User Reviews

Version: Thai audio, English subtitles (by SBS)

There's something quite awesome about a movie that's advertised as a musical western that turns out to be a musical western in which the cowboys carry rocket launchers and wear very colourful shirts. Awesome.

In the rather colourful countryside of the rather colourful modern Thailand, a gang of horse-riding, machine-gun toting, Thai cowboys led the by the colourfully villainous Fai (Sombat Metanee). Dum (Chartchai Ngamsan), also known as the Black Tiger, is a member of Fai's gang, and obviously the fastest shot in all the (colourful) land. Dum is competing with fellow gangster Mahesuan the police captain Kumjorn for the affections of Rumpoey (Stella Malucchi), so naturally this leads to shootouts, exploding brains, and lots of evil laughs. How awesome.

'Tears of the Black Tiger' seems to be a combination of elements from 'Once Upon a Time in the West' and the 'The Quick and the Dead', only with a lot more comedy and melodrama. And colour. At times it may resemble 'Once Upon a Time in the the West', and then go into Sam Raimi mode during an action sequence, and then go into long scenes developing the melodramatic and colourful love story. Have I mentioned the colour yet? This one colourful movie, and will often induce a visual overload of pinkness. Is that even a word?

'Tears of the Black Tiger' can go from melodramatic romance scenes, to the cheap violence that you might expect from Sam Raim or an early Peter Jackson movie (read: 'exploding heads') very quickly. I'm pretty sure this film could set a record in that department. Its a funny movie, and the action scenes are generally very exciting. I'm also convinced that the creators of this film took on a bet to discover just how much of the colour pink can be displayed in one movie. I never knew pink-shirted cowboys could be so tough.

'Tears of the Black Tiger' is generally entertaining. I thought it was a little long, but I think most people should enjoy this - 8/10

Tears of the Black Tiger is certainly a unique cinematic experience; part western, part comedy and part tragic melodrama, this Thai movie is perfect for those looking for an alternative to predictable Hollywood pap.

Dum is the handsome hero of the film, a member of the notorious Black Tiger bandits and a crack shot with a six shooter. Rumpoey is the love of his life, who has agreed to marry Dum; despite their class differences, she has arranged to elope with him. When Dum misses his rendezvous with Rumpoey (due to being caught in a gun battle), she is heartbroken and, under pressure from her father, accepts a proposal of marriage from Police Captain Kumjorn.

In a battle between the police and the bandits, Captain Kumjorn is taken prisoner; Dum is given the job of killing the policeman. As a last request, Kumjorn asks that Dum informs his fiancée of his fate and produces a photograph of his wife-to-be. On recognising Rumpoey's picture, Dum frees Kumjorn, but in doing so, he puts his own life on the line...

Stylish, funny and occasionally completely off-the-wall, Tears of the Black Tiger is an affectionate homage to Thai movies of yesteryear and Hollywood westerns. It is a strange mix, but it works. Only an occasional lull in pace stops this from being a wholly successful film, but don't let that put you off from watching it—the positives far outweigh the negatives.

Heavily stylised scenes and surreal imagery combine with over-saturated hues to produce a most aesthetically pleasing film; the look is reminiscent of musicals from the 50s whilst the occasional moments of graphic ultra-violence could be straight out of a Tarantino movie. Each character is perfectly cast and the comic-book approach taken by the actors in the realisation of their roles complements the overall style of the film.

Tears of the Black Tiger is a fun film that is destined to become a cult favourite amongst fans of bizarre cinema (and may even improve on repeat viewings, as with most cult movies).

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.

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

After his father was killed a young man named Dum joins a group of bandits who dress up cowboys and roam the countryside of Thailand. After joining them he soon has made a name for himself as the fasted gun in the east and which he is known as the Black Tiger. But in the back of his mind is a childhood sweetheart that grew up in the upper class of society and despite Dum coming from a poor family they decided to meet at a particular place to reunite. Though, Dum gets caught up in gunfight and misses the chance to be with his loved one. So because of that she is married off to a policeman, but this doesn't stop Dum from trying to get in contact with her, even if something always gets in between them.

