Les Larmes du tigre noir

I've borrowed this DVD from the library twice before, but never had the chance to watch it, until now. The appeal is actually to see some of Thai director Wisit Sasanatieng's past works, before his up and coming made-in-Singapore flick called Armful. And I've heard some good things about this movie too.

The story combines two different genres into one, the first being a cowboy western, (set in Thailand no less!) and the usual star-crossed lover romance. Perhaps the novelty of the first genre type is having Thai folks dress up as cowboys, riding on their steed and somehow, becoming the villains as they plunder and kill. Yup, they're not the good guys, against the usual stereotype. Here, the cowboys are bandits, and the good folks are naturally, the cops.

But amongst all the bad hats (pardon the pun), there's always the hero who's forced by circumstances to join the group. Dum (Chartchai Ngamsan), also known as the notorious Black Tiger, renowned fastest and deadliest draw in all of Thailand, has a childhood sweetheart in Rumpoey (Sttella Malucchi). However, their difference in status (he's the son of a servant, while she, the daughter of the governor) meant that it's a forbidden romance to begin with. Knowing his place in her world, he could only admire from afar, becoming her protector, shielding her from harm (like numerous approaches by lechers and bandits).

A man gotta do what a man gotta do, and during one of his missions, he failed to meet up with Rumpoey presumably to elope, while she took it as a sign that he didn't want to. Like Romeo and Juliet, she's betrothed to Kumjorn (Arawat Ruangyuth), a police captain captured by Dum's notorious gangster boss Fai (Sombat Metanee). And like all star crossed lovers whose lives are played by Fate, these events start to spin and take on a life of its own, changing the course of our characters lives forever.

It's a beautifully shot movie, with plenty of pastel colours draping the sets, which at times make you cringe and beg for it to stop. As if to complement its saccharine sweet and sentimental love story, it elevates the movie to a surreal dream like level. The action sequences can be quite cheesy, with the reminiscence of old spaghetti cowboy western gun fights. But the best bits about the film, are the songs. I don't understand Thai, but even if without the subtitles interpreting the lyrics, I thought that they were beautiful enough to accentuate scenes in the movie.

Perhaps my only gripe about the movie in this version of the DVD, is that the bloody violence had been censored, depriving me the bloody glee of watching the Black Tiger dispatch his opponents with his accuracy. There were scenes where footsoldiers bled by the bucketloads of ketchup, but the crucial one-on-ones were totally censored, and you wouldn't know the nitty gritty details of the death. Truly marred my enjoyment of the movie. What gives?

Code 3 DVD contains some extras, like Extracts from the Book - Black Tiger's Philosophy and Rumpoey's Guilt, explaining a bit more about the lead characters, Insights into the Film Aesthetic takes a look at the Sala Raw Nang, or "Awaiting the Maiden", the quintessential Thai shelter, and how Rattana Pestonji (indie Thai filmmaker) had influenced the set design, especially the colours. The extras is topped off with a one static screen Director's Inspiration, and the list of awards which this film has won.

Actually I caught this movie on TV as I was about to go to bed, and

it grabbed me immediately. Sure, it's parody and genre, but it's

other things too. It is visually eye-grabbing for a start. The odd

candy colors are partly reminiscent of The Wizard of Oz and The

King and I, but the total effect is disorientating, colder, more high

pitched: its clashing colors dominated by the piercing fuschia red,

but sometimes slanting off towards yellows, or sepias and soft

blues. In European terms it's like seeing the paintings of

Pontormo and Bronzino - a Mannerist palette on film. There is, I

imagine a lot of filtering and digital enhancement here. It's

self-conscious but no more so than any consistent vision has to

be. So the color comes first.

Immediately, you are pitched in an alternative reality of westerns

(Sergio Leone mixed with Zorro) and romances, but comic as the

'western' scenes are, these are not merely 'cool' parodies. The

style everywhere refers to memory, of period, of genre: if it is irony it

is a strange poignant irony in the service of poetry. The palette

changes with the genre, as does the framing. Parts of it are

presented as scenes in theaters.

The story is simple enough but acute in its balance of belief and

distance. It makes sense as an adult take on the feel of childhood.

I thought it marvelously original, funny and alarming. Oh far far far

better than the vastly cerebral Greenaway whose work might make

a reasonable aesthetic analogy.

Having been in love since a young age, Dum and Rumpoey are destined to be together and arrange to meet and marry. However Dum (aka The Black Tiger) is held up in a large gunfight and misses her. Tragically her father has her married off to a police chief while Dum remains with his gang, run by boss Fai and including his own blood brother Mahesuan. Dum hopes to still find his true love but suspicion from Tai leads to betrayal by Mahesuan and Dum finds fate stacked against him as he tries to reunite with Rumpoey and keep his word of years ago.

Recently I watched Sin City and one of my criticism of that film was that it seem to be a lot of visual style without a great deal of substance and, although I liked this film more, I could not shake the feeling that the style and homage elements were more important to the director than the story and the characters. With Sin City the homage was noir, with this film it was the Thai films of twenty years ago and a form of hyper-homage to westerns in general. In regards the former we have hammy acting, bright colours and imaginative backdrops. These all work and even viewers unfamiliar with the style of the genre will take something from it because it is still recognisable (to a lesser extent) in more modern Bollywood films (and some Thai movies!). In regards a western, the hyper-violent style will certainly appeal to modern audiences with its comic presentation and bloody set pieces.

