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Sukiyaki Western Django movie review

Director: Takashi Miike
Starring: Kaori Moimoi, Hideaki Ito, Yoshino Kimura
Genre: Indie, Bad Ass Chicks, Japan, Action

This film has been covered ad-nauseum on other websites, so I’ll make this relatively short. For those of you not in the know, Sukiyaki Western Django is Takashi Miike’s Japanese western. Now, each and every film student knows about the interplay between the American Western and the Japanese Samurai, but a full on Japanese western is pretty unusual. While the mash-up has been tested in the realm of videogames (ie: Rising Zan and Samurai Western), until now the closest attempt at an Asian Western would be found in Hong Kong cinema’s Peace Hotel. But unlike Peace Hotel, Miike’s Japanese western is something worth talk about (sorry, Chow Yun Fat).

The basic setup of Sukiyaki Wester Django is the same as any number of Samurai/Western films. A lone drifter (Hideyaki Ito, Limit of Love: Umizaru 2) enters a town run by two rival gangs (see: Yojimbo, Sanjuro, A Fistfull of Dollars, other remakes of Yojimbo,etc.), themselves warring over a legendary gold treasure. The drifter, forced to pick a side, opts for a third option, which more often than not results in a huge battle, and the elimination of both gangs. You’ve seen this all before. But what you haven’t seen is the setting. The film takes place in Nevada, though a decidedly Japanese Nevada. Almost all inhabitants of this Nevada town are Japanese, with Japanese names and hybrid dress, but whose native tongue is English. Towns themselves are a mix of east and west, with giant tori gates (which also serve as a hangman’s tree) heralding the entrance to a boomtown of wooden facades and Japanese castles. Posters on walls depict oni rather than wanted villians. Combatants are as likely to wield swords as six-shooters, and gang leaders as likely to quote bushido codes as Shakespeare.

Which brings me to the film’s main plus. Visually, Sukiyaki Western Django is one of the coolest things you’ll see all year. Every frame is infused with maximum style an energy — genuine comic book-pop. There’s an inventiveness in the individual shots and camera movements, and many of the surprise reveals rival those of genre master Sergio Leone. But the visual interests don’t stop there. Miike does everything in his power to make even the actors look interesting, with crazy costumes for all involved, and surprising transformations for known actors. Case in point: in Sukiyaki Western Django the generally mousy Yoshino Kimura (Wakeful Nights) looks a stone-cold femme-fatale, the elderly Kaori Moimoi (Love and Honor) proves badass enough to rival Meiko Kaji’s Lady Snowblood, and Quentin Tarantino, in one of his cameos, actually becomes something approaching a decent thespian.

And here’s the point where I lay my cool credibility on the line. As stylish as Sukiyaki Western Django is, it’s just not that fun. Admittedly, I’ve never been much of a Western fan, so I might have been missing out on the lion’s share of references, but the overall experience was quite the passive one — even borderline uninteresting. Shootouts and fistfights flew by with nary a gasp or shout of disbelief. Virtuous and villainous characters alike met their demises without any sort of emotional impact. For the most part, I just sat back and waited for the film to end. And what’s truly sad is that the film’s uniqueness has so much potential to entertain. As it is, however, there’s nothing about Sukiyaki Western Django that would make me recommend it over the recent batch of standout cult westerns (ie: The Proposition), especially given the fact that even the one-off videogames mentioned above had narratives that proved far more engaging.

So, in closing, cool though Sukiyaki Western Django may be, it’s just another case of super-style in lieu of substance. And, as nice as that may be to look at, its failure to engage the viewer even on a purely visceral basis makes this film a gonzo experience I wouldn’t likely revisit.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.

Tags: Hideaki Ito, Kaori Moimoi, mash-up, Quentin Tarantino, Takashi Miike, western, Yoshino Kimura