Tears of the Black Tiger (Fa
Talai Jone)
Reviewed by Simon Booth
Director: Wisit Sasanatieng
Year: 2000
Starring: Stella Malucchi (Rompoey), Chartchai
Ngamsan (Dum), Sombati Medhanee (Fai), Supakorn Kitsuwon (Mahesuan), Arawat
Ruangvuth (Police Captain Kumjorn), Santisuk Promsiri (young Dum)
Time: 104 minutes
Now where on earth did this movie come from?
Why was there no warning? Shouldn't we have seen it coming somehow? Like
PISTOL OPERA, TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER paints itself across the screen
in bold bright colours as if to say to the rest of the movie making world
"Are you so fresh out of ideas already?". Unlike Seijun Suzuki's piece
of abstract art in motion though, TOTBT is not just utterly removed from
filmic convention - it's just in utterly the wrong time and place.
The movie is basically a 1950's Hollywood Western/Melodrama...
made in 21st Century Thailand (and with tongue firmly in cheek). The clothes,
the hairstyles, the sets, the camerawork, the soundtrack, the acting, the
script... all spot on for 50's America. The movie has even been bizarrely
colourised in a way reminiscent of very early colour film stock, but obviously
done digitally and deliberately, with an eye to the exact shifting of colours
that best suits each shot. Hues are shifted to colours the world is not
meant to be, and saturation is selectively ramped up to 1000 to create
lurid pinks and shocking yellows and an absolutely unique look to the film.
It looks weird, but fantastic.
TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER has two major advantages
over PISTOL OPERA. Firstly, they remembered to include a story. And it's
a really good one... a melodrama in the finest tradition, featuring love
and loss and friendship and rivalry and hatred and sorrow and jealousy
and heroism and good and evil and all the finest things in life. The script
is very well thought out, full of lots of details that are woven together
in a way that keeps you on your toes.
Secondly, it's incredibly funny. The mood is definitely
spoof, and absolutely pitch perfect. I haven't laughed out loud so much
since SHAOLIN SOCCER, yet secretly really caring about what was going to
happen to the characters. Acting is as over the top as the soundtrack,
in permanent crescendo, delivered with a straight face and sincerity that
would make the most melancholy of viewers at least giggle a bit.
I enjoyed this movie so much - so utterly out
of nowhere, inexplicable, funny, sweet, moving,... where did these ideas
come from? It all fits together and makes so much sense you think perhaps
the idea was obvious all along, but I'm pretty sure that it was in exactly
one persons head ever before he put it on film. And then there are few
curveballs that are *definitely* ideas of an insane but brilliant mind.
Very highly recommended!
The UK DVD is pretty decent overall... clean
print, anamorphic transfer. The sound mix is a little bit odd at times,
but I think this is deliberate. The Malata had a little trouble with it
though... for 99% of the movie it was fine on "STILL" and looking great,
but a couple of scenes (always action scenes for some reason) started combing
like hell. Oh, and I had to stretch the movie vertically by quite a few
percent before it looked correct aspect ratio. At least the subtitles stayed
in sync though :D. A Thai Region 3 version has been released that apparently
has some additional footage included.
Monrak Transistor
Reviewed by Simon Booth
Director: Pen-ek Ratanaruang
Year: 2001
Starring: Suppakorn Kitsuwan, Siriyakorn Pukkavesh
Time: 115 minutes
I picked this movie up because it was "Voted
Thai best film of 2001" - though I had serious reservations about doing
so when I saw the severely sappy romance-indicating cover. I'm glad I decided
not to judge this one by the cover, because what's inside is so much more
than the wrapper would imply.
Pan and Sadaw are two young Thai kids growing
up in a rural Thai village. Life is good - simple, but sweet. The two find
especially large amounts of good in each other, and soon become sweethearts.
They're very much in love, and Pan even bursts spontaneously into song
to express this on occasion. Singing is Pan's other love in life, and he's
jolly good at it too. That's the part of the movie that resembles the cover
- very sweet and idyllic, but done so very nicely it is genuinely touching,
even to somebody with as little tolerance for romance as myself. It lasts
about 20 minutes As the voice-over observes, they could leave it
there and have a very short but sweet movie that would have the audience
smiling on their way to the exits. But they don't - the story continues,
and develops into something far more complex and dark.
MONRAK TRANSISTOR is in some ways a debunking
of the romantic idealism represented on the DVD case. It reminds the viewer
that life is rarely so straightforward and co-operative in the modern world.
The movie presents a far more realistic view of life and love, which makes
it much more interesting. It reminded me a little of MY SASSY GIRL in that
respect (possibly only because I rewatched MSG just before it though
).
It is also very well made. Writer/director
Pen-Ek Ratanaruang clearly had a strong vision of what he wanted his movie
to be like, and he directs it with precision and skill. The characters
are very well written, and brought to life by uniformly excellent performances.
