Dec 01 2008
B+ Movie Review: Sukiyaki Western Django
Every once in a while, I have to go to a video store whether I intend to rent anything or not. I just want to know what’s out there, how many hours of films I’m behind on. I look for the unexpected, gems that I’d have never heard of online, only by stumbling upon the hard copy. Sometimes, I find one that screams of such potential that I have to rent it, regardless of what my original intentions were. It has to be seen; it has to be measured.
This weekend, that movie was Sukiyaki Western Django.
The bumper sticker description of this movie would be a “Japanese made Spaghetti Western” but of course that doesn’t convey the essence of the film any more that “Visualize World Peace” constitutes a foreign policy. Sukiyaki Western Django has both saddlebags full of standard western tropes: A town held by two violent gangs, a nameless gunman willing to stir things up, a treasure in gold and townspeople who are caught in the middle, but aren’t just what they seem. There’s even a cute, somewhat damaged kid.
Then it gets weird.
We’ve got a town sheriff that seems to have multiple personality disorder. We’ve got one gang leader who idolizes Shakespeare and Henry V. We’ve got another gang leader who is a samurai at heart in addition to being the genuine bad ass we know is going to stand on one side of the final showdown.
Watching, I was constantly trying to figure out if this was a comedy, a parody or a tribute. It would be funny one moment, then throw something at me that might still haunt my nightmares. It had places where the Japanese actors would do lines straight from scripts of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood with sincerity, but at the same time it felt like the characters were playing at cowboys, not just the actors.
The visual style of this movie is bold and shocking in places. There’s brutality mixed with visual comedy; displays of beautiful violence mixed with filth and horror. It’s over the top, the sort of movie you are glad you’ve seen the first time, but the second time when you’re showing it to your friends, you’re wondering if maybe you missed something.
The only problem I had with this movie was that it sometimes seemed to substitute visual impact for poignancy and as a result be interesting in places where it could have been unforgettable. The slow pace of the dialogue is forgivable, the uses of cliche understandable attempts at homage but the opportunities this movie has to make you say “Holy Crap!” are missed, leaving you instead muttering “that was kind of odd.”
Sukiyaki Western Django get’s a B from me. If it weren’t for the last 15 minutes of the movie, I’d give it a C. If you’re a fan of oddball cinema, bright red blood splatters and sex scenes of questionable ethics and eroticism, it’s worth it to check this one out. If not… why are you reading this blog?
