Tears of the Black Tiger

Mix the rich color cinematography of Douglas Sirk with the gushing violence of Sam Peckinpah, fold in the kind of Thai melodrama that has all but vanished from the international movie landscape, and you’ve got Tears of the Black Tiger, a film that moves with the force of a hurricane blasting apart a great marzipan city. Tears tells of the impossible romance between the young peasant-cum-legendary-bandit, Dum (a.k.a. The Black Tiger), and the wealthy daughter of a provincial governor, who is engaged to be married to the local chief of police. Wisit Sasanatieng’s picture is both homage and send-up, but harks back to a genre that is so little seen that it comes off as strikingly original. Watch for armies of scowling bandits in black, thugs who resemble Joseph Stalin, some oddball Thai jazz, headless snakes falling from trees, and a ricocheting bullet so incredible they have to stop the film and show it twice.