Lead actress Siriyakorn Pukkavesh deserves particular mention - her performance
is one of the best I've seen. The movie is technically excellent as well
- absolutely beautiful cinematography and soundtrack. It's no surprise
to see Nonzee Nimibutr listed as producer, as he seems to be involved with
nearly all the really intelligent and high quality movies coming out of
Thailand in recent years.
The acting, cinematography and sound would be
enough to make any movie stand out, but it's the story that really puts
MONRAK TRANSISTOR at the top of the pile. It takes the characters (and
the viewer) in quite unexpected directions, creating a unique and original
movie. Nothing outlandish or bizarre happens - in fact the whole movie
feels very realistic. That's what makes it unexpected - things don't turn
out like they do in the movies
I believe MONRAK TRANSISTOR is Thailand's entry
for the Oscars this year. I don't suppose it will win, because Thailand's
movie industry isn't nearly important enough for Hollywood to want to grease
its palms. Hopefully it will get the movie onto more people's radars though,
because I think it deserves to be seen.
The Thai DVD is not bad by Thai DVD standards.
This means it's a reasonably clean non-anamorphic transfer with strong
colours. The non-removable English subtitles are very well translated but
occasionally disappear against light backgrounds. The soundtrack is beautifully
mixed in 5.1 too. It is of course PAL though, which hopefully most of you
can handle. The VCD comes with English subtitles.
Strongly recommended!
7 Pra Chan Ban (Heaven’s
Seven)
Reviewed by Simon Booth
Director: Chalerm Wongpim
Year: 2002
Starring: Pongpat Wachirabunjong, Theng Therdtherng,
Ummarin Nitipon
Time: 1 hr 51 minutes
Heaven's Seven aka 7 Prachabaan aka 7 Pra Chan
Ban aka 7 pra-jan-barn is a new movie from Thailand, billed an "action
comedy" with a seemingly high budget that's bought some explosive action
and some special effects that are quite good, in a bad sort of way (or
bad in a good sort of way). Since I'm probably one of the first westerners
to have seen the movie I probably should write a long detailed review,
but there doesn't seem much point since I'm just going to conclude that
it's not a very good movie and you'd be wasting your time trying to see
it.
The movie takes a Kelly's Heroes kind of plot
where 7 inept soldiers have to transcend their failings when they get mixed
up in a plot by American soldiers to bury napalm on Thai soil, and totally
mismanage it. It tries to introduce way too many characters and fails to
develop any of them. The story has no narrative structure and fails to
create any real interest. Quite a lot of effort has been put into the action
sequences, but they're still well below the quality of a Hollywood or Hong
Kong action movie.
Some of the special effects are pretty good, but
they seriously overstretch themselves in the finale and look silly as a
result. The comedy either doesn't translate well or simply isn't very funny
(on the subject of translation, I don't know how accurately the use of
the word fuck in every other sentence in the subtitles reflects the Thai,
but it sounds kind of like the subtitler was just seeing how much swearing
he could get away with when nobody else speaking English was likely to
see the film).
It's always nice to see Americans as bad guys
once in a while, but the movie fails to really convince that soldiers secretly
burying napalm are any worse than the generally treacherous and mean spirited
Thai soldiers that are meant to be the heroes. The American actors in the
cast are also much bigger, butcher and meaner looking than any of the Thai
cast, making it totally implausible that they'd lose the fight. Well, I
guess I already wrote more than I meant to. Really the movie's not very
good though, and I don't recommend exerting any effort whatsoever to see
it.
Reviewed by Brian
Most of the time I find myself in agreement
with Simon's opinions on the Thai films we have both seen, but I have to
admit to rather enjoying this somewhat lunatic film that mixes spitballs
of action, sentimentality and a comic irreverance. It's certainly miles
from being a classic and perhaps not even being good, but it has a spasmodic
goofiness and style that often brought a wry smile to my face. For those
that may have enjoyed Killer Tattoo, this film has a similar spirit that
is also fast paced if not always logical and has a big bang ending that
seems to go on forever. The fellow who played Elvis in Killer Tattoo has
a role here as well.
It takes place during the Vietnam war and a group
of ex-Thai soldiers who fought there are hired to steal a truckload of
treasure from the American military. It turns out though that the rotten
Americans are actually burying napalm in Thailand and after the Seven steal
a truck load of it, the Americans send a platoon of nasty killers after
them to get it back. It is sort of fun seeing the American military portrayed
as the very bad guys and to see how another country can look at things
very differently than we do here in the States. Not that this is a political
treatise - it is basically just a lot of silliness, but one that clearly
was meant to make the Thai audiences feel pretty good about their boys
kicking some American butt.
The Thai DVD has English subtitles.
My rating for this films: 6.0