You can't help but fall in love with the two stars of "True Romance"! Director Tony Scott, who I loved so much that I even changed the ending *Note! Contains spoilers.

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``True Romance'' has Tarantino's signature features, such as dialogue that frequently references subcultures, a dialogue-based narrative, characters whose crime hurdles are extremely low, and a story that progresses sporadically with detours. There is already a style that can be called upon. At the same time, Tony Scott's stamp is firmly stamped on, such as stylish visual beauty and clear action depiction. Above all, Tony Scott is not only a director of style, but also a master of the technique of visually expressing emotion. proved that there is.

Perhaps if ``True Romance'' had been directed by Tarantino himself and shot as a low-budget 16mm film, as Tarantino had originally intended, Tarantino, a perfectionist, would have been angry at his own inadequacy and would have made ``True Romance.'' He might have buried it.

In fact, many elements of True Romance, such as the name Clarence and the idea of ​​gifting a prostitute for a birthday, were inspired by Tarantino's self-produced film My Best Friend's Birthday when he was unknown. And looking at the footage from ``My Best Friend's Birthday'', it's doubtful whether Tarantino had the directorial ability to put together ``True Romance'' at the time. What's more, the initial version of the script included the story that later became `` Natural Born Killers '' (1994), and was twice as long as normal.

Even so, what was groundbreaking was that ``True Romance'' turned a ``no-frills bonkler'' into the main character of a major movie of this scale.

Clarence, the protagonist of True Romance, was created as Tarantino's alter ego, as Tarantino has said it is his "most autobiographical work." The comic shop where Clarence works is modeled after the video rental store where Tarantino worked for a long time, and even the store owner's name, Lance, is the same. Of course, Clarence's appearance on his birthday when he goes to see Sonny Chiba's (Shinichi Chiba) Karate movie triple feature can also be said to be a true Tarantino.

However, Tarantino didn't actually fall in love with a cute prostitute and go on an escapade. The story of ``True Romance'' is like the daydream of a young man who wishes to ``say goodbye to this shitty life.'' That dream turned into a most entertaining movie with a top-notch director and a top-notch cast. We movie fans are moved by this fact, and feel close to Clarence and Alabama, as if they were our own or close friends, and like Tony Scott, we can't help but love them to the point of thinking, ``I don't want to kill Clarence!'' It cannot be done.

Text: Akira Murayama

Born in 1971. Writes articles for magazines, newspapers, movie sites, etc. Representative of “ShortCuts,” a review site for distribution-based works.

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