The West has a tradition of turning Asian stories into Westerns – The Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars. The tables have been turned in a very original way by Thai writer/director Visit Sasanatieng with his first film, Tears of the Black Tiger. It's a melodrama about rich girl Rumpoey (Stella Malucchi) and poor boy Dum (Chartchai Ngamsam), who becomes the outlaw Black Tiger when his love for Rumpoey seems hopeless and he discovers his father has been murdered.
Explicitly bloody like Peckinpah, moody like Leone, cheeky like Raimi, Tears of the Black Tiger has taken on Western references but still delivers a film that is distinctively different. With it's 1950s look of saturated colours the film also references black and white cowboy movies. There's no sense of self-importance in the film, in fact, it's hard to find anything particularly deep in it, it's nevertheless a very different and enjoyable cinema experience.
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