"Stylish!"
This is one very unique movie. SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO is entertaining, a visual feast and a very poetic storytelling with comedy and style. It's bound to become an instant cult hit. If you're into... trippy movies that have some depth or artistry and creativity to it, then this is the kind that you should let running through your veins. It's confusing, fun, and hardcore all at once. It may not be an original concept but legendary filmmaker Takashii Mike has made it his own.
By now you probably can tell and it's ridiculously obvious that SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO is an ode to what is called "Spaghetti Western" in the likes of what Sergio Corbucci did with the movie Django. the famous American genre and adopting it as Italian.
The movie also has so much references to western movies of the past. Sergio Leone's A Fistfull of Dollars and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly are some examples among the many. The coffin, the gunslingers, and not to mention the mysterious gun fighter that reminds you of the calm but deadly Clint Eastwood when he was in his prime
And just like the movies that it pays homage to, Takashii Mike's SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO excels in coming up with the great Wild West set, the sweeping landscapes, the props, the costumes.
The movie also has that frequent close up shots of faces to capture those 'cool' moments.
The actors do well in complimenting the method by either simple gestures or licking the gun in slow motion to intimidate opponent.
If there's one word I'd like to use to describe this whole movie is.. Stylish!
Every stunt work and action sequence and the violence level will do what it can to look badass but at the same time the movie's not afraid to go far fetched and ridiculous just to eventually be perceived as cool again. There's one scene where a man fall off roof and jump from a considerable height to get onto his horse that's running fast down below. That part is silly but you can't help but be a bit impressed by what you've just seen.
And also, if you think the curving the bullet stuff in the movie Wanted was out there... you should check out how one character in this movie could kill a man yards away by pointing the gun up in the air and pulling the trigger instead of aiming it at his enemy first.
SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO got Samurai versus a Gun. I like how the filmmaker plays with natural elements and somehow incorporates that into the storyline or the character at hand.
Speaking of character, Quentin Tarantino who's known to have loved Western movies as long as he could remember makes an appearance in this movie. But his cameo is not just like any other guest starring role, the character he plays is actual pivotal to the plot.
The way some of the characters get killed will shock you, some are even done for the sake of the comedy. The lines said by the characters sound like something that Tarantino would come up with.
It's a story of greed, lust, power, and revenge.
I enjoy the gunfights at the end of the movie. It's like an outrageously exaggerated version of the gunfight scene in the movie Tombstone.
My only objection is that it's too damn long. The movie could've been trimmed down a bit. Some of the dialogue is way too lengthy and some characters take up too much unnecessary screen time. This is Japanese movie but in English speaking language so I do have a problem trying to understand most of the words that are coming out of the actors' mouths. It would've been better if the actors had kept talking in Japanese language and we'll just watch it with English subtitles on rather than having them speak broken English with lots of mispronunciation along the way.
But other than those few points, I think SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO will satisfy Western movie lovers everywhere.
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