Gunman (film) - Production

Production

The opening shot was filmed by Chatrichalerm Yukol himself, who used a hand-held camera while riding on the back of a motorcycle. The shot was done in three takes, with the third take being used. "After the third one I wouldn't do it again. It was pretty risky. You're practically blind, when you get off the bike you have to walk into the coffee shop shoot the man and walk back, back on the motorbike with your eyes on the viewfinder, you have to do all the focus-pulling yourself, it was pretty painful. But that was still an easy shot", he told interviewer Thomas Richardson in 1993.

Another scene involving the helicopter sequence in the Secret War flashback scene has mistakenly thought to be copied from Oliver Stone's Platoon, which in fact was made in 1986, three years after the release of Gunman. The shot focused on Sommai on the ground as the helicopter rose into the air. "Pretty painful shot, I think. We have a lot of painful shots in that film", Chatrichalerm said in the 1993 interview. "It's difficult because you have to center him the whole time, zoom out at the right time, pull the focus".