Toss in a delightful bunch of rag-tag heroes, some love for the lore of the Wild West, even more love for Spaghetti Westerns, and absolutely no love for an occupying wartime army and their local toadies, and you’ve got most of the components lined up for Netflix’s Gold Rush Gang, a fun action-comedy from Thai filmmaker Wisit Sasanatieng (The Whole Truth). Phetthai Wongkamlao stars as Ko-Wah, a bandit out of legend whose pitched campaign against the Imperial Japanese Army in Thailand hits a few snags when his personal life – a lost love, and a daughter he never knew – intrudes on his plan to pull a Robin Hood on a haul of World War II gold coveted by the Empire of Japan. Sure, the CGI stuff in Gold Rush is more than obvious. But the camaraderie and romance is all real.
The Gist: On horses and motorcycles, our heroes clock their quarry, a Japanese army convoy moving through the valley below. When Ko-Wah (Wongkhamlao) gives the signal, Yada (Chingduang Duijkers) lights her flaming crossbow darts, Jong (Thiti Mahayotaruk) draws his revolvers, Dum (Ophaphoom Chitaphan) ripples his muscles, and Mont (Na Chat Juntapun) crushes out a stogie after lighting his bomb fuses. A platoon of hardened, heavily-armed Japanese regulars? They’re no match for the stylings of Ko-Wah’s crew, who proceed to dance between their bullets and all of the flying, digitally-rendered blood spray.
With that thrilling opening, we’re introduced to the bandits at the center of Gold Rush Gang, as well as the tone of this film, which combines war violence with hijinks, slapstick, and later, lots of romantic sentiment.
Ko-Wah and his young followers have become a kind of family. And as they feed the Thai people with spoils from raids on occupying Japanese forces, their latest bit of bounty has yielded a tantalizing target. It’s a map for a troop train traveling on the route between Burma and the Malay Peninsula, laden with gold bars. That they can knock it over is not in doubt. But trouble arises when the gang leaves their mountain hideout to gather intelligence in town. Not only are the local officials in cahoots with the Japanese generals; one of them, the cruel and villainously-mustached police lieutenant Luang Arun Piwat (Weerayut Nancha), has loads of personal history with Ko-Wah. In flashbacks, we learn more about that. How Luang stole Ko-Wah’s true love Chomchan (Nat Myria Benedetti) away from him. And once in the streets, everyone – but especially Jong – is taken with Chompen (Punpreedee Khumprom Rosaward), the prettiest young lady in town. Love is a wonder, even in wartime. But when there’s a job to do, romance can be its own kind of trouble.
Gold Rush Gang happily combines low-brow bits about kicks in the nuts with a wonderful sense of camaraderie between Ko-Wah and his bandit family. It’ll show you limbs tumbling through the air, and soldiers mowed down with machine guns. But Ko-Wah’s also got a guy who follows him into battle playing piphat 78s on a gramophone. In other words, it’s a film of enjoyable tonal contrasts, especially as the romantic subplots start their own fires. Whether that’s enough to counteract the heavy hand of digital effects in Gold Rush Gang, well, that’s up to you.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of? OK it’s a series, not a film. But the look and feel of Gold Rush Gang immediately reminded us of Song of the Bandits, where swaggering freedom fighters take on their Japanese occupiers in 1920s Korea. You might recognize Gold Rush star Phetthai Wongkamlao, who is sometimes billed as Mum Jokmok, from the Ong-Bak martial arts movies, which also feature Tony Jaa. And we also thinking about Sisu, a wild Finnish action film with a determined gold prospector, his violent Nazi pursuers, and a fair bit of fucking with reality.
Memorable Dialogue: Ko-Wah repeats parts of his principled manifesto throughout Gold Rush Gang. “I’m not an outlaw,” he tells Chomchan at one point. “The crooked merchants and corrupt officials, will they stop what they’re doing? Doors have locks and we have Glocks!”
Performance Worth Watching: Nat Myria Benedetti and Punpreedee Khumprom Rosaward are both quite lovely in Gold Rush as Chomchan and Chompen, decked out in their 1940s-style glamour. Who wouldn’t want to rescue them from the clutches of Japan’s Imperial Army, or a local Thai heavy who literally wears a twisty moustache, as if he was about to tie them to some railroad tracks?
Sex and Skin: None, but lots of yearning and romantic swells.
Our Take: With Gold Rush Gang, we were hooked the second Ko-Wah unveiled his secret weapon against an advancing throng of Japanese soldiers. Throwing axes up his sleeves? Yes. But also an entire motorcycle sidecar full of extra throwing axes. Gags like this are regularly inserted beside action more typical of war movies in Gold Rush, and that disparity – not to mention cues the closed-captions literally describe as “goofy music” – might not work were it not for the heightened sense of fun everybody is having in this film, as well as its sound direction from Wisit Sasanatieng, who strikes a solid balance between slapstick, crassness, and wholly-invested sentiment, once the romance angle starts to kick in. He’s also got dastardly interlopers in here, and damsels in distress, which also helps sell all of its hearty references to Western film tradition.
In short, we were swept up in Gold Rush Gang, which helped us look past the digital effects it uses to achieve its larger-format wartime setpieces. Truth: that can make it look strained. But we weren’t taken out of the film at all, because we were too busy rooting for Ko-Wah and his band of young fighters. We love a rag-tag crew!
Our Call: Stream It. Gold Rush Gang is funny, even wacky, as it sets up a big train heist in World War II Thailand. But the film’s sometimes jarring tonal shifts are more than sold by an invested cast and a few big dollops of classically-styled romance.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.