Matt Dillon's directorial debut went straight to video here after failing to find an audience in the US, but it's worth watching.

Dillon casts himself in the kind of role Robert Mitchum would turn up in in the 40s - an American abroad amid exotic surroundings in a plot teeming with incident and louche characters reeking of corruption and intrigue.

The difference these days is that it's not shot on the backlot and this is a real travelogue as well, with south-east Asia looking spectacular. Dillon has attracted a worthy cast too with James Caan, Stellan Skarsgard - in what Dillon's co-writer Barry Gifford describes on the DVD as the Peter Lorre role - and an Obelix-sized Gérard Depardieu as a devious bar-owner. A brief romance with Natascha McElhone looks tacked on and there are a few too many heavy father-and-son moments but it's worth wading through a brew of murky and devious deeds.