Wow! Did someone splash some sort of painting on the screen? What a feast for the eyes, but the substance was clearly drowned out by the vibrant plateau of ultra-bright colours and by also the deviously campy style the director opted out for. These visuals just leap off the screen and were more than impressive. Sadly because of the style being the film's main strong hold, the story had to fall by the wayside, really. It's simple, but not always as compelling to that of what's happening in the background. It's one of those films when style is everything. Even the spoof element foreshadows the plot. Closer attention in building something stronger in the plot could have made this a more perfect viewing.

This Thai film is filled with many, that's MANY homage's from the western genre, especially that off Leone's spaghetti westerns. All of this is blended in with formulaic clichés and a romantic twist about fate. This tragic love story isn't particularly new, but the way they interwoven the eastern culture with the western. There are enough unpredictable patterns drawn up. The storyline isn't a linear one, because we explore into our protagonist's past midway through the flick, looking at why he became an outlaw and how important this girl has been in his life. While the opening and ending scenes are set in the present time. Actually, I was kind of confused about the whole setting, but I found out it's set in the modern times, but the outlaws are just dressed up as cowboys. Basically the film goes out of its way to blind us with it's weirdness and zestful context, but amongst all of this it mixes elements of Thai traditions to that of Hollywood successfully to give us a laugh and create some excitement along the way.

The production follows that of the early spaghetti westerns filming techniques. These things range from sharp editing, to the kinetic and circulating camera-work. The quick pans always seem to have a mind of its own. The pulsating score splashes out a variety of eastern, but also western themes. Even one of Ennio Morricone's themes from "The Good, the bad and the Ugly" is continuously given a spin. *Hmm* the score actually seems to be on a loop. The way the film looks it does come across like a stage show and the pacing is somewhat up and down. Although when it gets into Western extravaganza with the wild shootouts and loud explosions it's simply eye catching with the amount flair and wham-bang awe that's generated. These moment are filled with arty images, but they let the red paint spill out gratuitously. They do go over-the-top at times, like its been ripped out of a comic book. That can go to the final stand off, which has some panache about it and ends rather nasty. All I got to say is Ouch! That's gotta hurt! I kept asking myself if I was watching a cartoon and that's definitely because of the look, but also the performances. These characters were beyond cheesy, and all had massive egos, well except for the two leads that were kinda flat. Those outlaws with their colourful outfits and sinister laughter were just ridiculously hilarious! I just love how it found something to take the mickey out of. Everything about the film is well equipped with it being snazzy and polished up. Replacing the grit and rawness found in most spaghetti westerns, by keeping in the mode of the technicolour Hollywood westerns. Oh, well.

It's no more but a terribly cheesy parody (and a decent one too) with steroid pumping visuals. But a definite warning as this film is not for everyone. If you enjoyed the offbeat "The Happiness of the Katakuris" (2001) you might find something to like here.

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!

Harvey Weinstein famously used to buy up foreign films and then would refuse to distribute them to American theaters, thus reducing competition in the arthouses for the films he actually decided to release. Tears of the Black Tiger was one of those films. Now Magnolia Films got it away from him and has it available. It's a Thai Western, with some of the weirdest and wildest production design to be seen. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to that amazing trailer that played the art-house circuit back in January. While it certainly is a lot of fun in parts, the pacing is poor and the story gets so bogged down in romantic melodrama that at times it's downright boring. Still, those fun parts make it worth sitting through. When the Sergio Leone-esquire violence begins, it's always entertaining. And it has a couple of the best movie deaths ever.

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.

If you are in for something different than you should definitely see this movie. "Tears of the Black Tiger" is a combination of a spaghetti Western (perhaps I should call it a noodle Western) and a romantic tearjerker, but as if that is not enough, it's also plenty of candy colors and some gory scenes. The story seems to come right out of the fifties and the (over-)acting will remind you of the silent movies in the 1920's and 1930's.

