Film: Sukiyaki Western Django

Director: Takashi Miike
Runtime: 121 min./98 min.

This is the kind of post-modern, genre-mashing film I would have loved to write a paper about back in film school. I came out of the movie wondering if this is supposed to be a parody or an homage. Or maybe both?

It’s a Japanese Western with a Japanese cast speaking various levels of bad English, samurai swords and cowboy guns, and a cameo by Quentin Tarantino. I’m sure it’s a role he was thrilled to do, as there’s definitely something Tarantino-esque about this movie. I think it’s mainly in the grotesque humor derived from the sometimes-graphic-yet-cartoonish violence: in one scene, an arrow shoots through a man’s (so-fresh-he’s-still-standing!) bullet-hole wound, killing the guy standing directly behind him.

Most of it doesn’t make any sense, partially because the English is so terrible (I can understand English or Japanese, but not this), and partially because the movie is just too damn crazy. It has something to do with treasure and warring clans (the film heavily references the War of the Roses), and makes sure to include just about every kind of stereotypical image/shot/dialogue that would be in a western while knocking you off-balance with the Japanese actors, Japanese writing, Japanese-style buildings, and other such bits of Japanese culture. Sure there’s been the Italian spaghetti westerns, but this goes beyond spaghetti — it’s…sukiyaki?

Maybe this isn’t a great movie, and it’s a bit awkward, particularly when there’s times when you can’t tell if something is supposed to be funny or not. But I’d recommend it if you’re in the mood for something different and completely bizarre.

Currently playing in Portland at the Clinton Street Theater.
Available on DVD.