Summary: A crazy blend of Yojimbo and Fist Full of Dollars with samurai cowboys and it just gets more ridiculous from there.
Japanese people are crazy. Wonderfully, wonderfully crazy. Every time I think I’ve seen the craziest movie ever, I watch another Japanese movie and I’m like “Now this is the craziest movie ever!” Sukiyaki Western Django is no exception [note: I actually saw this before Tokyo Gore Police, which is now the craziest movie ever]. The title alone should give you an idea of the completely inappropriate and yet brilliant mish-mash of styles in this movie. You can’t deny the similarities between samurai movies and westerns, especially in the post-Leone anti-heroes, but actually making samurai cowboys… that’s just crazy! They dress like cowboys, except for the odd Japanese silk patterns instead of oilskin dusters, but they also carry samurai swords and live in buildings that are clearly Japanese with Japanese writing. “Well it’s a Japanese movie” you say, “obviously the writing will be in Japanese.” But the dialogue is in English. Yeah. Even though none of the actors (except Quentin Tarantino in a weird cameo) can speak English, all of the dialogue is English. The actors all took English lessons, but it doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference, they don’t really seem to understand the words they are saying (with a couple exceptions) and end up putting emphasis on weird places and makes the subtitles much appreciated. The end results are hysterical. There is also the question of where the movie is actually set. It is suggested that it takes place in medieval Japan, but then there is an Anasazi native American. Of course by that point you have just given up trying to understand and enjoy the ride. There is a good mix of gunfights and swordfights, although it is not particularly gory, especially for Takashi Miike. But the WTF factor and sweet choreography of the violence that is there (and make no mistake, it is not short on violence) make this movie well worth your time. Seek it out, and then try not to think too hard about it, you might hurt yourself.
A
originally posted Nov. 1, 2008
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