I can assure you that it is rather surprising when you see Thai cowboys having a gun fight. It's rather obvious that the director is a great fan of Sergio Leone's work, because sometimes the scenes seem to come right out "Once Upon a Time in the West". And if they aren't almost a literal copy (the water dripping on the cowboy's hat for instance), than they sure have been influenced by it (the harmonica).

The story seems to come right out of the fifties: a young couple can't be together because she's the daughter of a governor and he's a gang member from the countryside. She'll have to marry a young police officer, much against her will, and only wants to be with her lover. Of course the police officer and the 'bad guy' will meet...

Sometimes the scenes are really magnificent (for instance on the lake with all the lotus flowers and the beautiful landscape), but most of the time the movie is a bit too ridiculous for me. I mean: I can still live with cowboys in Thailand and the colors were something different, but still enjoyable, but overall the story was a bit too naive and unbelievable too my taste. If this movie had been more a "classic" Asian movie, without the sometimes bizarre influences, I would have appreciated it a lot more. Now I give it a 5.5/10.

TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER (Fah Talai Jone)

Aspect ratio: 1.85:1

Sound format: Stereo

Driven apart by class differences, young lovers (Chartchai Ngamsan and Stella Malucchi) are forced to take a stand against the treachery and villainy of those around them.

Ultra-stylized debut by director Wisit Sasanatieng which uses exaggerated colors, painted backdrops and silent-era acting styles in the service of an ultra-melodramatic plot, embroidered by lavish camera-work and explosions of graphic violence. The over-arching campness of the entire enterprise (including an intense emotional 'bond' between the handsome hero and his equally handsome nemesis, Arawat Ruangvuth) suggests a gay sensibility run riot, making this one of the Queerest 'straight' movies of recent years! Oddly, though set in present day Thailand, the characters dress and behave like cowboys, which - if nothing else - allows Sasanatieng to reference his favorite films and filmmakers (most notably the works of Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah), and the director's bold visual assurance prevents the whole thing from sliding into obscurity. There's a number of surprising plot developments during the film's second half, but the narrative is almost wholly subservient to the filmmakers' technical skills. Not for all tastes, this was the first Thai film to play in competition at Cannes.

(Thai dialogue)

There has always been something rather absurd about the cult of the Hollywood western. The spaghetti Westerns of thirty years ago gave new life to a tired genre - and now we have the first Thai Western, a big improvement on Hollywood's efforts.

Wisit Sananatieng's film is wonderful entertainment. It takes the Western conventions and pushes them to the edge of parody. The gunfights are exciting, the film's central poor-boy/rich-girl love story is genuinely moving, and the harmonica-playing hero comes straight from the classic Gene Autry tradition.

To cap it all, the film is shot in the most marvellous saturated colours, so that it is at times breath-takingly beautiful. And some features unknown in Westerns - such as the lake with lotus blossoms, the pagoda and the rainy season - add to the film's visual beauty. In short, a film not to be missed.

In this age in which just about every other film seems to be a sequel, adaptation or remake of a previous work, it seems positively ungrateful and counterproductive to criticize a movie for being TOO innovative and creative - yet that is exactly the case with "Tears of the Black Tiger," a movie that is a mixture of so many different genres and styles that it is virtually impossible to explain what it is like to anyone who hasn't actually seen it.

Indeed, if the term, in and of itself, were not self-contradictory and meaningless, one might be tempted to call "Tears" a "Chinese Italian Western," seeing as it draws much of its look and style from those "spaghetti westerns" Clint Eastwood made his name with in the 1960's: "A Fistful of Dollars, "For a Few Dollars More" and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Yet, that would be an inadequate description of "Tears of the Black Tiger" as well, since the movie also looks like one of those glossy 1950's melodramas by Douglas Sirk, on the order of "Magnificent Obsession," "Imitation of Life," and "All That Heaven Allows" (albeit with an all Chinese cast). It certainly makes for a bizarre hybrid, to say the least, but, despite its originality, this tale of an unlikely romance between a gun slinging outlaw (the Black Tiger) and a classy beauty from the upper classes - who seem to be inhabiting entirely different centuries, let alone entirely different parts of the world - fails to ignite much interest in the viewer.