However, as I said, my problem with this film is more that the substance is not quite all it could be. Although the film has some beautifully observed moments, the characters and their emotions are not as well developed as they could have been and I didn't find myself as emotionally involved in the people as I was in the style. The acting is pretty wooden but I think that is deliberate. Specifically Kitsuwon's makeup, facial expressions and hammy laugh all hark back to a different period of making films (like I said – it can still be seen in some Bollywood films) and it is matched by the performances from Ngamsan, Malucchi and Metanee. They are enjoyable in terms of continuing the tone and style set by the director.

Overall this is an interesting and engaging film, mostly thanks to the homages, visual style and real experience of watching a rather unique film. The substance in regards characters and stories is not all it could have been but the plot is still good enough to keep you interesting. A strange mix of styles and genres it may be but it works well and is worth trying to find despite the inherent weaknesses.

Tears of the Black Tiger is one of those films that works so hard to entertain you, it is hard not to enjoy immensely, if only for its sheer exuberance.

The story is simple. Dum, the Black Tiger, is the best shot there is. He works for a ragtag group of mercenaries lead by Fai, whose motto is, "If you're against Fai, you die". When they capture the captain of the military group trying to shut them down, Dum has to choose between his allegiance to his men or honouring the wish of his old flame, Rumpooey, who is engaged to the captain. That's about it really, but the story is not the reason to watch this film. Its main appeal lies in its style.

Shot with the tone of a Western but in the style and colours of Thai theatre, it is beautiful to watch and often hilarious in its tongue-in-cheek over-the-topness. Shootouts are frequent and bloody, yet wholly unrealistic. Yet they are never intended to be. The opening sequence sets the tone perfectly. As Dum and his colleague raid the hideout of traitors to Fai, the film plays a particularly extravagant stunt twice, offering the title card "Did you get that? If not, we'll show it again!" in the middle, playing the same sequence in more detail.

The set design and colouring of the film is exaggerated and lush, all deep reds and greens. There are frequent musical interludes, but not in the Bollywood style, rather songs which explain the emotional state of certain characters, the high point being the main love song - ridiculously over-sentimental - and the cowboy-esque Bonanza-style riding song, a country and western inspired, cheery melody about loneliness.

The five main characters - Dum, Rumpooey, Kumjorn, Fai and Mahesuan - are wonderful. Dum is all emotionless precision and repressed feelings, a man of action who hides his deep-down longing for his former love. Rumpooey, the love interest, is quietly hilarious in that she just never seems to do anything, a knowing side-swipe to cheap melodrama of the 50's. Kumjorn is the dashing, slightly pompous good guy that you don't want to win, but don't want to die either. The two best though, are Fai, a classic machine gun and vest bad guy who has the films funniest shot in his first shootout - look out for it, its quite subtle - and Mahesuan, Dum's right-hand man, who has the best evil laugh EVER, using it whenever he gets the chance, also one half of an inspired shootout or two. His duel in the first half hour is also one of the funniest shots for any film fan.

It is a very violent film, but the kind of violence that is truly comic-book, overly-red blood (think cheap hammer horror), taken to a level of exaggeration which rather than making you gag, just makes you wince and laugh. And that is the point. Some people have said that is just terrible, but it is knowingly terrible. It is never attempting to be anything like high art. And in its badness, it is often beautiful and brilliant.

The only niggle is that it has a tendency to slow down a little in its lingering, slow shots, but never for more than a couple of minutes in what is only an hour and a half of mickey-taking, action packed hilarity.

Good looks, good sets, good idea, great fun. 10/10

Sackley

Now where on earth did this movie come from? Why was there no warning? Shouldn't we have seen it coming somehow? Like PISTOL OPERA, TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER boldly paints itself across the screen in bold bright colours as if to say to the rest of the movie making world "Are you so fresh out of ideas already?". Unlike PO though, TOTBT is not just utterly removed from filmic convention - it's just in utterly the wrong time and place.

The movie is basically a 1950's Hollywood Western/Melodrama... made in 21st Century Thailand (and with tongue firmly in cheek). The clothes, the hairstyles, the sets, the camerawork, the soundtrack, the acting, the script... all spot on for 50's America. The movie has even been bizarrely colourised in a way reminiscent of very early colour film stock, but obviously done digitally and deliberately, with an eye to the exact shifting of colours that best suits each shot. Hues are shifted to colours the world is not meant to be, and saturation is selectively ramped up to 1000 to create lurid pinks and shocking yellows and an absolutely unique look to the film. It looks weird, but fantastic.

TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER has two major advantages over PISTOL OPERA. Firstly, they remembered to include a story. And it's a really good one... a melodrama in the finest tradition, featuring love and loss and friendship and rivalry and hatred and sorrow and jealousy and heroism and good and evil and all the finest things in life. The script is very well thought out, full of lots of details that are woven together in a way that keeps you on your toes.

The mood is definitely spoof, and absolutely pitch perfect. I haven't laughed out loud so much since SHAOLIN SOCCER, yet secretly really caring about what was going to happen to the characters. Acting is as over the top as the soundtrack, in permanent crescendo, delivered with a straight face and sincerity that would make the most melancholy of viewers at least giggle a bit.

I enjoyed this movie so much - so utterly out of nowhere, inexplicable, funny, sweet, moving,... where did these ideas come from? It all fits together and makes so much sense you think perhaps the idea was obvious all along, but I'm pretty sure that it was in exactly one persons head ever before he put it on film. And then there are few curveballs that are *definitely* ideas of an insane but brilliant mind .

Very highly recommended!