Tears of the Black Tiger

January 8th, 2007

It sounded like a good idea: a retro Thai western, a pastiche of long-forgotten styles that’s part melodrama, part over-the-top gunslinging, all bathed in madly oversaturated colors. The tears of a waiting lover blur the inscription on a photograph; sad cowboys play forlorn melodies on their harmonicas; villains with pencil-thin mustaches laugh hearty belly laughs. Duels begin with Sergio Leone super close-ups, and then the gun barrels flare in staccato edits. Body parts go flying, and the heartthrob hero can shoot around corners. Even if you’ve never seen a Thai western in your life, most of this will seem mighty familiar from somewhere. (John Woo, Douglas Sirk, George A. Romero, and Lash La Rue have all been rightfully fingered as influences.)

But good looks and a wealth of allusions only get you so far. The pleasures of Tears of the Black Tiger lie exclusively in its winking, high-camp evocation of older movies and styles; there’s not much worthwhile beneath the ironic postmodern attitude. No matter how many lotus-decorated flashbacks and Bangkok beach walks the lovers take, their woes aren’t gripping enough, and scenes without emotional connection stretch out long past their welcome. The shootouts amuse but don’t thrill, and the few attempts at low humor fail–probably because everything is a meta-joke already. Opens Friday.

Fah talai jone. Wisit Sasanatieng, 2000. **

Rotten Tomatoes
[tags]wisit sasanatieng, film, thailand, western, pastiche, postmodern, 2 stars, melodrama, sergio leone, douglas sirk, george romero, lash la rue, john woo[/tags]

Filed under New Movies

Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts:

4 Responses to “Tears of the Black Tiger”

  1. Jürgen Says:
    January 8th, 2007 at 10:38 pm

    I keep wondering if this doesn’t deserve two stars (after all, I’m still thinking about it), but it really was amazingly dull. Tarantino and Rodriguez are anything but favorites, but you can bet your pegleg machine gun that at the very least, their retrofest Grindhouse is going to be exciting.

  2. Jürgen Says:
    January 9th, 2007 at 6:48 pm

    Nathan Lee at the Voice liked the film a lot better than I did, and he makes a good point about the delayed release:

    Unembarrassed as it is, this radiant abstraction has good reason to feel chagrined by its belated arrival on American movie screens. Unveiled at the 2000 Vancouver International Film Festival, where it garnered a prize for best new director, Black Tiger went on to dazzle Cannes as the first Thai film to play in festival competition. Miramax was sufficiently impressed to pony up for the picture yet dim-witted enough to alter the ending, then shelved it, with characteristic stinginess, for five long years.

    Magnolia Pictures has now acquired Black Tiger and booked it for a run at Film Forum. Better late than never, though it must be said that the novelty of the film’s hybrid cinematography would have made a bolder impression had it been unleashed half a decade ago. Moreover, the manner in which it haunts a bygone genre presages the meta-movie strategies of Far From Heaven, Kill Bill, A History of Violence, and The Good Shepherd. Turn-of-the-millennium aesthetics haven’t turned so fast as to render it yesterday’s news. Obsolete by design, this singular stunt and shock to the cinematic system is of and beyond its own time.

  3. Paul Martin Says:
    January 10th, 2007 at 6:03 am

    What happened to my post?

  4. Jürgen Says:
    January 10th, 2007 at 11:32 am

    Must have gotten eaten, Paul. I don’t see any trace of it–sorry.

Leave a Reply