With its cartoon-like violence, highly stylized settings, arch acting and corny dialogue, the film is obviously intended to be an affectionate send-up of the kind of escapist, popcorn movies Hollywood has been exporting to the world for nearly a century now. But the movie is too strained to be truly funny, too artificial to be truly involving, with its jumbled, out-of-chronological-order narrative structure finally frustrating the viewer past the point of caring. The bold, garish colors add to the film's air of surrealism, but most people will probably weary of the movie once the novelty of the concept has worn off.

"Tears of the Black Tiger" is a film one would like to support and admire, but the sad truth is that, in this case at least, the filmmakers were not able to pull the thing off. "Tears of the Black Tiger," for all its goodwill and craftsmanship, earns an "A" for effort, but a mere "Gentleman's C-" for the product overall.

No matter what title you want to issue it, this giddy western (eastern?) from Thailand is one to seek out if you like your entertainment loopy & left of centre. The film seems to have several over lapping plots, and probably twice as many sub plots. Don't let this throw you from having a fun time (just don't approach this with the same seriousness as you would approach a Merchant/Ivory production). The film features a top notch crackerjack cast of Thai actors (none of which I've ever heard of,but anyone with a knowledge of Thai cinema will probably go gog-ma-gog over their personal favourites). I especially admired the visual texture of the film, employing a palate of over saturated colour, giving it a look of classic Technicolor (as Hollywood & Europe used in the 1940's,until the old IB Technicolor process was pretty much phased out in the late 1970's). If you like your soundtrack music on the schmaltzy side, the music in this film will be right up your alley (if you've ever heard Thai pop music,you'll know exactly what I mean). Check your IQ at the door, sit back,relax & bask in (just under)two hours of Asian cinematic goofiness (i.e. have fun).

Movie-fan Adolf Hitler's favourite picture was 'Bengal Lancers'. He would have crooned over this turkey from Thailand even more. It has everything a boneheaded Nazi pig admires. Spurious gore and glinty-eyed massacre clash vulgarly with cloying sentimentality and chocolate-box scenery in a ghastly foray into phoney satire that pretends to wink at the movie-fan while dishing up the goods for the popcorn munchers. Actually it fails on both scores. Many bad films at least have the merit of sincerity to redeem lack of talent. But nothing in this cheating concoction is authentic, above all the vacuous passion and wooden heroism. The art direction, idiotically mingling shades of garish puce and lime, contemporary weaponry and museum pieces, B-movie Western costumes and colonial Thai architecture, makes Pokemon cards look like Vermeers. Twelve year-olds could do better. Indeed, one did: Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels looks like Shakespeare compared with this lurid farrago. I have seen many pictures in my time and this is certainly the worst. Tacky, hypocritical, plodding, violent, nothing about it has any merit at all---even the poorly sustained effort at camp humour is pathetically lame, flushed away as it is in geysers of Kensington gore and spattered flesh. In short, let's not waste any more words on this appalling confection and get to the jist of it: for heaven's sake, don't go! Don't rent the video. Don't give this totally deluded film-maker one scrap of further encouragement.

The central character, Dum, is the perfect hero: the man who kills for revenge, and has to face the many challenges of life - the love for a woman which brings him sorrow memories, and the revenge for his father's death. So, Dum becomes an expert gunman, working for the crimelords. The movie uses this classic story to pay a strange hommage to western movies, with a low-key soundtrack, and some really campy, hilarious deaths in between. The movie never seems to decide itself between the love story and the action scenes, and it has some pace problems. But the hilarious shootouts and the saturated, surrealistic colours are a must. The movie comes out like a novelty item, and the weirdest thing is that it's from Thayland. So, expect to laugh out loud with this little movie which even if it's not really innovative, turn out satisfying.

