NOMINATED:
Flanders International Film Festival - Golden Spur
Bratislava International Film Festival - Grand Prix

SYNOPSIS:
Rumpoey and Dum first met as children. Rumpoey's wealthy family was evacuated from Bangkok during the Pacific War. Dum's father Dua, a village chief, gave them a temporary home in the idyllic countryside of Supanburi. An intimacy soon developed between the headstrong city girl and the country boy.

Ond day Rumpoey demanded that Dum take her boating, and they visited a sala shelter by the river; Dum told her the local legend that the sala was built by a poor woodcutter in love with a girl from a rich family. Rowing hme, Dum had to fight off some local roughnecks. Rumpoey fell into water and nearly drowned, and Dum acquired a crescent scar on his forehead defending her. Later, Dum was whipped by his father for putting Rumpoey at risk. But Rumpoey gave him a silver harmonica inscribed with her name, as a gesture of gratitude.

Their second, fateful meeting came nine years later, as students in Bangkok. The shy Dum again had to rescue Rumpoey's honour, and was expelled from college for fighting. But this time the encounter led to romance, Dum promised to work hard ans save enough to marry her. And she promised to be there for him regardless of her father's reaction; if she was forbitten to marry him, she promised, she would wait for him in the sala by the river.

But a terrible shock greeted Dum in Supanburi: he found his father dying, attacked by a bandit who wanted to be village chief. Vowing revenge, Dum joined the local gang headed by the ruthless Fai and his sidekick Mahesuan. Dum earned Mahesuan's grudging trust by saving him from a snake, but the two men always saw each other as rivals. Several exploits later Dum had become Fai's most trusted gunman and earned the nickname 'Seua Dum'-Black Tiger.

Rumpoey's father, now the local governor, promises her hand marriage to Captain Kumjorn, a young police officer ambitious to make his mark by ridding Supanburi of bandits and outlaws. Rumpoey honours her promise by waiting for Dum in the sala. But Dum is tied up with a gunfight and srrives too late to keep the rendez-vous. Rumpoey contemplates suicide, but finally agrees to become engaged to Kumjorn.

Captain Kumjorn is taken captive during a raid on Fai's headquaters, and Black Tiger is ordered to execute him. But when Kumjorn asks his executioner to take a message to his fiancee, Black Tiger realises that Rumpoey has been promised to the policeman. He lets him go, pretending that he managed to escape. The jealous Mahesuan persuades Fai that Black Tiger can no longer be trusted and is given permission to trap and kill the 'traitor'. But Black Tiger gets away unscathed and hides in the attic of the governors's house. Knowing that Fai and Mahesuan will launch another attack on the day of the wedding, Black Tiger prepares to defend Rumpoey's honour one last time...