City Belt: MOTUS IMAGO: TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER

Thai Technicolor Dreaming
By Nightdreamer

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Is it just a splatter movie? No, it’s more than that.

Is it just a Thai spaghetti-western style movie? No, it’s more than that.

Is it a heartbreaking love story in all its magnitude? No, it’s more than that.

Is it a very clever directed parody of older Thai melodramatic films? Don't you get it? I said no -- it’s more than that.

Then what is it about? It’s about tears. And when these tears come from a "black tiger," they are very valuable for us as spectators.

The story is simple. Dum, a poor boy, meets Rumpoey, a rich girl, and they fall in love one with each other. Their love expands over 10 years. We watch the development of their love and feel their unfulfilled need to be together.

I’m not going to reveal anything more on the plot. I just want to say that the movie is very ... pink and cyan. And sometimes it gets gold. But for the most part, it remains pink and cyan. Pink like the water-lilies Rumponey gathers and cyan like the river, where she and Dum are boating. Only so we can watch later another pink water-lily (Rumpoey) being carried from another cyan torrent (Dum). Dum is a lonely guy. All that he has is his love and his flute, reminding us of Bill and his narration of the Pai-Mei story to the Bride. But when Dum’s bride, at an outburst of hers, decides to break his flute and replace it (later) with a harmonica, that’s only to transform him again in a contemporary kind of Charles Bronson.

Long close ups on Stella Malucchi (Rumpoey) and a big main stairway in the background, just makes her resemble to Scarlett O'Hara, while sprawling Dum on a fake tree, amidst fake golden barley, keeps getting on our mind that old childhood song "I'm a poor lonesome cowboy, and a long way from home," sung from the cowboy, known to shoot faster than his shadow. I could just go on through a never-ending listing of justified references this film clearly alludes to, including Kusturica and Tarantino, but I think I will skip that part.

The soundtrack is equal to the movie’s exasperated delectability. Being mainly jazz and jovial pop, it definitely hits the spot and makes the viewer leave the cinema, whistling the theme. If you want to have a small peek, you can just click here for the trailer.

It makes one wonder how a film like this can be on the shelves of Miramax for over six years. It is truly incredible, considering the release of movies such as Bridget Jones, Spy Kids, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Scary Movie IV, etc -- you get the idea.

Tears of the Black Tiger is in limited release -- the only theater screening it in the area is Film Forum in NYC. But it's worth the PATH/NJT/helicopter trip in.

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