When I went to see that movie at a cinema a few years ago, I only heard that it was supposed to be good and hadn't read anything else about it. I was in for a treat! At first I wasn't sure if this movie was serious or if it was more like a spoof. That became pretty clear after a few minutes into the movie. It was meant to be funny, but that didn't mean that you didn't care about the characters. Quite the contrary was the case. Whenever you laughed with the characters, you began to like them a little more and more ... Which ultimately worked very good for the drama parts of the movie.

This movie walks a very thin line, between comedy and drama. But it never fails to deliver on both occasions. The movie breaks the illusion of being a movie very quickly, also. But that doesn't affect the drama. Although you can see painted backgrounds or back-screen projections in cars (latter are in black-and-white, the movie itself is in color) that doesn't distract.

The movie has rich colors which reminded me a little bit of Bollywood movies. That's without all the singing and dancing, so don't worry! ;o) If you like your movies a little off beat and weird, go out and watch this one! Don't forget: It's OK to laugh! :o)

Despite the surprising success of oddball flicks like Napoleon Dynamite or Shaun of the Dead, most weird little films that become "cult" favorites evolve over time. Occasionally, one can spot a candidate from day one, like this bizarre Thai import mixing Spaghetti Westerns with 1950s-style sappy romantic dramas, touches of campy comedy, and hokey, mournful love songs. Non-sequiturs among the clothes and props defy a time-line for the action. As the film careens among its genres, aided by absurdly florid colors and a few surreal stage backdrops, following the story is like watching others play ping-pong.

Young love, forbidden by class differences, eventually causes one peasant lad to become the fastest gun in an outlaw gang. The landowner's daughter is engaged to an ambitious police captain, though she still loves the playmate of her youth. Some of the acting is so bad it must have been intentional. The comedy aspects aren't enough to make it special; the romance and drama side won't work up any tears, because there's no way to take the lovers and their travails seriously. But as a cultural novelty, this one's worth a look. How many chances do you think you'll get to watch the Thai equivalent of Jesse James' gang on horseback, racing through rice paddies, and fighting the cops with six-shooters and bazookas?

You go see movies all the time hoping to be entertained, then something like this blows you away and makes all those evenings watching rubbish go away.

Cowboys with pencil drawn moustaches, grisly ultraviolence, corny romance and beautiful but very strange sets and cinematography.

Best of all, you can take your girl. She'll like the romance and you'll like the shoulder mounted missiles and Peckinpah (Can I spell that?) style squib bursts.

i agree with a lot of the previous reviews for this film although there are a number of points that i find myself forced to disagree with. but first off this is a fantastic visual film with primary colours leaping off the screen with a few nice touches of black and white in the background to add contrast.

the acting is, well it depends on how you look at acting. all of the actors played their parts well although they were all cartoon cutout characters. special mention must be made of the oh so evil hitman with his pencil thin mustache (which had a distressing tendency to not always be in quite the same place) and the leading lady who was rarely stretched from the demands of looking lovely whilst looking into the middle distance with a slight frown on her face. she does however, deserve some credit for always being able to find her co-actors as in seemingly every close up she tended to disappear in a fog the likes of which has rarely been seen outside of an episode of the original 'Star Trek' (you can almost hear the director imploring his cinematographer to 'add more vaseline to the lens!').

but where the film fails for me is that it wishes to both have its cake and eat it. it is very happy and indeed very good at playing fast and loose with many different styles of cinema (sergio leone western with rocket launchers?!??! or a plot that is strictly 50's US b-movie fodder with sam peckinpah gouts of blood and copious slow-mo's) but it wishes to be both funny and touching and sad at the same time. this was a film that was crying out for an ending that was in keeping with the rest of the film but instead we got a (very) bad copy of 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon'. now CTHD has been mentioned in an earlier review here and while i can (just) see that you can link the two, if nothing else it has opened up more main-stream audiences to subtitles, to compare them is really very, very pointless. this is a good joking film that never takes itself seriously except at the worst time, the end. CTHD was simply excellent.

but if you want some pure entertainment then this film really does deliver. if you are a movie snob like me, then sure you can look down on it. but there would be little point in that as you would only be missing the point of the sheer silliness and entertainment that this film delivers (i really did love the bit with the teeth though!)

