The Sound Of Horror.(International Edition; FILM)(sound tracks)

Byline: Elisa Mala

Hollywood loves to borrow from Asian thrillers--while adding touches of its own.

In the Opening of "Bangkok Dangerous," star Nicolas Cage sums up his character's vocation in a voice-over: "My job takes me to a lot of places. It's got its downsides. I sleep alone. I eat alone -- I go where I am told. I do what I'm told. I shouldn't complain. The work is steady. The money is good. But it's not for everyone." Indeed: Cage plays a hit man in this remake of the eponymous 1999 Thai film. The stories are similar, but the differences are key--chief among them is the loquaciousness of Cage's character. In the original version, the executioner is a deaf-mute.

"Bangkok Dangerous"--which opened Sept. 5 and has been released in more than 20 countries--is the latest American remake of an Asian film. And what twin brothers and directing duo Danny and Oxide Pang eliminated from their own original underscores the rift between Asian and American cinema. For the past decade, Hollywood has been keen on reinterpreting Eastern thrillers for Western audiences. The appeal lies not only in the idiosyncratic plots and fast-paced action, but also in the bottom line. In 2002, Gore Verbinski's horror flick "The Ring"--based on the 1998 Japanese hit "Ringu," about a videotape that claims the lives of its viewers--grossed $250 million worldwide. Following that success, Japanese filmmaker Takashi Shimizu revived the ghosts that popularized "Ju-On" (2000) for the Hollywood version, "The Grudge" (2004), which earned $187 million in global box-office sales. Martin Scorsese's 2006 crime thriller "The Departed"--based on the Hong Kong hit "Infernal Affairs" (2002)--won four Oscars, including best picture and best director (Scorsese's first), and yielded $289 million at box offices worldwide.

This year alone, examples include "The Eye" and "One Missed Call." The former retells a 2002 Pang brothers film about a blind girl who undergoes an operation to restore her vision and encounters the uncommon complication of seeing ghosts. The latter reinterprets "Chakushin Ari," a 2003 Japanese film by Takashi Miike, in which unsuspecting folks receive voice mails from their future selves foretelling their violent deaths.

The B-film genres of action and horror provide A-level material for cross-cultural remakes. Humor and drama don't always travel well across borders, but suspense requires no explanation: regardless of birthplace or mother tongue, criminals and ghosts are unmistakable. Fear is a universal emotion, and people the world over are scared of similar concepts--evil, death and the unknown.

Still, the key difference between the two "Bangkok Dangerous" doppelgangers --one assassin is a deaf-mute; the other is not--illustrates a clear genetic mutation in the East-West ...