answers his questions with no hesitation.

Fha also reveals a little bit of her background: She’s lived in Thailand for her entire life. Her father is British, and her mother is Thai. Fha also mentions that her brother has multiple sclerosis. Kai sympathetically replies that he used to be a field medic “a long time ago.”

He won’t say much else about himself, except when he rambles later in the conversation about how much he loves fishing. (You can bet that there’s a reason why fishing is brought up in the story.) Fha says that she studied English in college, but she’s still trying to learn to speak English better, which she does mostly by watching movies and YouTube videos.

Kai then continues with his nosy questions, by asking Fha what she makes as a rideshare driver on a typical Friday night. She tells him that she can make $1,000 to $1,200 on a good Friday night. Kai then tells her that after he leaves the insurance company, he has to make four more stops at four different places: a police station, a nightclub, a hospital and a house.

Kai offers Fha $5,000 in cash if she drives him to all of the stops on his journey. He says that he can give her $1,000 as an up-front deposit, and that she’s free to end the trip at any time. Fha will get the remaining $4,000 if she drives Kai to all of the places that he requested that night.

At this point, anyone with street smarts would suspect that there’s an illegal reason for this unusual offer. Why else would the payment be so high for the simple task of driving someone to more than one destination? However, Fha seems to be easily fooled because Kai is wearing a business suit and has a smooth and polite demeanor.

Fha asks him why he needs to make these stops, and Kai replies that it’s about a case involving his daughter and her family. Kai also says he needs to “repay” the people involved in the case. Kai also tells Fha that she can ask him any questions, but she can’t look in his duffel bag. Instead of seeing these “red flag” warning signs that she’s about to mixed up in something illegal if she says yes, Fha agrees to the deal and foolishly mentions that it’s because she needs the money.

Of course, Kai isn’t in Bangkok on legal business. He has a vendetta that he’s going to carry out by murdering at every stop that he makes. The reason for this killing spree is revealed in the last third of the movie. There’s also a surprise “twist” which isn’t that shocking, considering everything that happened up to this point had signs indicating that there would be this “twist.”

Kai kills the people on his hit list in a methodical way and by making no attempt to disguise himself. One of the victims fights back, and the brawl leaves Kai with a big bloody gash on his bald head. When Fha sees the wound, Kai gives a flimsy excuse that he fell down somewhere. Fha’s reaction is to treat his head wound as if she’s the friendly neighborhood rideshare nurse and then she continues on the journey with him. Little by little, Kai tells Fha the real reason for his trip to Bangkok.

Meanwhile, a dumb movie like this has to operate under the premise that a big city like Bangkok only has a few bungling cops who are investigating this alarming shooting spree that’s taking place in a short period of time. (The whole story is supposed to take place within a six-hour period.) It’s the kind of movie where the cops show up too late at a crime scene and don’t make good use of surveillance video to figure out quicker who’s the killer.

The lead police investigator is named Dom (played by Michael S. New), whose cop partner is named Korn (played by Prinya Intachai), and their handling of the investigation is amateurish at best. Dom is so incompetent that he has to call his cop wife, who’s on maternity leave at home, to ask her to do some of his computer work for him. There’s also an unnamed Japanese fixer (played by Kane Kosugi) who’s part of the story.

The biggest problem with “One Night in Bangkok” (besides the terrible acting) is that for a movie that’s supposed to be a thriller, the pacing is too slow. The actors often speak at a sluggish and wooden pace. And there’s not much suspense to the story.

Kai goes from one murder to another with empty-headed Fha, who hasn’t figured out that whatever money she’s being offered by this stranger, it isn’t worth becoming an accomplice to murder. Surveillance cameras and eyewitnesses would be able to identify her as the getaway driver, since her car is being used in this killing spree.

It’s not a spoiler to say that Fha eventually finds out that Kai is killing people. And the reason why she stays with him is as pathetic as this movie: “You’re the first man in my life who’s showed me respect,” Fha says to Kai when she tells him why she won’t abandon him during his murder spree.

Fha’s complacency is probably the biggest difference between “One Night in Bangkok” and “Collateral,” which derived much of its suspense from the driver wanting to get away from the hitman. There is no such tension in “One Night in Bangkok,” which gets worse as the killings go on, because Kai gets messier and more brazen with each killing, and Fha does nothing to stop him. The worst scene is in the hospital, which ridiculously has no staffers and visitors when Kai does what he does there.

Sometimes a poorly written movie with terrible acting can be watchable if there’s enough action and suspense. Because “One Night in Bangkok” falls short in all of these areas, what’s left are a lot of bloody scenes, characters people won’t care about, and viewers’ sinking feeling that they could’ve spent 105 minutes of their time in a much better way than watching this boring dreck.

Lionsgate released “One Night in Bangkok” on digital, DVD and VOD on August 25, 2020.