Parody/homage/ pastiche/(take your pick) film thats a send up of romance movies and Italian westerns. so over the top you'll wonder if there ever was a top, this is one wild ride, even by Thai movie standards.

With blood and gore and painted backgrounds mixing with real locations and a very deliberate sense of reality this film is either going to strike you as a master piece or a piece of cow flop. I'm somewhere in the middle-leaning towards the dislike camp. The problem for me its so artificial I that I was watching the wheels and gears whir instead of watching the story unfold. I also am not really in love with the idea that this is almost two hours long. Overwhelmed with the artifice I turned it off a good clip in. The reaction is not really unexpected since I have a real love hate relations hip with the Thai film industry where I find I either lover or hate the films, there is no rhyme or reason other than I dislike most Thai horror films I stumble upon on my own.

Is Black Tiger worth seeing (or should that be trying?)? Hell yea. There is nothing like it for shaking the dust from the notion of all movies are the same. There is nothing like this I've ever seen in the west and very few in the east.

Inadvertently starting a riot at the Cannes Film Festival is probably not the best way to make friends and influence people but it certainly makes for an invigorating evening. It was in 2000 when I was there with a group of 'producers' trying to interest wheelers and dealers in a film project when we were suddenly 'adopted' by a television crew who attempted to use us as leverage to get themselves into the celebrity laden MTV party. Push quickly came to shove, the security Gestapo got irate and before we knew it, it was war! The fracas in question had, according to news reports, George Clooney and the All Saints cowering under tables. As chairs began to fly and the gendarmes got busy with the batons we escaped the mayhem and stood and watched it from across the rue unaware that there was another, more constructive, upheaval taking place on the Cote D'azure with the first ever entry from Thailand – Tears of the Black Tiger.

'Tiger' was about to herald in the so called 'Thai New Wave' challenging the dominance of Japan and Hong Kong as the prime movers and shakers of Asian cinema – and what an debut!

A lysergic western that tells the tale of a young man whose family is murdered and so joins up with a gang of bandits with vengeance on his mind. He soon builds a reputation earning him the name Black Tiger. His gang inevitability come into conflict with the local establishment, but when he discovers his childhood sweetheart is to marry a police captain he struggles to maintain peace between the gangs and the authorities but his efforts (much like our film project bid) quickly spiral into untold chaos.

Taking place between parallel dimensions of a colour-saturated Wild West and contemporary Bangkok, Tears of the Black Tiger is a moving 3D postcard of retro-camp kitsch, and because of this, the sudden explosions of (literally) teeth shattering violence are all the more outrageous. The term 'visual feast' seems made for director Wisit Sasanatieng's masterpiece as it takes 50's melodramas, Spaghetti Western's (or should that be Noodle Eastern's?) and Anime action and puts them through the wringer, resulting in a film that embraces as many conventions as it seems to demolish .

As my own attempts to storm the Bastille of the film industry have, to date, yielded little fruit, I appreciate all the more a film that appears to have flaunted all the rules and has no agenda but its own. 'Tears of the Black Tiger' is a brilliant example of revolt sans riot.

This movie if seen by most movie goers will be thought of as awful, boring, with a few funny bits. If seen by People who like surreal art movies, will be thought of as Funny, and well done.

If "men were weeping" it probably was because they had to sit through it. I never walk out on a film but this film was "walk out" material.

For those of you who have seen it compared with "Crouching Tiger..." I can assure you there is no similarity whatsoever except that it has subtitles. Don't go expecting another "crouching Tiger.." you will be doubly disappointed.