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Tears of the Black Tiger
Mar. 8th, 2007 08:20 amI saw Tears of the Black Tiger (Fah talai jone, 2000) at the Varsity last night. This is billed as a Thai Western, but the Wikipedia article I linked to is quite informative about the true nature of the beast. For example, some Western wags have called it a 'pad Thai Western,' as a play on 'spaghetti Western,' but the Wiki article quotes the director: 'Wisit has acknowledged the influence of Leone's Spaghetti Westerns but has said, "mine is 'Tom Yum Goong cowboys' because at one time cowboys were very popular in Thai films as you can see in Mitr Chaibancha's films."' Furthermore, it talks about how the big influence on the films are apparently Thai melodramas and action films of the '50s and '60s. Certainly Tears of the Black Tiger seems to incorporate a lot of different genres and eras. Of those mentioned in the Wiki article, my favorite is the action genre 'derisively termed by critics as raberd poa, khaow pao kratom ("bomb the mountain, burn the huts") films.' Yep, there's some of that.
At heart it is a candy-colored romantic melodrama that makes Westerners think of the Technicolor melodramas of the '50s. But the Peckinpah and Leone influence is undeniable, some of it clearly channeled through Sam Raimi (as in The Quick and the Dead). There are cowboys on horses and hyperstylized gunfights and bloody deaths, and then all of a sudden everybody is dressed in '50s style fashions and listening to big band jazz, or they're praying over burning incense in an abandoned Buddhist temple in the middle of the jungle. It always seems to be raining, but after all, it's the tropics. Much of this is played as parody, and there are plenty of laughs, but there is a fatalism and sense of overriding sorrow that's played for real.
It appears that part of the reason that the film is so mind-boggling to Westerners is that most of us aren't familiar with the Thai films being referenced. But it's also because it partakes of what Steve Erickson has called 'the cinema of hysteria,' which is just as prevalent in the West -- and in Westerns like Duel in the Sun and Johnny Guitar where the logic of the film seems to be happening at some deep, inexpressible, hormonal level. The artificial colors are part of it too: turquoise and watermelon, cerise and saffron. And the artificial sets, and the artificial feelings, the endless rain like tears. It's a lysergic trip, and it's a lot of fun. But don't forget your hanky.
At heart it is a candy-colored romantic melodrama that makes Westerners think of the Technicolor melodramas of the '50s. But the Peckinpah and Leone influence is undeniable, some of it clearly channeled through Sam Raimi (as in The Quick and the Dead). There are cowboys on horses and hyperstylized gunfights and bloody deaths, and then all of a sudden everybody is dressed in '50s style fashions and listening to big band jazz, or they're praying over burning incense in an abandoned Buddhist temple in the middle of the jungle. It always seems to be raining, but after all, it's the tropics. Much of this is played as parody, and there are plenty of laughs, but there is a fatalism and sense of overriding sorrow that's played for real.
It appears that part of the reason that the film is so mind-boggling to Westerners is that most of us aren't familiar with the Thai films being referenced. But it's also because it partakes of what Steve Erickson has called 'the cinema of hysteria,' which is just as prevalent in the West -- and in Westerns like Duel in the Sun and Johnny Guitar where the logic of the film seems to be happening at some deep, inexpressible, hormonal level. The artificial colors are part of it too: turquoise and watermelon, cerise and saffron. And the artificial sets, and the artificial feelings, the endless rain like tears. It's a lysergic trip, and it's a lot of fun. But don't forget your hanky.
