The History of Cinema. Wisit Sasanatieng: biography, filmography, reviews, ratings, best films

Wisit Sasanatieng

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Wisit Sasanatieng (Thailand, 1963)

Fah Talai Jone/ Tears of the Black Tiger (2000) is a post-modernist revision of Hollywood stereotypes, filmed in strong colors reminiscent of cartoons.

On a rainy day a beautiful girl dressed in red and carrying a suitcase is waiting in the gazebo that lies in the middle of the countryside. She drops the picture of a young man. This young man is the protagonist of the next scene. Two gansters, dressed like Hollywood cowboys, attack a house and kill all the people inside, including an acrobatic shot that has the bullet bounce several times before it hits its target (the shot is replayed in slow-motion to make sure that we see it). They proclaim that they have been sent to avenge their boss Fai. The girl's boy is Dum, his buddy is Mahesuan. Dum jumps on his horse and rides straight to the gazebo, but arrives when the girl, Rumpoey, has already left. She is crying in the arms of her nanny. She is the daughter of the governor and lives in a big mansion, and she is about to get married to a police captain. Dum and Rumpoey live in two completely different worlds. Dum is a legendary gunslinger, considered the fastest shooter around, nicknamed "Black Tiger". But is not celebrating with the rest of Fai's outlaws. He is playing the harmonica alone (against a colorful cartoonish background). Mahesuan is jealous of Dum and provokes him to challenge him in a duel. Dum shoots first and hits a poisonous snake that falls from the tree on instead of Mahesuan: Dum saved Mahesuan's life instead of killing him to defend his own life. Mahesuan later swears in front of a Buddha statue that he will always protect Dum.
A flashback shows the Dum as a child, who likes to play the flute, being harassed by Rumpoey, who demands that he does everything that she orders. They row a boat to visit the gazebo and he tells her the legend behind it: that a poor boy loved a rich girl, but her father forbade them to meet, and she killed herself. As they row on the way back home, Dum gets into a fight with three friends who mocked the girl. The boat capsizes and Dum has to rescue the girl from drowning, but back home his father ties him to a pole and flogs him ferociously. Then one day she leaves on a train, crying.
Rumpoey's fiance, the young ambitious captain, Kumjorn, asks her father, the governor, for the permission to set out on a dangerous mission to capture the feared bandit Fai. Kumjorn says goodbye to a cold Rumpoey and rides away with a picture of her. The soldiers led by the valiant captain attack Fai's compound and are about to exterminate the bandits when Dum and Mahesuan ride to their help and wipe out the soldiers. Fai captures Kumjorn and orders Dum to kill him. Kumjorn pleads for his life with Dum, showing him his fiance's photo, unaware that she is Dum's life-long love. Dum stabs himself in the chest and lets Kumjorn flee. Sum survives. While healing, another flashback shows him as a university student in the big city, rejoined with Rumpoey. Again, Dum has defend Rumpoey from the same three rascals. Rumpoey and Dum swore eternal love at the beach and swore to meet one year later at the gazebo. But Dum found a terrible surprise when he went back home: his entire family massacred by the gang of a powerful politician.
Kong. Dum, determined to get revenge, Dum gets a gun and attacks the compound of the politician, killing as many of the men as he can. He is about to get overrun but Fai arrives to save him with his little army of outlaws. It turns out that Dum's father once saved Fai's life. Fai captures the politician and his men, and then lets Dum execute them one by one. That's how Dum became a bandit.
Rumpoey visits the captain at the hospital and learns that the captain's life was spared because he showed Black Tiger the picture of her. Meanwhile, Fai is determined to catch the captain and plans a deadly ambush during the wedding. It is now the eve of the wedding. Rumpoey writes a suicide letter and is ready to hang herself, but is saved by her nanny. Meanwhile, Mahesuan betrays Dum: after convincing Fai that Dum must have deliberately set free the captain, Mehesuan uses a trick to disarm him. Mehesuan admits that he has been jealous of Dum all the time. Before shooting him, Mehesuan admits that he has been jealous of Dum all the time, and promises to rape his girl after killing the captain. Dum reacts by killing several of the bandits but has to flee wounded.
Dum/Black Tiger shows up at the wedding dressed in a perfect white suit and warns the captain that Fai is about to attack. Instead of being grateful that Dum let his run away from Fai's camp, the captain tries to kill him but Rumpoey deflects the gun. The captain now suspects that the two might be in love. Rumpoey cries in the arms of her nanny while Dum spies from the window. The guests leave the mansion in the middle of a storm and the captain tries to force his bride to have sex with him, but right then Fai's men attack. The girl has barely escaped the captain's lust that she is kidnapped by Mahesuan, also determined to have sex with her. Rumpoey's father kills Fai just when he is about to kill the captain. Dum stops Mahesuan who is carrying an unconscious Rumpoey on his shoulder. Dum kills him, and saves the girl, but Kumjorn, thinking that Dum is about to pull out a gun when in fact he is about to pull out the picture of Rumpoey, kills Dum who dies in the girl's arms.

Ma Nakhon/ Citizen Dog (2004) is a romantic comedy.

The Unseeable (2006) is a horror film.

Insi Daeng/ The Red Eagle (2010 ) is a sci-fi movie.

Fah Talai Jone/ Tears of the Black Tiger (2000)