Tweet
Released by: First Look Studios
Released on: 11/11/08
Director: Takashi Miike
Cast: Hideaki Ito, Masanobu Ando, Koichi Sato, Kaori Momoi, Quentin Tarantino
Year: 2007
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
Another in a long line of genre crossing pictures from Japanese director extraordinaire Takashi Miike, 2007's Sukiyaki Western Django is a hyper-stylish mix of traditional Spaghetti Western ideals and odd action movies clichés. Like his Masters Of Horror entry, Imprint, Miike shot this film with a Japanese cast speaking their lines in English, which adds a rather surreal layer to the picture as you can't help but wonder how many of the performers actually understand what they're saying versus those who are simply speaking phonetically.
Borrowing quite a bit from A Fistful Of Dollars and Yojimbo, the film follows a 'man with no name' (Hideaki Ito) who wanders into a town torn apart by two warring factions - the Haike clan (who wear rad as the fascists did in Corbucci's Django) who are lead by an ill-tempered Taira no Kiyomori (Koichi Sato), and the white clad Genjo clan who are lead by the flamboyant Minamoto no Yoshitsune (Yusuke Iseya). Does the stranger choose sides in the conflict or play them against one another?
With references to the films of Leone and Corbucci (not only in the title but in the story and some of the imagery) as well as those of Kurosawa, Miike is obviously having a good time playing genre DJ here, mixing westerns with samurai films and throwing in some musical nodes and a bit of anime now and again to keep things interesting. The film plays out in a world of strange colors and characters. While the outfits and settings are pure western in look and feel, the staging, the hair styles, the mannerisms and the dialogue are all over the place and sometimes look like they belong more in a glam rock video than an action film. Oh, and Quentin Tarantino shows up too.
As screwy as the film is, it wastes no time and plays out with a leanness that lends itself well to the cross-genre bending storyline. The color timing in the film almost infers that the picture is playing out on another planet all together while the over exaggerated violence of the shoot outs and the fight scenes don't exactly add to the realism factor. But this is Miike we're talking about, doing what Miike does best. It's a film sure to piss off those looking for a traditional spaghetti western though it sets up Corbucci's masterpiece in an interesting way. Sukiyaki Western Django is pop art poured from the blender that is Miike's mind. It's a strange film, but an entertaining enough picture if judged on its own merits and not compared to the film's that influenced it or that it borrows from.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Sukiyaki Western Django is presented in its original 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio in this 1080p VC-1 encoded high definition transfer. As was mentioned, this is a funky looking film and there's been a lot of screwing around with the color palette of the production so you can't expect accurate looking colors here and some of the digital manipulation does mess with some of the detail. This all results in a well authored transfer of some rather unusual source material. The film looks bleached out and oversaturated at times and flesh tones sometimes have an orangish hue to them. That said, the film does look like it's supposed to look and there's a welcome and noticeable improvement in detail, color and black level from the standard definition release. There aren't any problems with compression artifacts or heavy edge enhancement though some minor shimmering is noticeable if you're looking for it. In the end, this is a weird looking movie that looks appropriately weird on this Blu-ray release.
You've got your choice of a nice Dolby TrueHD 5.1 sound mix or a standard definition Dolby Digital 2.01 Stereo mix with optional subtitles provided in English SDH and Spanish. All in all, the TrueHD sound mix is pretty decent. Dialogue is about as audible as it can be given that the Japanese actors are speaking in English (you'll be thankful for the subtitles at times) but the levels are well balanced and surround usage, while not as strong as it could have been, adds some fun to the action sequences. There aren't any problems with hiss or distortion and bass response is nice and strong.
The main extra feature on this release is a 52:40 making of featurette that includes a wealth of behind the scenes and on set footage that shows us what it was like on set. Miike shows up and talks about his motives for making the picture and about the type of mood he was trying to create and we get a look at some of the key scenes being filmed, some of the storyboards created for the movie, and some of the stunts that were performed for the film.
Also included are 14:28 worth of deleted scenes, presented in standard definition non-anamorphic widescreen with time code at the top and the bottom of the frame. None of these six scenes change the film all that much but they're fun to see
Rounding out the extra features are a trailer for the feature, trailers for a few other First Look Studios releases, animated menus and chapter selection. A second disc is included with this Blu-ray release that contains a digital copy of the film that you can upload to whatever portable video device you use if that's your bag. This release is also Blu-ray Live enabled, meaning that you can go online through your web-capable Blu-ray player and access exclusive content.
The Final Word:
Not so much a remake as it is a screwball prequel, Miike's Sukiyaki Western Django is a flawed but interesting idea that overdoes the visuals but ultimately delivers a pretty freaky story of sun-baked violence. Is it perfect? Nope, but it's fun and First Look's Blu-ray release looks and sounds decent and contains some solid supplements as well.