Review of Tears of the Black Tiger (2000) by Artit S — 24 Nov 2012

I've only seen Thailand martial movies and only one out the dozens I have seen was any good. So I chose to explore Thai cinema outside of the Martial Art genre, which failed to change my outlook on Thai cinema. Tears of the Black Tiger is certainly one of the better Thai films I've seen, but its many references to classic westerns keep reminding of other superior films I could be watching.

Tear of the Black Tiger is a parody as well as a homage to the Western and the romantic tearjerker. The plot here is so-so, its simply there and goes by without much to give us. The movie dialogue is more corny than a Spanish soap opera. It uses many of the cliches of the western genre which it pokes fun of, but becomes cliche itself for using to much of them. Contains over the top violence; like a man flipping in the air after being shot with a pistol in the mouth. Surprisingly the violence here uses tons of blood whenever someone is killed. The acting is good though ultimately underwhelming due to the lack of screen time some of the actors get. This is a classic case of style over substance. Most of the efforts went into the unique and sometime odd color scheme of the visuals. Some of the shootouts even if over the top were fun to watch. As a fan of the western genre I enjoyed the film offering, but it gets caught up in reminding us of past influential films and failing to give the audiences something new in the process.

Tears of the Black Tiger takes inspiration from superior films and fails to capture the same essence as its influences. It's good if you want to past the time, just do not go into this expecting anything as from the genre usual standards.