Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I remember when we ran our first story on this potential project a while back... and I remember thinking how awesome it sounded. Takashi Miike doing a DJANGO western? Really?!? How cool is that? The original DJANGO is a masterpiece. Absolutely fun and balls to the wall cool. And Miike... well, he's Miike. From the sounds of this review the movie does in fact exist... it's not some fever dream, a "what if" concept anymore. It also sounds exactly like a Takashi Miike movie... cool, but long, long, long. Can't wait to give it a view myself. Enjoy the review from the Venice Film Festival!!!
Hi Harry, Love the site and I don't think I have ever sent in anything before. I am currently at the Venice Film Festival, mainly in order to watch their great retrospective "Western all'Italiana", as I am a fan of the genre and also currently into production of a short western myself, to be shot next year in Almeria. Anyway... Tonight I skipped the screening of L'AMERICANO (by Tinto Brass) in order to go see Miike's SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO and thought I'd write you a few words about it, if that's of any interest. (I'm from Switzerland, so please forgive any mistakes) The film opens on a very stylized bit of set (the sun is hanging from a rope, cardboard background..) and on Tarantino; very grainy image and strong colors. There I got pretty afraid the whole film would be in that style. Interesting style sure, but not really what I would expect for an hommage to DJANGO and the spaghetti western in general. (maybe the now almost traditionnal "reimagination" is better suited for that film) But it soon changes, as this is only an opening sequence where Tarantino narrates -and he has some fun with the accent- what is to follow. As the camera zooms in his Sukiyaki and the title comes up, the whole crowd (this was a press and industry screening) was cheering. Then starts the real story, about a cowboy coming to a town, divided between two clans, the Geiji and Heike. Storywise, it feels more like YOJIMBO than DJANGO. Bad news is, the narration soon goes in every directions, with some lenghty flash-backs explaining how the town became to be what it is. Those flash-backs are done in a very Tony Scott/DOMINO style of cinematography, which I don't find totally approriate here, as the opening sequence. And it takes a long time for the story to develop and frankly I did not care that much about the past of the town, I wanted the story to be more about that stranger. When it goes back to "present time" it's quite enjoyable with some funny bits and some welcomed blood. In mid-story there comes the big nod to DJANGO with a "special weapon" being delivered to town in a coffin. Tarantino comes back mid-way as an old man under make-up, telling us how he trained a particular female character in the film. One cannot avoid thinking of Pai Mei here and the fact that Tarantino first wanted to play that character. I wonder how this all came together, Miike's idea? Tarantino? A chat between themselves? But the reference seems obvious. Then for the last part all hell breaks loose and it's shootout time. And there as some really cool bits of action there! And a very cool chick with guns!! As the film reaches the end, I wondered why this was actually called DJANGO. Sure there are some obvious nods to it (the coffin, the mud, the cemetary,...) but apart from that? As it ends, the DJANGO song started but... with japanese lyrics. With it, on a title-card comes the "explanation" about the DJANGO in the title. I won't spoil it here, but it is pretty funny! So as it was surely enjoyable at times, it did feel way to long in its flash-backs. But I'm pretty sure die hard fans of Miike will disagree and have a blast. I need to add that the production design is quite beautiful. So there you go, a few words on that one as I don't know when it is to be released worldwide. Cheers and keep up the good work, Chaoticlock
