DVD: Sukiyaki Western Django

Was Pasta Really So Popular in the Old West?

I'm not familiar with spaghetti westerns (or most westerns at all, really), and I'm not familiar with the previous films of (mostly) J-horror director Takashi Miike. Hell, I've never even had sukiyaki, even though I've actually been to Japanese restaurants at least a hundred times. So maybe I can't really give this film's homages or culinary references proper context, but I can judge it on its own merits, so perhaps that will make me more impartial.

Either way, Sukiyaki Western Django (pronounced "jango") is good. Its style is very pronounced and engaging and the story is a fun western-style myth complete with legendary figures and rival gangs. It is a sort of remake of the spaghetti western Django, from what I understand, and it features a couple of direct references (the gun in the coffin, the massive treasure, and a brief textual coda). However, I doubt that it will create any sort of Asian western cinematic revolution or anything, but it is certainly worth seeing at least once.

As I said, this film is good, but it is great in one way for sure: it is at once strikingly original and heavily referential. I have never heard of a western-style film starring all Asians by an Asian director. It's sort of a reverse Akira Kurosawa effect (there's even a spoken reference to Yojimbo). At the same time, it borrows heavily in style and story from the western genre. It's quite a strange and unique mix that must be experienced to be understood.

The basic story is that there are two gangs, the reds and the whites, who are rivals in a small frontier town. The town supposedly has a massive treasure hidden somewhere, and when a mysterious and skilled outsider comes to town, the gangs vie for his employ to help them defeat the opposite gang and find the town treasure. It gets a bit more complicated than that with some of the other townsfolk, but I don't want to give away too much of the plot here. In a worse film I have no qualms about spoiling because I figure if I'm discouraging you from wasting time on a movie, I don't feel so bad about sparing you the cinematic abuse. In this case, however, I think it would be beneficial to you to see this movie. It's quite impressive stylistically and the story is compelling enough.

The film is not without its problems, though. The humor in the story borders on silly at times, so much so that it detracts from the gravity of certain situations. I can forgive comic relief, but it has to have limits in order to be effective. Otherwise it can drag down the story from the level to which a good film like this has built itself up. Also, judging by some of the linguistic gaffs of the film, I would assume that many of the actors do not actually speak english. It is quite possible, even, that the actors just memorized all of their lines directly, but if that is the case, they did a good job with the performances under such circumstances. That's not to say that there aren't some moments of translational humor, my favorite being, "Forrow me!" I laughed out loud at that one.

Overall, I highly recommend this film, more so than I normally would for a film of this caliber. It's good, but I would suggest it just as heartily as I would suggest greater films.

Oh, and don't let anyone tell you this is a Quentin Tarantino film. He was just an actor in it and nothing more. He was pretty good in it, though.

---

Special Features:

• Deleted Scenes
• Making-Of Featurette