Tears of the Black Tiger

2000 khao pad western

Rating: 14/20

Plot: It's a psychedelic eastern western love triangle! With spurts of blood! Dum and Rumpoey are childhood soul mates, but Rumpoey's father, the governor doesn't approve and arranges a marriage with policeman Kumjorn. Captain Kumjorn's got issues with a local gang led by the ruthless Fai. Dum, better known as Black Tiger, happens to be in that gang. Meanwhile, a jealous gunslinger in Fai's gang looks for a way to get rid of the Black Tiger and his stinkin' harmonica.

It's certainly a unique movie, borrowing from Leone and colorful Asian films and apparently Warner Brothers cartoons to create something that is simultaneously touching, action-packed, and cartoonishly goofy. Juggling all that isn't easy though, and the initial awe and novelty wears thin, especially during lengthy flashback scenes. The dizzying action, the use of painted backgrounds (see above), the cornball choreography of the gunfight scenes, and the gorgeous set pieces are terrific. But was it apparently too difficult to maintain. The dialogue is (probably deliberately) hokey, and the characters are (also probably deliberately) nothing more but character types, but this works as both parody and entertainment and is a lot of fun to watch if you've got a high tolerance for cheese. Peckinpah blood in a kaleidoscopic Old West. I'd definitely see it again!