Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. We’ve got a couple of reviews for this one today, but I’m glad our man in Toronto, Anton Sirius, got to see it. This film intrigues me, and I hope it’s ever bit as loony as it sounds. A Miike spaghetti western? Yes, please.
Sukiyaki Western Django (2007, directed by Takashi Miike) (Before this Midnight Madness screening started, a short filmed intro from Miike was played that expressed his hope that, among all the English language Japanese westerns playing at the festival this year, his would be among our favorites. It also includes his email address. Now, I'm not going to post his email on the open web for every creepy-crawly spam spider to find, but if you want to pester Miike to ask him what the hell Gozu was actually about or something, email me, or send me a message on Facebook, and I'll pass it along...) Quite possibly the silliest Miike film yet, Sukiyaki Western Django is his take on the classic Fistful of Last Red Yojimbos Harvesting Standing Dollars story. A mysterious, nameless stranger rides into a town torn apart by two warring factions, and proceeds to play one off against the other in an effort to wipe both factions out. Naturally mayhem ensues, with 'mayhem' in this case meaning one gang leader who looks down on samurai as preening poseurs, another who thinks he's Shakespeare's Henry VI, a town sheriff who seems to have watched the 'Smeagol vs. Gollum' scene in the Two Towers a few too many times, a gatling gun, 'Indians' whose traditional native instruments seem to be the trumpet and didgeridoo, and Quentin Tarantino. Oh, and all the actors (including, apparently, Tarantino) are speaking phonetic English. Really, you're missing something in your life until you've seen Japanese actors dressed up like cowboys muddling through lines that contain phrases like "I reckon" and "y'all ain't". As with most Miike films it's about 15 minutes too long and is a bit visually muddled, but that comes with the territory. The central gag of the premise is strong enough to carry the movie, and the jokes (everything from the fact that the story apparently takes place in Nevada, to QT's line about where he came up with his son's name) rarely let up. This one's definitely among Miike's better efforts when it comes to pure entertainment value.
