The 'police station', built in a few days from an old shophouse in Surawong, central Bangkok, is so realistic from the outside that several pedestrians stop and stare, perhaps wondering if this is the place to report petty crime in the adjacent red-light district of Patpong.

Inside, the temporary reality of the building as the setting for the martial arts action film “The Furious” is quickly revealed. Amid the worn and rusty gray metal desks, the ground floor has all the trappings of an active and neglected police station. Notices are plastered on every wall: wanted posters, mission statements, job openings, and regulations. But the giveaway—that the film is set in an unnamed part of Southeast Asia rather than a specific country—is that the background text is largely in English. And that amid the police gear are stacks of lights and camera equipment being readied for the next take.

The police station was used for 18 days during a three-month shoot and is a key location for "The Furious," a revenge action film that veteran producer Bill Kong ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," "Hero") hopes will serve as a potent reminder that Asian martial arts films can still rival the high-tech thrills of their modern Hollywood counterparts.

Kong has assembled an impressive pan-Asian cast of actors and fighters, and built the film around Tanigaki Kenji, a Japanese action choreographer turned director and partner of Donnie Yen. Tanigaki has spent so much of his career in Hong Kong that the dominant language on his set is Cantonese, ahead of Thai, Japanese or English.