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Magnolia
Pictures Presents
TEARS OF THE
BLACK TIGER
Written and
directed by Wisit Sasanatieng
PRESS NOTES
RT: 113min.;
35mm; Dolby SR
www.magpictures.com
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SYNOPSIS
TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER takes a journey back to a lost past – the heroic years of Thai genre cinema, when influences from Hollywood and everywhere else were subsumed into rollicking Thai melodramas for an audience of avid fans. Sasanatieng’s film is a brilliant pastiche of vanished themes, styles and characters, almost all of them easily recognizable as variants on the prototypes from other popular cinemas. But the film’s project is not simply nostalgic. Sasanatieng uses the tricks and tropes of film style from the 1960’s- iris shots, wipes, obvious back-projection – but combines them with a startling, modernist approach to color and storytelling. The result is not only unique in Thai cinema but also an entirely new way of looking at genre entertainment.
TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER offers nostalgia
as future shock.
When Dum, a young peasant boy,
falls in love with Rumpoey, the daughter of a wealthy family, they vow
that, whatever happens, they will one day be together. When they meet
again ten years later, their rekindled passion is thwarted by the murder
of Dum’s father by outlaws and by Rumpoey’s betrothal to a smooth-talking
police captain. Dum soon transforms himself into the gunslinging bandit,
“Black Tiger,” in order to infiltrate the gang who murdered his
father. Fate will reunite the lovers one more time, but will they be
able to continue their romance? Or will tragedy strike again?
BACKGROUND
The
Sala Raw Nang
The sala is the quintessential
Thai shelter. An elegant and simple concept, the sala can be
a grand public assembly space or a bus stop, a beautiful pergola or
a simple hut in the middle of a rice field, giving farmers respite from
the midday sun. In bygone times, the town sala provided
safe and free shelter for those passing though or stopping for a few
days. It is an evocative, phenomenological space. It is shelter itself.
The sala featured in Tears of the
Black Tiger is a lovers’ space, imbued with myth. Set on the bank
of a river, it is named the Sala raw nang: “Awaiting the maiden”.
It carries the story of an impossible love, of a failed rendezvous of
hearts. A poor woodcutter once met the daughter of a rich man.
Despite the social taboo against a cross-class match, the two planned
to meet again at the same spot. In anticipation, the woodcutter began
cutting wood to build a beautiful sala on the spot, a place where
their love could be nurtured. But on the day of the rendezvous the girl’s
father caught her leaving the house. Furious, he locked her in her room.
The girl, her bedroom now a gilded cage, was filled with grief and hanged
herself. Not knowing her fate, the woodcutter waited for her...and
waited, trusting that she would come. The legend goes that he stayed
there forever, always working to perfect the sala, always awaiting
the arrival of his beloved.
Rattana Pestonji
The mix of genre parody and daring color
effects in Tears of the Black Tiger owes much to the pioneering work
of Rattana Pestonji (1908-1970), the original Thai independent film-maker.
Unknown outside Thailand, he is now largely forgotten at home, where
there is no tradition of repertory or archival screenings of vintage
films.
Pestonji (who had part-Persian ancestry) studied engineering in London and made his first amateur short films in Britain in the 1930s. Back in Thailand, he was invited to photograph a film for Prince Phanuphan Yukol- a project which launched him on a new career as a film-maker. He directed his first independent feature Tookata Ja in 1951 and set up his own production company Hanuman the following year. The company produced six features between 1954 and 1964, all but the first two directed by Pestonji himself. The most celebrated of them is the black comedy Rongraem Marok (1957), which takes place entirely on one day and in one location- a mysterious country hotel full of slinky opium traders, Chinese Opera performers, boxers and robbers who are themselves robbed. The negatives of most Hanuman productions were held at Rank Film Laboratories in Britain and were acquired by the Thai Film Archive in the mid-1990s. (adapted from noted by Chalida Uabumrungit)
CAST
Seua
Dum (‘Black Tiger’): Chartchai Ngamsan
Rumpoey: Stella
Malucchi
Mahasuan: Supakorn
Kitsuwon
Police
Captain Kumjorn: Arawat Ruangvuth
Fai: Sombati
Medhanee
Phya
Prasit: Pairoj Jaisingha
Rumploey’s
Maid Naiyana Shiwanun
Kamnan
Dua, Dum’s Father: Kanchit Kwanpracha
Sgt.
