NoFace for Film

Title: The Tiger Blade
Year: 2005
Director: Theeratorn Siriphunvaraporn
Starring Cast: Atsadawut Luengsuntorn, Phimonrat Phisarayabud,
Pongpat Wachirabunjong, Srungsuda Lawanprasert, Amornrit Sriphung,
Chalad Na Songkhla
Rated: R
Language: Thai with English Subtitles
Reviewed by: TheMarina

NoFace for Film rating: 1 out of 7

Oh my. I’m not quite sure where to begin with this one. It looked great, the story sounded good but it was just wrong. All of it was wrong.

The film follows a young undercover cop who is put on a case where he faces off against a gang leader who is portrayed as a sort of saviour to his people. Unfortunately, the gang boss has magical powers and the only way to defeat him is using -get ready for it- the Tiger Blade.

This movie has a lot going for it. The story is a little mystical but has a fair bit of potential. The acting is actually pretty good and I was impressed by Atsadawut Luengsuntorn’s performance as the young, suave cop who is loosely based on Bond. Some of the action sequences, particularly the opening one, are excellent. Some of the editing is also very good and I really liked the way the main characters were introduced with a freeze frame, the sliding in of their name and then a little background story. That was ingenious and although it had a cartoony feel to it, it fit very well with the movie.

Unfortunately, that’s where the good stuff ends. The story is confusing and often doesn’t make sense and unfortunately, the subtitles on the version that I saw were awful. I don’t speak or
understand Thai but when the subtitles are riddled with bad English, I can only assume that the translation was also pretty poor.

So much potential down the drain. Not one I would recommend.

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