Tears of the Black Tiger (Fa Talai
Jone)
Director: Wisit Sasanatieng
Year: 2000
Starring: Stella Malucchi (Rompoey), Chartchai Ngamsan (Dum), Sombati
Medhanee (Fai), Supakorn Kitsuwon (Mahesuan), Arawat Ruangvuth (Police Captain
Kumjorn), Santisuk Promsiri (young Dum)
Time: 104 minutes
Director Wisit Sasanatieng could never live
in a black and white world, but he clearly revels in the films made from that
period. In this film he chews up a number of those influences from B Westerns
to silent movies to old Thai melodramas and spits them out on a canvass of
exploding colors and visual wit. It’s a delirious free fall into a Wizard
of Oz technicolor dream of film images and styles from the past all exaggerated
as if fed on streams of psychedelic drugs. Every scene appears to be a homage
to some film genre/style/shot that ate its way into the director’s consciousness
as he was growing up, but out of this he manages to create a bizarre and
beautiful hybrid film that is stunningly original and undefinable. His integration
of startling colors, sounds and music make this almost a tone poem on one
level, but his sense of the absurd shakes it loose of any potential artistic
pretensions and provides a unique eye popping giddy viewing experience.
The plot is as clichéd as an orphan’s smudged face, but this is no
doubt exactly what the director was attempting. Though the narrative plays
out in apparent sincerity – and actually is fairly touching at times – Sasanatieng
spins visual magic around it and his tongue in cheek playful style is very
humorous and always giving the viewer a wink. In a very early scene the director
announces his comical intentions when the hero Dum is in a shootout and his
enemy is hiding behind a pillar. Dum gages the situation and ricochets a
shot into the man. Suddenly a card pops up on the screen in silent film fashion
and asks “Do you want to see that again?” and answers its own question by
showing in slow motion the bullet ricocheting off a number of things before
reaching its intended target. Everything is exaggerated from the villainous
laughs to the twirling moustaches to the gobs of blood, but it all has an
intended effect of both being homage and being affectionately comical at
the same time. Much of the film is pure deranged anachronism – a Western
– set in Thailand – in the 1950s. It may not make much sense, but who cares?
Dum grows up as the son of a poor farmer and becomes friends with Rumpoey
the daughter of a wealthy landowner. This clearly does not set well with
her parents and she is sent off to Bangkok to get her away from Dum. A number
of years later in Bangkok Dum saves her from a group of leering male students
and the two fall in love. They plan to elope but first Dum returns home where
he finds a local hooligan has killed his parents. He picks up his father’s
rifle and goes for revenge, but is rescued from his own death by a friend
of his father, Fai, the head of the bandit group called The Black Tigers.
Now a wanted killer, Dum joins the outlaws and soon gains a reputation as
a steely never miss killer – but he still yearns for Rumpoey and she for
him. But she is promised to another man - the man responsible for hunting
the Black Tigers down.
The action too is exaggerated – more like speed reading a series of comic
book panels and one almost expects too see a “Pow!” pop up on the screen.
The shootouts have more of a spaghetti Western look to them than the early
B&W Westerns – even to the point of having Morricone like music trumpeting
in the background. The two face-off draws between Dum and Mahesuan are wonderful
little minuets of camera movement, eye movement and perfect stillness that
also echo the Sergio Leone films. The film is fairly violent but not meant
to be taken at all seriously – willing victims stand out in the open in chorus
lines to be machine gunned down, a missile hits one fellow and transports
him off the floor for 30-feet until it explodes against a wall, bullets cause
huge geysers of deep red blood. One even suspects that the geysers of blood
contrasted against the blue shirts are simply another aesthetic that the
director wants to add to his canvass as much as striving for a Peckinpah
moment.
The film is awash in deep saturated colors – often set in stunning contrast
to one another as in one perfect shot of Rumpoey attired in bright yellow,
her red lipstick against her pale Gene Tierney like glamorous face, the room
swathed in rich green and the moon blazing in the background. Or a scene
on a marsh where everything looks murky blue except the impossibly red orchids
that dot the water – and the water later turning into a blood like red. The
colors are napalm on your eyeballs – joyful and imaginative – brighter than
any film I have seen – an artificial world of colors painted onto our brain.
In fact, one gorgeous scene – one of the face-offs – all takes place against
a painted giant background of the sun breaking through the clouds – I have
no idea why he chose to do this but it is magical.
This is a fabulous film – a pop explosion that attacks your sensory nerves
in a gentle playful manner and enough humor and romance to keep you wanting
to go further with these characters. It certainly may not be everyone’s cup
of tea – and a few film critic reviews I came across had really negative
reactions to it – but there is simply no other film I have seen that is like
this. That it was the debut film for Wisit Sasanatieng astonishes me.
There is a Region 2 DVD as well as a Region 3
Thai DVD with subs and the VCD from Edko is excellent quality and also has
subs. If you like the music as much as I did – a beautiful mix of Thai tear
drenched ballads and up-tempo Thai folk fiddle music – there is also a great
soundtrack available. Mirimax has the US rights to this film and in their
often mystifying manner have been sitting on the film for 2 years while the
hype disappeared and folks have purchased other DVD versions. I can’t imagine
that they plan on releasing this in theaters but that would be my 2003 wish
– to see this on the big screen and me planted in the front row.
My rating for this film: 9.0
Reviewed by Simon Booth
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 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 Seijun Suzuki's piece of abstract art in motion
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.
Secondly, it's incredibly funny. 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!
The UK DVD is pretty decent overall... clean print,
anamorphic transfer. The sound mix is a little bit odd at times, but I think
this is deliberate. The Malata had a little trouble with it though... for
99% of the movie it was fine on "STILL" and looking great, but a couple of
scenes (always action scenes for some reason) started combing like hell.
Oh, and I had to stretch the movie vertically by quite a few percent before
it looked correct aspect ratio. At least the subtitles stayed in sync though
:D. A Thai Region 3 version has been released that apparently has some additional
footage included.