Yam Chamloen Sridang
CREW
Writer/Director: Wisit
Sasanatieng
Producer: Nonzee
Nimibutr
Line
Producer: Bunbhot Ngamkhum
Executive Producers: Pracha Maleenont
Brian L. Marcar
Adirek Wattaleela
Cinematographer: Nattawut
Kittikhun
Production
Designer: Ek Iemchuen
Art Direction: Akradech Keaw Kotr
Rutchanon Kayangnan
Film Editor: Dusanee Puinongpho
Music/Sound
Design: Amornbhong
Methakunavudh
Costume Design: Chaiwichit Somboon
Make-up Artist: Benjawan
Soi-intr
Casting: Pasiree Panya
Production Manager:
Saijai La-ongkaew
Laboratory:
Kantana Film Lab
BIOGRAPHIES
WISIT SASANATIENG (Director/Story/Screenplay)
Wisit graduated from Silpakorn University
(Bangkok’s leading college of art) in the late 1980s. His classmates
there included Nonzee Nimibutr and Ek Iemchuen. He entered the
advertising industry and had directed numerous innovative commercials
for the agency The Film Factory. When Nonzee Nimibutr decided
to move from advertising into feature film-making, he invited Wisit
to collaborate on his scripts- which is how Wisit came to be credited
with the screenplays for both Dan Bireley’s
and the Young Gangsters and Nang Nak, the two most successful
titles in Thai film history. Tears of the Black Tiger marks Wisit’s
debut as a writer-director. The film won the Dragons & Tigers
Award for best new director at the Vancouver International Film Festival
in 2000.
NONZEE NIMIBUTR (Producer)
Nonzee almost single-handedly rescued
the Thai film industry from seemingly terminal decline when he stopped
making commercials and started directing features in 1997. A Silpakorn
University graduate, he built a team of trusted collaborators at his
independent advertising agency Buddy Films and Video. Many of
them went on to work on his debut feature Dang Bireley’s
and the Young Gangsters, a bio-pic about at real-life gangster of
the 1950s, which rapidly became the highest grossing Thai film ever
made. But Nonzee broke his own record with his second film
Nang Nank (1999), a brilliant retelling of a traditional Thai ghost
story, which not only did spectacular business in Thailand but also
became the first Thai film to win widespread international release.
Nonzee was a founding partner in the company Film Bangkok and produced
its first two films, Tears of the Black Tiger and Bangkok
Dangerous, the latter directed by the Pang Brothers.
He has now founded the independent company Cinemasia and is currently
completing his third feature Jan Dara, a co-production with the
Hong-Kong based Applause Pictures.
EK IEMCHUEN (Production Designer)
A classmate of both Wisit and Nonzee
at Silpakorn University in the late 1980s, Ek has become the most respected
and influential production designer in the Thai film industry. He has
designed all three of Nonzee’s features (Dan Bireley’s and the
Young Gangsters, Nang Nak and Jan Dara), and he worked very
closely with Wisit to achieve the unique look and style of The Tears
of the Black Tiger.
NATTAWUT KITTIKHUN (Cinematographer)
Nattawut began shooting Thai features
a decade ago (his first credit was on the 1990 film Dark Side Romance).
He marked time on formulary projects until his talents were finally
given the chance to flower in 1999, when Nonzee Nimibutr invited him
to photograph Nang Nak. His award-winning work on that
film established him as the most in-demand cinematographer in Thailand.
In addition to Tears of the Black Tiger he has recently shot
Nonzee’s Jan Dara and the latest Film Bangkok production,
Goal Club
DUSANEE PUINONGPHO (Editor)
Dusanee has previously worked only in
advertising; she has been a regular collaborator on commercials with
the musician. Amornbhong Methakunavudh at the Wild At Heart agency.
Tears of the Black Tiger marks her debut as a feature film editor.
AMORNBHONG METHAKUNAVUDH (Music/Sound Design)
The mainstay of the Wild At Heart of
advertising agency, Amornbhong was brought into the film industry by
Pen-ek Ratanaruang and worked on his films Fun Bar Karaoke and
6ixty-nin9. He was responsible for the superb surround-sound
mix of Nonzee’s Nang Nak and for the soundtrack of Yongyoot
Thongkongtoon’s hit comedy Iron Ladies. His work on
Tears of the Black Tiger cleverly pastiches vintage Thai film scores
in the same way that he images pastiche their visuals.
CAST:
The actors in Tears of the Black Tiger
are all relative newcomers with little or no previous feature film experience.
Chartchai Ngamsan (Seua Dum, ‘Black
Tiger’) has been in ads and TV series; he had a supporting role in
Nonzee’s Dang Bireley’s and the Young Gangsters.
Stella Malucchi (Mahesuan) writes
songs and dances as well as acting on TV.
Supakorn Kitsuwon (Police Captain
Kumjorn) has a BA in design and has designed furniture.
Sombat Methanee (Fai, the bandit
boss) is Thailand’s most recognized actor and appears in the Guinness
Book of Records as the actor appearing in the highest number of films
world wide. He’s got more than 600 to his name.
DINOSAUR, GET OUT!
An interview with Wisit
Sasanatieng
Your film has a lot to do with
vintage Thai genre movies, but almost nothing in common with other recent
Thai cinema. When and how did the idea for the film take shape
in your mind?
I started thinking about it around four
years ago. The first impulse was to try to define and explore
an authentically Thai style of film-making. I’d seen films
from other Asian countries and recognized that they had certain distinctive
national traits. I felt that Thai cinema once had its own style
and character too, and I wanted to go back to something that had been
lost. I guess the problem in Thai cinema has been the lack of
continuity. The industry has been through so many upheavals and setbacks
that its tradition kind of died out.
