A Review of Sukiyaki Western: Django

Not many people have ever heard of Takashi Miike and that’s probably a good thing. Miike has directed a great number of movies throughout his career. These movies are some of the most messed up movies possibly of all time. Now, I have seen numerous movies over time, plenty that are considered screwed up by most. So I’m perfectly fine with messed up movies and I’m used to them by now. However, Miike’s movies don’t apply to this. They will always make me cringe and disturb me no matter how many times I watch them. But, luckily for you guys, my love for crazy Japanese movies has led me to watching one of his newer movies and I’m here today to review it for you all.

So Takashi Miike’s Sukiyaki Western: Django just got released over here. Seeing how it was both a Miike film and a western, I just couldn’t resist getting it. I went into this movie expecting a truly messed up and crazy experience. I was truly surprised by what I saw.

Just to get you into the mindset of what a regular Miike movie is, let me recap the opening scene from his movie Ichi The Killer. The opening of this movie starts with the main character, whom is an odd super hero of sorts, standing outside an apartment window. Inside the apartment a man is beating his wife You expect the hero to bust in and help…up until you realize that he’s enjoying the show…a bit too much… After he finishes up and leaves, the camera cuts to a shot of a plant covered with a certain juice. The title of the movie then emerges from the man juice… I freaking kid you not, the title rose up out of a pool of spooge… Yeah, I was freaked out as well. And that was just the tip of the iceberg for the movie. That my friends, is a classic Miike movie.

So, with that in mind, I watched Sukiyaki Western: Django. The big surprise was that the movie…wasn’t really messed up at all. I was kind of thrown off by that. But it was a nice change not having to deal with absolutely terrible scenes at times. The only relatively bad thing that happened was a rape scene but it was very short and not terribly bad. But don’t get me wrong, it was still plenty of crazy elements at times.

The opening scene was the most “wtf?” thing I have ever seen. Did I mention that Quentin Tarantino was in it? Well, he is. The opening scene was nothing more than him on an purposely fake western set (why is it purposely fake? I have no freaking clue) and there were some Asian bandits that showed up (why? Just to get their asses kicked I suppose). The entire opening scene made no freaking sense. It was just Quentin and the bandits exchanging really weird dialogue for a few moments; that is until Quentin massacres them all. I think it was an attempt to introduce the main story plot but it just didn’t work. Quentin ended the scene with a massive howl, a perfectly weird ending for a perfectly weird scene.

Seriously, wtf?

Okay enough with Quentin; lets start talking about the “real” portion of the movie. The rest of the movie was very entertaining. It has a very basic plot that it slowly adds more and more onto. Basically, the story takes place in a small town. A gold rush caused multiple prospectors to rush to the town and fight over the grounds. Finally, the Heike (or the Reds as they are called) show up and chase off all the prospectors and most villagers through use of violence. Soon after, the Genji gang (the Whites) showed up as well to claim the grounds and gold for themselves. The story begins at this point where the town is split up by the two clans. At this point, the bad-a gunslinger enters to mix things up. The few remaining villagers snag him before he can be drafted by either faction. It seems that, of the remaining villagers, there are a split-personality sheriff, an old woman and the woman’s grandson. The gunslinger is told about the grandson’s story. The boy no longer talks after seeing his Red gang father being killed by his fellow members. The boy’s White gang mother retreated back to her gang to seek revenge for her husband’s death. From here, the gunslinger joins up with the mother of the boy. Now things start getting confusing and crazy.

From this point on is just crazy entertaining action. Not only that but the leader of the Red gang, Henry (which he renamed himself after reading about the War of the Roses), manages to get himself a gatlin gun. Now let me tell you a bit about Henry. Henry is somewhat of a comedic relief character in this show but he is just bloody amazing. Hands down, Henry snagged himself the position of my favorite character of the movie. So when Henry got that gatlin gun, you know I was excited.

Henry and a gatlin gun...perfection.

Nonetheless, things continue on and Quentin’s part is finally explained (thank god). It seems that the first scene was in the past because currently in the movie he is an old man who provides guns for the protagonists. Well, it seems he trained a girl who went on to become known as Bloody Benton and she was the best gunslinger around, unmatched by all. It just so happens that the old lady in town and Bloody Benton are one in the same.

Well about this point in the movie it seems like it’s time for that final epic showdown, so here we go. Bloody Benton and the new gunslinger in town team up to fight the Reds and the Whites. Needless to say, lots of fighting goes down and nearly everyone dies (a Miike classic). Who remains? That small bit I won’t spoil (hah, now you got to watch it to find out).

This movie does have one major fault though. While the very basic plot makes sense, nothing else does. This is because of a mixture of two things. For one, there were twenty minutes of footage cut from the film in the U.S. released version that probably contained some details that were essential to the story. The other main factor is the fact that all the characters speak Broken English. Watching the movie, I felt as though I needed subtitles. If any of you guys ever go out and get this movie, then please be warned and stick with the subtitles; trust me, you will need them. All of Miike’s films have been in Japanese (at least as far as my knowledge goes) except this one. It was Miike’s attempt to appeal more to Americans. I don’t blame Miike for this, not a single bit. Instead I blame Americans; namely you Robert (How amazing would it be if there was a Robert out there reading this? I hope he lives in paranoia from this moment on. He had it coming to him. Especially since he went by “Bob” instead of “Rob” when shortening his name. Everyone knows that it should be Rob. The only people who can go by “Bob” are the Boberts and Bobinios of the world. Crap, was I reviewing a movie? I should probably get back to that now. I’ll get back to you later Robert…you muffin-dropper…better sleep with your eyes open from now on). The problem is that Americans are generally stubborn, stupid and refuse to read subtitles. I’m by no means making that up either; ask Wesley, his Movie Gallery experience will back me up. But because of that ignorant population of Americans, we are subjected to this Broken English story. However, over time, I was able to pick up on what was going on. The majority of the actors were just not made for speaking English or at least not acting it.

Always need an epic showdown.

This movie is made to be Miike’s take on a prequel to the spaghetti western named Django. The only connection between to the two is the young mute boy who ends up becoming Django when he grows up. I think it’s a nice touch to the story. I’ll have to go hunt down Django and see it now.

Now lets wrap this thing up. The movie has some great action and is immensely entertaining (especially if you are into crazy stuff). I also loved seeing Miike’s take on the spaghetti western genre. Plus there’s always Henry. The broken language and its confusion are the only real downside to this movie.

Now for the great rating system: I give the film 1 thumb up for action and entertainment, ½ a thumb for story, and ½ a thumb for the interesting characters (Henry). I gave it 1 pile for the Engrish and prevalent confusion.

Or a 4 out of 6 rating for you normal people.