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Sukiyaki Western Django: Tabehôdai Cinema

I needed some escapist entertainment, so I decided to head to my local cinema to catch the midnight show of Miike Takashi's Sukiyaki Western Django. The film opened theatrically in Japan yesterday (Sept. 15) on approximately 215 screens. Below are just some thoughts on various aspects of the film in chunk form.



Mild Spoilers Follow (ネタバレご注意)


Overall: A good time at the movies. There are perhaps too many ingredients in the stew, but fans of Miike, (Spaghetti) Westerns, Tarantino and genre films in general will have a taste for it, and possibly become addicted.


Cinematography/Production Design: Fantastic. Not to belittle the efforts of some of Japan's great cinematographers working today, but Sukiyaki looks so much better than 98% of the films coming out here. Eye-popping angles, whip zooms, chess piece-like blocking and evocative closeups are the signature of the spaghetti genre, but there are also some gorgeously symbolic visuals that hark back to Nikkatsu Studios films at their peak. The strong imagery is definitely aided by Sasaki Takashi's production design and Kitamura Michiko's costumes, but I don't think the reviews are giving veteran American-based lenser Toyomichi Kurita enough credit. Amazingly detailed sets that combine classic western and Japanese architecture, in all its crumbling and weatherbeaten glory. The film does occasionally jump out of the one-street town and visits some stunning mountain vistas and forest locations, giving it a more epic feel.


Phonetic English Dialogue: I've been listening to Japanese-accented English every day for over a decade so I've perhaps lost some perspective. Despite the obvious struggle with English lines that, to be fair, can be long, idiomatic, poetic and sometimes just clunky, all the performances range from good to very good. It's not quite true that everybody in the film is just saying their lines without really understanding them, though. Beautiful Kimura Yoshino is close to bilingual and Iseya Yusuke's deadly dandy definitely has some skill at lending nuance through intonation. Basically, if the English in Imprint bothered you, this will too. Foreign prints have English subtitles anyway (something that wasn't confirmed before its bow at Venice and Toronto).

Interestingly, the recently opened Jimbochô Theater, owned by publishing giant Shogakukan is the country's sole screen showing the Japanese dubbed version. So, if you want to see Sukiyaki as dubbed by the original Japanese cast you'll have to see it there but I suspect this track will be supplied on the Japanese DVD, if not certain foreign releases. Additionally, Shogakukan have published both manga and a novelization of the film.

Dialogue In General: Way too much of it I think, especially for this genre. The visual storytelling in this film is some of the best Miike has ever done. In my opinion you could cut 2/3 of what people say and you'd lose nothing (this is not related to the phonetic issue). Perhaps Itô Hideaki's mysterious gunman should not have spoken at all. I was surprised at how many lines he had.

Violence: Not as bloody as some of Miike's more extreme outings, but characters are snuffed in variously creative ways. There are arsenals of firearms, including a gatling gun, dynamite, knives, samurai swords, and so on. If you thought Miike had outgrown his penchant for misogynistic and brutal treatment of female characters, or that it had sprung from the source material his other films were based on, guess again. This is an original script by Miike (who rarely sits down and writes screenplays) and regular collaborator Nakamura Masa. Kimura Yoshino's character, a widow who becomes the town prostitute, is subjected to some extremely disturbing violence, some of it sexual. At times I felt like I was watching a war atrocity more than movie mayhem. This is somewhat balanced out by Momoi Kaori's tough old gunslinger (in one later scene her angry eyes turn blood red in a nice use of CG).

Soundtrack: Endô Kôji channels Bacalov and Morricone but makes it his own. Perfect musical accompaniment. If you like collecting movie soundtracks, this would be a good choice. Kitajima Saburô's vocals on 「ジャンゴ~さすらい」(Django - Sasurai) are cool. See the video on Youtube here.

Editing: Overall I felt it was about 15-20 minutes too long (as I've said before, this is true of so many Japanese films as of late), but the cutting itself is top-notch. Kimura Yoshino's erotic dance in the saloon as the film flashes back to her tragic past is stunning.

Quentin Tarantino: It's Tarantino acting. He delivers his lines in three or four different modes. And some of the strangest old age makeup I've ever seen. You be the judge.

Criticisms: The foreign reviews are generally positive, but I was curious to see what local audiences thought. Yahoo! Japan's user rating is at an unimpressive 2.95/5 (59%) but the numbers are only just coming in. Comments range from "A painful two hours" to "It's hard to describe what I think of it" to "Cool and crazy!".

Surely that's enough writing on one film.

Posted by Jason Gray at 9/16/2007 05:33:00 PM