So I watched as many old movies as I
could- especially the set of nine vintage titles restored and reissued
by the Thai Film Archive. Most people nowadays look down on old Thai
movies. They’re considered somewhat embarrassing- cheap, low-quality
work. But I was knocked out by what I found. I thought it should be
possible to combine retro elements- faithful to the old styles of filmmaking-
with more modern pacing and film language. It seemed feasible.
But many of my contemporaries in Thai film circles were strongly against
the idea. Many people told me I was crazy.
I used to work as a director of commercials
to try out some of my ideas. In a commercial for Wrangler jeans,
I experimented with tone, color and lighting; it was a first attempt
to recapture those retro styles. And then in a commercial for
noodle soup I experimented with re-coloring the images- in much the
same way that I went on to do in the film
It isn’t only vintage film style,
is it? You also refer to some theatrical traditions?
The first confrontation between Dum and
Mahesuan, when Dum shoots the snake in the tree above Mahesuan’s head,
is staged against a painted backdrop. The idea was borrowed form
Likay, a type of folk theatre which is also very Thai. You
can still see Likay performances in country fairs, even now.
What I like most about Likay is that it’s so minimal.
The audience has to make a great imaginative effort to fill in the pieces
that aren’t shown on stage.
Is the film a generalized pastiche
of retro styles or are there references to specific old movies?
A bit of both, actually. There are several scenes and images which are ‘quoted’ from old movies; some people in the Thai audience will recognize them. The shoot-outs and raids are not modeled on particular scenes from old movies bit they’re absolutely in the style of the action genre of the 1960s.
Dozens such films were made then, and
the genre became known (contemptuously) as Raberd poa, Khaow pao
kratom- “Bomb the mountain, Burn the huts” movies. The
idea that the hero should die, so that everyone cries on the way out,
was a staple of those movies too. The comedy
elements, such as the character Sgt Yam,
were taken from Mitr Chaibancha’s movies, which always had a lot of
slapstick humor. But the presiding inspiration was probably the
director Rattana Pestonji, who was never exactly in the mainstream of
the industry in the 1950s or 1960s. He was a cinematographer who
began directing and producing his own, very idiosyncratic films, and
he was very conscious of the need to create a genuinely Thai film culture
and film industry.
Was it hard to explain the project’s
rationale to your relatively young cast and crew?
It wasn’t too hard to get the crew on-side because most them had worked on Nonzee’s films Dang Bireley’s and Nang Nak, which I wrote. I knew all of them well, and so I had many chances to push them into looking at the old movies and picking up the references. Even if they didn’t quite see what I was after, I guess they had faith that I would come up with something good.
In casting, I didn’t look for experienced
actors for the main roles. Rather I looked for people who had the kind
of charisma you used to see in film stars of the 1960s. Some of those
vintage stars weren’t that great as actors, but they did have terrific
charisma. That’s much less true of most actors nowadays. I ended
up casting several virtual newcomers. Since the dialogue throughout
is very non-naturalistic, rather like dialogue from old novels, it helped
that the main actors didn’t have previous experience in Thai production.
Of course, some of the supporting actors are experienced veterans.
For instance, Sombati Medhanee, who plays Fai, was in many action movies
in his youth. When he arrived on set, he said he’d been there
a thousand times before!
How did you achieve the color effects?
I wanted that lurid, over-saturated color
because I think it’s very Thai. When I travel up-country, the
temples, houses, clothes and posters I see are all like that: bright
and colorful, very appropriate to a hot country. Sometimes the
way that clashing colors are mixed together is quite daring. It’s
not unique to Thailand, by the way. You can see similar
thing in India and in parts of China. And Thailand, of course,
used to be called ‘Indo-China’.
The current generation tends to regard
such things as ‘low-class’ or ‘bad taste’. The fashion these
days is for something cooler, more European. And so it took a
certain defiance to get the color we did.
I worked on the color as much as possible in the design and in the shooting. We really did paint walls pink, green and so on, and we lit the sets to highlight the colors. Then, after the editing, we transferred the negative to digital-Betacam tape and reworked much of the color on video.
Almost every shot in the films was ‘treated’
in some way, either by tweaking the color grading or by repainting the
colors themselves. And when it was finished, we transferred the
result back on to 35 mm film for release.
You had some interesting retro
ideas for promoting the Thai release?
Yes, films used to be promoted with novelizations,
radio plays and so on, and we revived those ideas. But in the
past the novelization would come first, followed by the radio serialization,
all paving the way for the big movie. We did it the other way
around. My wife and I wrote the
novelization, which was published as
a book after the film’s release. And we did the radio version
while the film was showing in the theatres. We also tried to replicate
the look and style of vintage advertising print ads. I looked
at a lot of old newspapers to get the hang of the old style, and found
a lot of it very funny. There was a kind of exuberant vulgarity
in the old days. For example, I saw one movie promoted (against
a Hollywood monster movie playing at the same time) with the line:
“Dinosaur, get out! A Thai movie is coming!” The sad thing is, everyone
went to see the dinosaur anyway.
--interview by Tony Rayns
translated by Duangkamol Limcharoen
(Bangkok, 11 March 2001)
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