Sukiyaki Western Django

Remember the old Spaghetti westerns by Sergio Leone?  Movies like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and other westerns filmed in  Italy and then dubbed into English.  Well there is a new spaghetti western on the DVD racks and its filmed in…Japan.  Sashimi western anyone?  The movie is Sukiyaki Western Django and it was hat the helm is by Japanese director Takashi Miike.  Miike is most famous in the US for his gore filled and extremely strange films such as Ichi the Killer, Gozu, Audition and Izo. He also had a small cameo in Hostel as the Japanese businessman.  The film itself has an interesting pedigree.  It is  a remake of  A Fistful of Dollars by Leone, which itself was a remake of Akira Kurisawa’s epic samurai movie Yojimbo.  Leone’s film was also remade as Last man Standing with Bruce Willis.

If you have not seen any of its predecessors, it is basically the tale of a city controlled by two warring gangs.  The city is slowly being tore apart as the clans battle for supremacy.  Into the conflict rides a stranger *(or walks in Kurosawa’s) who manages to play both sides against one another by trickery and his skill with a gun (or katana.) Hideako Ito takes the role of the stranger in Django. A role that helped make the career of Clint Eastwood.

Do not go into this expecting a polished and slick movie.  Its Takeshi’s tribute to Leone and Kurisawa with his one twisted turns and artistic style.  All the dialogue is in English and few, if any, of the actors spoke or understood any English.  This leads to an unique and peculiar delivery of the lines.  Watching a character giving a long and emotion speech when he clearly has no idea what he is saying is funny at times but it definitely adds a weirdness to the film.  Weirdness is Miike’s trademark and its stamped all over this film.  Most of the outdoor backgrounds are obviously just painted backgrounds.  Let me reiterate they are VERY obviously painted backgrounds.  The movie is violent but not nearly as bloody or gory as some of Miike’s other work.  The mixtures of six guns and samurai swords adds another layer of otherworldliness to it.  The movie has moments of pure insanity and my reactions varied from laughter to “WTF” Quentin Tarantino even has a small role to add to the madness.

Sukiyaki Western Django has some sexuality and tons of violence.  Some of the violence is almost cartoonish, but can still be disturbing.  This movie definitely is not for everyone.  However if  you are a Takashi Miike fan, or would just like to take a stroll on the stranger side of cinema, check it out.