In Thai with English and Chinese Subtitles
Genre: Action/Comedy/Fantasy
Director: Theeratorn Siripanwaraporn
Starring: Asadawut Leungsoontorn, Phimolrat Phisollayabut
RunTime: 1 hr 33 mins
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Rating: M18 (Some sexual scenes)

Release Date: 18 May 2006

Synopsis :

When a highly volatile case confronts the police, a young maverick cop with mystical powers is put on the case. YOSTHANA teams up with the seductive DUANGDAO, and together they must hunt down and capture the brutal and deadly 'FIVE BULLETS BANDIT'. The gang is led by the fearsome, MAHESAK, who like Yosthana is skilled in the art of sorcery and magic. Mahesak can only be defeated with The Tiger Blade, a magical and ancient sword, replete with the powers of nature, and the forces of good. Yosthana must find the Tiger Blade, and bring Mahesak to justice, before the bandits bring total chaos to the city. The stage is set for a gruesome battle between the two nemesis, but only one can survive.

Movie Review:

Sawadeeka! Welcome to a nostalgic trip back to the 80s, where theatres and television are airing Hong Kong action movie after action movie with heroic cops, campy villains, and of course, lots of martial arts action, good or bad, peppered throughout. Plenty of guns and gunplay, but with the villains not having taken a marksmanship course, it is natural they are just wasting bullets, or aren't equipped with rounds that can pierce through flimsy wood. All the cops exhibit cool but fabricated martial arts moves, and even the worst of them all, can injure a villain or
two.

It's a make believe world in the Thai movie The Tiger Blade, a world which somehow felt like it borrowed from, and was directly influenced by the various Hong Kong productions of old. The movie's marketed with a sense of mysticism, swords and sorcery style with aged old artifacts, talismans and supernatural powers. But instead, it's substituted with a huge dose of camp,
and not even the title weapon was shielded from the brunt of sleazy old-school jokes, like requiring it to be blessed with virgin blood before it can become effective. Wong Jing anyone?

Which is a pity, as the movie had loads of potential to be an action classic in the mould of the original Highlander, but it just cannot decide what it wanted to be. The mysticism element so played up was totally wasted and best left forgotten, and so are the many amateurish action sequences involving overused foot chases, uninspiring go-kart pursuits put on fast forward, fist fights totally reliant on quick edits and paying homage to bullet time and slow-motion, and
boring gun battles.

Inspired by the spy-thriller genre, we have the protagonist, Yosthana (Atsadawut Leungsuntorn), a super-spy for an unnamed Thai government agency. You have the usual stereotypical sidekick team like an Oracle like bookish female, a tough-as-nails partner, a joker providing the laughs, and like all clandestine agencies, a mole working from deep within. Blessed with high technology like futuristic heads up display in their Jeeps, and high bandwidth video communication
phones, they find themselves up against a band of villains who possess black magic aided powers, like invulnerability to bullets. It didn't help that they possess bad acting skills - heroes just look cool, villains just snarl.

To defeat the enemy, they have to find (so easy, with the Internet and GPS these days) the over-glorified Tiger Blade, which is rumoured to have the power to negate the spells of the villains. That's the basic gist of the story, until it tried to add complexity with having subplots about a cult-like military commander and his motivations (shades of Korea's Typhoon here), and his behind the scenes backer, which failed miserably, especially in the ludicrous finale.

The broth was spoilt by too many minor characters (some who can fight all of a sudden), and too many unfulfilled subplots. The action sequences didn't manage to be nail biting or exciting, and turned out to have the audience punctuate them with laughter. It lacked originality in some of the choreography, having some fight scenes mirroring the very similar in style used in Ong Bak's and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon's, with the use of the knee charge, wire work, and some remote resemblance to choice of music accompanying the action too.

So unless you are a big fan of 80s Hong Kong cop flicks, keep your expectations really low in order to enjoy The Tiger Blade.

Movie Rating:

(Forget the promise of mystery, mysticism and mayhem. The Tiger Blade is a movie with plenty of unused potential, but surprisingly high in camp)

Review by Stefan Shih