*SPOILERS
AHEAD*

Steven Seagal’s residence in direct-to-video
fare is something of an economic coincidence. Seagal’s bankability was
always tied to what his movies earned on video, but eventually,
three events over a short period of time facilitated his slide into relative obscurity. These were: (1) the crash of the home video
market and his subsequent reduced profitability, (2) the Hong Kong revolution
in Hollywood which outdated his personal style of action, and (3) the events of
9/11 which temporarily made Hollywood sensitive to violence in the media and lowered the demand for action features. By
late 2002, Seagal was no longer a top-tier actor, but having been one of the
two biggest martial arts stars of the western hemisphere allowed him to settle comfortably
into the B-movie realm. Many fans lament Seagal’s state as DTV lord, but I’m pleased
with it. Working outside the mainstream has allowed him to interact with more
interesting and eclectic filmmakers than ever before, and of all his films,
none is more interesting, eclectic, or weirder than Belly of the Beast.

The movie opens in “Thailand, 1994,” where CIA agent Jake Hopper (Seagal) and
his partner Sunti (Byron Mann) are discussing business with two underworld
figures. Things aren’t going well: the gangsters’ armed thugs are closing
in on the meeting, and when Jake sees one of the villains go for a weapon, Sunti
and he have to shoot their way to freedom. They get separated, and in the heat of
things, Sunti mistakenly shoots a woman holding a child. A horrified Sunti is then
hit by one of the gunmen, but before the shooter can finish him off, Jake comes
to his rescue. As the opening credits leave Sunti lying on the ground, little does the audience realize that his journey will end up being more relevant than Jake’s.

Ten years later, Jake’s retired from the CIA and makes his living as a
professional thief. We’re treated to a pretty unique heist wherein he breaks
into a wealthy residence, cracks a safe’s security code, casually steals a bottle
of water from the fridge, and partakes in some gratuitous sliding across
the floor. The sliding is our first glance of the film’s stylistic flair,
courtesy of Hong Kong director Siu-Tung Ching (AKA Tony Ching) making his debut
in American features. Later, when Jake gives the stolen data disc to his old
Agency friend and buyer (Martin McDougall), he’s told that his daughter Jessica
(Sara Malakul Lane) has been kidnapped while vacationing in Thailand.
She and her friend Sarah (Elidh MacQueen) – the daughter of a U.S. senator – are
apparently being held by the Abu Karaf militant group, who demand the release
of prisoners in U.S. custody. Not trusting the government to save his daughter,
Hopper heads to Thailand himself.

He isn’t in Thailand for but a few minutes before an attempt is made on his
life. We don’t know how the villains anticipated his arrival, but we see that
they’re no match for him, as he demolishes his attackers in the middle of a
market. We also don’t know the identity of the creepy old man who
watches Hopper from a distance, but the sight of him terrifies the one
remaining assailant so much that he flees and accidentally fillets himself on a
meat cleaver. As the stranger disappears, Jake probably realizes how vulnerable
he is on his own, and will soon move to change that.

The market brawl is another demonstration of director Ching’s influence. Simply, it’s a grand departure from Seagal’s typical fight scenes.
Whereas Seagal’s characters usually dispatch opponents with throws and
bone-breaking maneuvers, Jake Hopper employs kung fu of the showiest variety,
complete with pose-striking and spin kicks. However, it’s clearly not
actually Seagal performing the more athletic moves, but a double (Dian Hristov). Seagal’s
reliance on a stunt double in this and many other DTV movies has led to
criticism from viewers who call his ability and commitment into question.
While the doubling can be jarring, I’m personally impressed by the presentation and how it spices up Seagal’s repertoire. Hong Kong choreographers
have worked on his movies before, but Belly
of the Beast is the only one of his films to feature full-blown Hong
Kong-style fight scenes.

TRIVA: Siu-Tung Ching opted to shoot as
much of the action as possible without Seagal’s involvement, bringing his star
onto the set only to film specific shots. Trouble arose when Seagal wanted to
shoot his performance in ways that wouldn’t correspond with the existing
footage, and eventually Ching and his stunt crew left the set until
producers assured them that Seagal would cooperate.

After checking into a hotel, Jake visits a go-go club to meet up with his
friend Fitch McQuoid (Vincent Riotta), who he hopes will be able to give him
information. In the process, he rescues one of the club’s
employees – Lulu (Monica Lo) – from a group of men out to rape
her. Jake doesn’t acquire any useful information, but he gains Lulu as a
shadow. Their relationship ends up being…interesting at best and disconcerting
at worst. I’ll get into it later, but for now, Jake is too preoccupied to accept
the woman’s offer for dinner. After a sleepless night, he takes a boat ride to
a Buddhist monastery where he finds his old partner Sunti living the life of a
monk. Jake’s there to receive the blessing of the abbot, but tells Sunti why
he’s in Thailand. He says that he wants Sunti to stay where he is
and continue tending to his psychological wounds, but doesn’t seem particularly
surprised when Sunti shows up at his hotel soon after, back in civilian clothes
and pledging to help him rescue Jessica.

