There has always been something rather absurd about the cult of the Hollywood western. The spaghetti Westerns of thirty years ago gave new life to a tired genre - and now we have the first Thai Western, a big improvement on Hollywood's efforts. <br /><br />Wisit Sananatieng's film is wonderful entertainment. It takes the Western conventions and pushes them to the edge of parody. The gunfights are exciting, the film's central poor-boy/rich-girl love story is genuinely moving, and the harmonica-playing hero comes straight from the classic Gene Autry tradition.<br /><br />To cap it all, the film is shot in the most marvellous saturated colours, so that it is at times breath-takingly beautiful. And some features unknown in Westerns - such as the lake with lotus blossoms, the pagoda and the rainy season - add to the film's visual beauty. In short, a film not to be missed.