Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)

A nameless gunfighter arrives in a town ripped apart by rival gangs and, though courted by both to join, chooses his own path.

Director:

Takashi Miike

Writers:

Takashi Miike, Masa Nakamura

Stars:

Hideaki Itô, Kôichi Satô, Quentin Tarantino

4 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Hideaki Itô	...	Gunman
Masanobu Andô	...	Yoichi
Kôichi Satô	...	Taira no Kiyomori
Kaori Momoi	...	Ruriko
Yûsuke Iseya	...	Minamoto no Yoshitsune
Renji Ishibashi	...	Village Mayor
Yoshino Kimura	...	Shizuka
Quentin Tarantino	...	Piringo
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Takaaki Ishibashi	...	Benkei
Teruyuki Kagawa	...	Sheriff
Taigi Kobayashi
Yutaka Matsushige
Shun Oguri	...	Akira
Masato Sakai	...	Taira no Shigemori
Hideaki Sato

Storyline

A revolver-wielding stranger crosses paths with two warring clans who are both on the hunt for a hidden treasure in a remote western town. Knowing his services are valuable to either side, he offers himself to the clan who will offer up the largest share of the wealth.

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Plot Keywords:

treasure | cemetery | murder | sword | samurai | 

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Taglines:

Who will be the last man standing?

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Genres:

Action | Western

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence, including a rape

Did You Know?

Trivia

Quentin Tarantino's mechanical wheelchair has a duck hood ornament on one of the arms, the same hood ornament as on Stuntman Mike's car in Death Proof (2007), directed by Tarantino.

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Goofs

In the scene where The Gunman (Hideaki Ito) and Shizuka are intimate, you can see that The Gunman has had some kind of booster shot on his right upper arm that has left a scar. You see this as he takes off his shirt and then jumps into the bed. Don't think is a booster shot but more of a bullet shot scar.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Ringo: [shoots a snake out of the claws of a flying hawk and cuts egg out of it]
Cowboy: [draws his gun on Piringo and whistles appreciatively]
Boss: Piringo. Been looking for you. It's the end of the road for you.
Boss: [gong] What's that sound?
Ringo: That's the sound of the Gion Shoja temple bells.
Boss: What?
Ringo: You know, those Heike and Genji boys. On a distant island, these to clans split into the Reds and the Whites. Waged a war. Sort of like that, uh, War of the Roses, ya know? In England?
Boss: Who won? The Whites?
Ringo: This high noon...
[...]

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Alternate Versions

The international cut version, shorter by 23 minutes, omits several scenes for pacing reasons and also all the scenes where the big Genji/Minamoto henchman after having his balls shot off develops a crush for his leader Yoshitsune. This version was screened at several film festivals and is featured on most of the DVD releases outside of Japan.

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Connections

References Akira (1988)

User Reviews

Needs Tarantino-Echtomy

The line between Japanese samurai films and Italian Westerns (called "spaghetti" in the West and "macaroni" in the East) has been blurry from the days of Akira Kurosawa and Sergio Leone. The widescreen expanses of 19th Century lawlessness was a cinematic language easily translated between chambara and Euro oaters.

Prolific filmmaker Takashi Miike forgoes the pasta and dubs his dabbling in the horse opera a "sukiyaki" western. This Japanese stew-like metaphor is appropriate as Miike throws in a great number of influences and references into his dish. What cooks up may bear the name "Django" (and he introduces a coffin hiding a machine gun midway through the film) but it owes more to Kurosawa than Corbucci in its acknowledged inspiration from YOJIMBO. The unnamed black clad antihero rides into a previously thriving town to find it a wretched hive of scum and villainy; occupied by a handful of citizens and two warring clans, the Genji and Heike.

Clad in red and white, Miike injects some heavy duty rose overtones into the film, calling out the War of the Roses, Henry VI, and a hybrid rose bush named "love" quite frequently. At least two of the film's characters are products of Genji (red) and Heike (white) love affairs.

Even with a wealth of past ideas to pilfer, SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO can't sustain itself for its full two hour running time. Things slow down about an hour into the proceedings. In order to inject some life into the faltering action, Miike breaks into the cartoon sound effects library and attempts to make SWD a life action anime film. These instances feel completely out of place, even after the highly stylized pre-credit sequence starring living cartoon character Quentin Tarantino.

It's strange with actors speaking English as a second language (for the most part) and who muddle through some tricky pronunciations (thank goodness for the English subtitles) that the worst performance of the film comes courtesy of a native English speaker. Quentin Tarantino seems to be doing some kind of Western drawl crossed with a fluctuating German accept as if channeling a drunk Klaus Kinski through a faulty connection. Tarantino's embarrassing "acting" may be brief but every second he spends on screen is excruciating.

Sure to be a hit with every hipster who has never seen an Asian in a cowboy hat (allow me to recommend TEARS OF THE BLACK TIGER and THE NEW MORNING OF BILLY THE KID), SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO could do with some tightening up and a complete Tarantino-echtomy.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 September 2007 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Sukiyaki Western Django

Filming Locations:

Tsuruoka City, Yamagata, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$3,800,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$9,856, 31 August 2008

Gross USA:

$50,659

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,725,258

Company Credits

Production Co:

A-Team, Dentsu, Geneon Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

121 min 98 min (international cut) 98 min (original cut)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1