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Released by: BCI
Released on: 07/29/08
Director: Theeratorn Siriphunvaraporn
Cast: Atsadawut Luangsuntorn, Pimonrat Pisolyabut, Pongpat Wachirabunjong
Year: 2005
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The Movie:
The Tiger Blade is one of those action movies that seems to be have been built around a couple of cool ideas for fight scenes rather than structured with any intent to create a conventionally cohesive storyline. The result is a movie that looks cool, but makes little sense. But man, does it ever look cool! Style over substance in the most literal sense, this is a completely brain dead film that couldn't give less of a shit if it makes sense or not as long as it keeps looking cool.
The plot, such as it is, follows a young police officer named Yosthana with mystical powers who winds up having to team up with a beautiful woman named Duang Dao to put a stop to a bad guy known only as the Five Bullets Bandit who is currently on a crime spree in Thailand. The Bandit has a partner of his own, G.I. Jenjira, a female martial artist with a hot temper, and then there's a crime lord named Mahesak running around casting spells and stuff. In order to win the day, Yosthana will have to find and wield an ancient sword that contains all the powers of nature dubbed The Tiger Blade but before that happens the bad guys are going to mess a lot of stuff up, plenty of people will kick one another, and lots of stuff explodes.
Taking a page from the Bible of John Woo, writer/director Theeratorn Siriphunvaraporn has crafted a confusing film that manages to be completely entertaining in spite of itself. The mix of martial arts, gun play, magic, swords and sex appeal is a good one and while it's probably best to leave your brain at home, the movie is a lot of fun. The picture is so insanely fast paced that it's almost impossible to keep track of what's going on and who is who so why not just shut down any sort of thought process and enjoy an hour and a half of people beating one another up and looking cool?
The action is as over the top and plentiful as you could possibly hope for and the healthy dollops of humor, often inappropriate and completely out of left field as it may be, ensures that as confusing and muddy as the storyline may be the film isn't the least bit boring. The CGI isn't all that impressive and the editing might wind up giving you a seizure but it's hard not to love a picture so nutty and so happy to be that nutty in the first place. See it just for the go-kart chase scene.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Tiger Blade arrives on Blu-ray in an uber-colorful and completely oversaturated 1080p 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen that looks just as ridiculous as you'd hope it would. The film's over the top action and visuals are all set against a candy colored backdrop that really pops off the screen in high definition. Detail levels aren't as strong as they are on some HD transfer but they're noticeably better than a typical SD transfer and the lack of compression artifacts and edge enhancement is nice. Flesh tones look good, reds are bright without bleeding, and the greens that make up the foliage you'll see in the background of many scenes looks fantastic. While this isn't up there with the best of the Blu-ray transfers currently available, BCI has done a pretty good job here and the movie looks really good.
Audio is provided in an uncompressed Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound mix in Thai, a Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround mix in Thai, and a Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix in English with optional subtitles available in English only. The Thai 5.1 track is the way to go and it's a fairly aggressive mix that will definitely give your subwoofer something to crow about. Sometimes the bass is a bit too strong, especially when the soundtrack really kicks in, but otherwise this track is pretty good with plenty of surround activity coming at you from all parts of the stage. Levels are fine, aside from the aforementioned minor bass issues, and dialogue is generally clean and easy to follow, though the levels on the English dubbed track are different as the dialogue is up much higher in the mix than the rest of the audio is for whatever reason.
BCI has supplied a few supplements to accompany the feature starting with roughly twenty minutes of random behind the scenes footage presented here without any context or narration whatsoever. As such, it's a little dry but there is some pretty bad ass stunt footage in here that makes it worth a look. From there, check out fifteen minutes or so worth of interviews with the production team who talk about what it was like to work on the film and how they hoped that it would appeal to an international audience. Showing up between talking head bits is much of the same behind the scenes footage that we just talked about. Rounding out the extras are trailers for the feature and for Vengeance, animated menus and chapter selection options. All of the supplements are presented in standard definition.
The Final Word:
A fun, if completely brainless action/martial arts film, The Tiger Blade looks and sounds good even if the extras are on the slim side. The film itself is a kick if you don't mind turning off your brain and soaking in the hyper stylized visuals that bring the ultra violence to life. A classic? Nope, but a fun time at the movies for sure.