Tears of the Black Tiger

Director: Wisit Sasanatieng

2000 / 110min / 35mm

Sasanatieng’s delirious, deliciously over-the-top homage to the Hollywood-influenced Thai melodramas of the 1950s and ’60s drenches its elementary narrative—a star-crossed affair between a politician’s daughter (Stella Malucchi) and her childhood sweetheart, now a bandit who goes by “Black Tiger” (Chartchai Ngamean)—in saturated color and elevated, eccentric style, employing a bevy of “obsolete” filmmaking techniques (irises, wipe transitions, rear projection, and one exquisite musical number) to create something that feels entirely, thrillingly contemporary. “This hybrid of family saga, crime thriller, soap opera, and Western adventure is a cinematic sugar rush.” —The New Yorker