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Tears of the Black Tiger

Written By Nobuhiro Hosoki

 

"Tears of the Black Tiger" is the  first feature from Thailand accepted into the Cannes Film Festival. It had been scooped up by Harvey Weinstein, then disappeared into an abyss for several years. Director Wisit Sasanatieng shows his deep-rooted affection for his country's cinema in this homage to pioneer indie filmmaker Ratana Pestonji.

The film features a pair of star-crossed lovers in a thwarted affair. Dum (Chartchai Ngamsan), a  young peasant son, sacrifices his own life to Rampoey (Stella Malucchi) by saving her from local bullies when she nearly drowns after a riverboat rescue. But with class differences and distance, they are destined to lead separate lives though they promise to reunite in SalaRan Nang, a riverside gazebo, when they become of age.

Dum lost his father to a murderous clan, and in order to avenge his death, he becomes a swaggering macho named Black Tiger,  a sharpshooting cowboy of the rice paddy. He befriends notorious Fai, a gang boss, to help dispatch a rival gang. Meanwhile Rampoey has been betrothed to an ambitious police captain(Arawat Ruangvuth), setting up a duel between her two suitors from opposite sides. The narrative builds up to a rather prolonged climax with a wedding-day> showdown. At last, because of good conscience, and for the sake of a permanent lover, the outlaw saves the captain from execution by gang.

Throughout,  the film is filled with gory violence--many flying bullets and spurting fountains of bright red blood. Most of the characters act like wax figures, with rosy-cheeked faces, pink lips, silly mustaches, and hysterically villainous laughter. We feel a delirious fever in a visual landscape that is totally bathed in over-saturated color.

Director  Wisit Sasanatieng  uses the  curiously seductive approach of a Sergio Leone spaghetti western: slow-mo Peckinpah massacres, using lyrical technicolor melodrama and purposefully stilted dialogue. Each of the electrifying frames have exuberant set designs that are reminiscent of a Vincente Minnelli production.  Almost every genre cliche has been thrown into this film, but in a way unlike you've probably seen before. After all, the film is too good-natured to be disliked, and one soon starts to admire a certain cleverness in the mockery.

Written (in Thai, with English subtitles) and directed by Wisit Sasanatieng
Director of photography: Nattawut Kittikhun
Edited by Dusanee Puinongpho
Music by Amornbhong Methakunavudh
Production designer:Ek Iemchuen
Produced by Nonzee Nimibutr
Released by Magnolia Pictures.
Running time: 113 minutes.
This film is not rated.

Cast: Chartchai Ngamsan (Seua Dum, a k a Black Tiger)
Stella Malucchi (Rumpoey)
Supakorn Kitsuwon (Mahasuan)
Arawat Ruangvuth (Police Captain Kumjorn)
Sombati Medhanee (Fai),
and Pairoj Jaisingha (Phya Prasit).