A western from Thailand!?! Absolutely. And we need more of them. This one, Tears of the Black Tiger (2000), is a Romeo & Juliet tragedy where a handsome cowboy outlaw laments lost innocence and the woman that symbolises it. But move over any plodding sentimentality, this is an all action take broader than just a loving western parody/tribute.
Packaged, at times, like a Broadway version of Oklahoma - except that under these painted skies are psychopath bandits and slick dressed gunslingers - Tears of the Black Tiger runs through every decade of Hollywood in style and culture from silent melodramas to thirties gangsters to Jimmy Dean teen angst to modern blow it up hero spectaculars.
Though the best moments for me were the periods of pastel expressionism and realist moments of Thai peasantry, it is all done with a knowing love of cinema and its history. But this chameleon attitude and sense of story-telling universality only reinforces this as a Thailand tale.
And the juxtapositions are everything. There is a scene where two drunken Asian cowboys, share blood in shooter glasses and laugh and dance, blood spilling from there mouths, waving their guns, all done within an ancient Buddhist temple. There's the ride of the posse - horses, guns, boots and cowboy hats - amidst classic Thailand scenery - shootouts in rainforests.
And then there's the line by the suffering heroine, "In this life I'll never love another." Sure, a normal line in any melodramtic theatre, especially in a boy/girl western. But in a land of reincarnation it takes on a different meaning quite intended. The line works humorously and straight.
These look amazing! Never seen anything like it!
Very original, more so than Tarantino if you consider this is almost ten years old now.
it good to give it a try but its so fake.