In the book Seagalogy: A Study of the
Ass-Kicking Films of Steven Seagal, the film critic Vern notes Jake’s
manipulative behavior: regardless what he says, it’s unlikely that Jake didn’t
foresee his faithful ex-partner dropping everything to come to his aide. This
is one of a few actions on the character’s behalf that unintentionally make him
unlikable. In a world where mysticism and spirituality are more than concepts, Sunti risks both physical and spiritual well-being for a partner
who’s not even upfront about recruiting him. Make no mistake, Sunti is an
extremely useful partner – finding Jake important information and holding his
own in fights – but the level of devotion between the characters is rather
one-sided.

Following some intrigue wherein Fitch is revealed to have been giving Jake
false information, Jake and Sunti follow a lead to an abandoned train yard
where a shady deal is taking place between the Abu Karaf and some unknown forces
represented by a mysterious woman. When Jake spots a sniper preparing to take
out Mongkol (Pongpat Wachirabunjong) – the Abu Karaf leader, who he needs alive
for information – he initiates an enormous shootout, but not before a quick
exchange with Sunti. This is probably Jake’s best character moment: he warns
Sunti of the maelstrom they’re about to unleash, but also indicates that
this is his last chance to back out. Sunti doesn’t, but it’s a rare acknowledgement
by Jake of the sacrifice that Sunti is making.

The police arrive and Jake is arrested, but even though he’s sprung from jail, his
time away allows a mysterious figure to enter his hotel room and steal one of
his shirts. What’s more, Lulu returns to her home to find her roommate murdered
– presumably by the same mysterious forces at the train yard, which Jake is
growing more convinced are the actual kidnappers. Lulu
takes refuge with Jake, and they have sex. It’s an awkward scene, with Jake coming across as cold and distant. The relationship between
these two seems fairly unhealthy, with Lulu repeatedly trying to appease a man
who seems annoyed by her presence. Lulu herself seems obsessive – trying to
follow Jake on outings and entering his hotel room while he’s away to bring him
food he didn’t ask for. (How did she get in, with the door locked and the window on the second story??) While others have accused Seagal of vanity for
frequently having onscreen girlfriends much younger than him (i.e. there’s a 25-year
age difference between the performers), I’m merely troubled by the film’s
portrayal of Jake as a man worth pursuing.

Eventually, Jake is granted a meeting with the man whose life he saved earlier and is vindicated in his belief that the Abu Karaf are innocent of
kidnapping. Mongkol reveals to him the identity of the mysterious woman – Lena –
and her connection to the deceitful McQuoid. Jake and Sunti return to Fitch’s
club, where Lena is lying in wait. Armed with a whip and razor-sharp nails,
Lena – revealed as a transwoman – fights and loses to Jake, who subsequently puts
together the masterplan before killing McQuoid in self-defense. It essentially
amounts to a rebel military faction having kidnapped the senator’s daughter and
framing the Abu Karaf – encouraging the U.S. to attack them and thereby
eliminating the rebels’ competition in drug distribution. Our heroes now know
where to go: to rescue the girls, they will need to storm the home of the rebel
leader – General Jantapan (Tom Wu).

At this point, this becomes a supernatural story. While Jake and Sunti return to
the monastery for a final blessing, Jantapan facilitates dark magic. He’s the
one who stole Jake’s shirt from the hotel, and has delivered it to the
mysterious old man from the market. This fellow is not only a demon-worshipping
mystic, but an actual wizard who creates an effigy of Jake from the shirt. As the heroes infiltrate Jantapan’s domain, Jake meets the general in combat
but is increasingly disabled by the wizard abusing the doll. Things seem
bleak until the effigy explodes in his hand, and as the camera zooms out
of the arachnid-infested temple, we see the entire Buddhist monastery praying and
chanting like mad. The wizard tries to rally, but eventually he’s overpowered by the supernatural forces and collapses. At the
same time, Jake overcomes Jantapan – defeating him with a blow that sends him
flying across the room. It’s been an exhilarating fight entirely in director
Ching’s style, featuring an absurdly cool instance wherein Jake bisects a flying arrow with a sword.

TRIVIA: Tom Wu is award-winning martial
artist, having medaled in international wushu tournaments.
Though Steven Seagal and Byron Mann are also martial artists, Wu is the only
one among the starring cast to have been active in competition.

During all of this, Sunti has been protecting the girls and
singlehandedly taking on an entire platoon of Jantapan’s men in a firefight.
Though both Jake and he are victorious, Sunti
collapses in Jake’s arms, his body riddled with bullet holes. As the movie
draws to a close, its final scene is of Sunti’s funeral, wherein Jake wades
into the river to distribute his ashes.

While it’s tempting to think of Sunti’s rescuing the girls as his redemption,
it’s his manner of death that symbolizes atonement.
Buddhism – the religion of Sunti and the real-life Steven Seagal – does not
seem to include the concept of divine forgiveness seen in Abrahamic systems,
and Sunti’s decision to help Jake is an attempt at personally compensating for his
misdeeds. Sunti kills several people prior to the finale –
something he’s visibly distressed by – so I think that being struck
by so many bullets is his form of penitence. An act of
masochism, if you will, to assuage the guilt that he’s carried for so long.
Every bullet that he’s used to kill people, he tries to take back. It’s a
depressing thought, and as the film concludes, one can’t help but hope that
Sunti has better luck finding enlightenment in his next life.

Belly of the Beast is one of Seagal’s
most colorful and exciting movies. Disappointingly,
it’s also one of the most convoluted. I have tried to relate the story coherently,
but I’ve needed to gloss over and omit several characters, events, and details
to do so. According to Joe Halpin – a regular writer of Seagal’s post-theatrical
films – the stories of these films remain in an amorphous state throughout
production, with bits and pieces being added and removed and significant sections being lost in editing. Belly of the Beast isn’t hopelessly bad in this regard, as you can
still make general sense of events, but I’ve watched it many times and still don’t understand all of it. I’m also at a loss why the credits don’t list
at least three of the most important characters: the abbot, the evil wizard,
and Lena.

Speaking of Lena, her inclusion is surprising. It’s unheard of to
find a female character in Seagal’s films who can legitimately fight, and trans
characters have been absent altogether. Thailand is known for its transgender community, and with trans characters frequently appearing in Thai films, this
may just be a unique way of representing them as part of the environment. Disappointingly, Lena
isn’t that great of a character: while she does have a pretty good fight, she’s
a one-dimensional villain who is amused by violence and tortures a man to death
– in other words, she’s not a very flattering representative of her demographic.
Jake’s daughter Jessica is less exotic, though I’m pleased that she’s not strictly treated as a damsel: she remains reasonably calm throughout her
incarceration, mounts an escape attempt, and kills a guard with his own knife
when he attempts to rape her friend.

It’s also worth noting the story’s political twist. The Abu Karaf is an
Islamic militant group, but they’re innocent of the crime General Jantapan tries
to pin on them. Jantapan successfully diverts attention from his own activities by playing to America’s post-9/11 suspicions…and it’s not terribly unrealistic. It’s not
sufficiently explained how Jake figures out the truth, but having
this as part of the story feels like a warning against political tunnel vision
and the tendency to blame all terrorism on Islamic influences.

Despite the production’s shortcomings, Belly
of the Beast was a breath of fresh air for Seagal’s career when it was
released and can still be regarded as such. In the midst of many gloomy
vehicles shot in Eastern Europe, this one is more colorful and bombastic
than anything else Seagal’s starred in. Siu-Tung Ching is one of the most acclaimed
directors the star has ever worked under, and his lavishes exalt the film and
make me wish he’d helmed more American pictures. While I’m usually not a fan
of fight scenes incorporating a lot of wirework, I like seeing action stars
stepping out of their comfort zone, and in this regard, the fights are
exciting. I can’t see myself recommending the movie to people who don’t like
Seagal to begin with or viewers who hold Tony Ching to a higher standard, but
as far as exotic B-movies go, this is worth seeing.

TRIVIA: Production designer Trevor
Murray was found dead in his Bangkok apartment while the film was being shot, having
died of natural causes. Murray was a veteran of filmmaking and a jack of all
artistic trades, with previous credits in art direction, model-making, set
decoration, and puppetry. Belly of the
Beast is dedicated to his memory.

Belly of the Beast (2003)
Directed by Siu-Tung Ching (The Sorcerer and the White Snake)
Written by James Townsend (Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing), Thomas
Fenton (uncredited), Steven Seagal (uncredited)
Starring Steven Seagal (Above the Law), Byron Mann (The Man with the Iron Fists), Monica Lo
(Legacy), Tom Wu (Marco Polo)
Cool costars: Sara Malakul Lane has
since become a B-movie star and appears in the cult classic Sharktopus. Kevork Malikyan – best known as Kazim from the third Indiana Jones movie – plays a doomed businessman killed by Lena. Don Ferguson and Erik Markus
Schuetz, who regularly appear in Thai movies as combatants, play uncredited bodyguards.
Title refers to: Possibly the dangerous mission undertaken by Jake and Sunti.
Potential triggers: Kidnapping, attempted rape, violence towards women, sexist dialogue
Copyright GFT Beast Films Inc.,
Studio Eight Beast Limited, Century Time (H.K.) Ltd.