By Jeremy Azevedo

Sukiyaki Western Django tells a deceptively simple story about two rival clans, the Heike and the Genji, at war with each other over the fate of a legendary treasure contained within a small town in a desolate mountain town.

A mysterious Gunman with almost supernatural skill rolls into town one day and escalates the conflict into a deadly endgame that threatens to destroy the entire village and everyone within it.


The Genji clan.

If you don’t already know who writer/director Takashi Miike is, you probably don’t watch a lot of foreign cinema. Celebrated by cult audiences as one of the most exciting directors of the last decade, Miike has been responsible for such incredibly violent but deeply personal and provocative films as “Ichi the Killer”, “Audition” and “One Missed Call” (not the shitty American remake that came out five years later).


Kiyomori, a.k.a. Henry, leader of the Heike.

Miike’s latest film, “Sukiyaki Western Django” is the kind of film that only a true artist could ever even conceive of, let alone produce. At first, audiences will be tempted to dismiss Sukiyaki Western Django as a clever juxtaposition without substance, a typical, kitschy, cultish play on the old spaghetti western genre, only with Japanese actors. (Quentin Tarantino’s campy, otaku guest appearance in the opening scene doesn’t help to dissuade this opinion one bit.) However, it soon becomes apparent that Sukiyaki Western Django is not just a flashy spectacle made up of different genres like some kind of Frankenstein’s monster, but rather a film with real depth and emotion, reverence for history and undeniable sense of fun.

Sukiyaki Western Django combines the traditional samurai stylings of Kurosawa with the acid-western messianic tendencies of El Topo, the kinetic style of Kill Bill and even a little bit of Shakespearian drama. Shockingly, all this emotional undertone and stark mystery is conveyed by Japanese actors performing entirely in English. In particular, Hideaki Ito as the Gunman turns in a performance that makes Charles Bronson look like Pee Wee Herman, and Yoshino Kimura at one point performs a dance that so effectively conveys the conflict within her character that it will make hairs stand up on your arms and legs.


Tarantino in an appearance that doesn't really add much to the experience.

While I understand that some people will have difficulty understanding a film that at some times, admittedly, tries to be all things to all people, I urge everyone to give Sukiyaki Western Django a chance. There are moments that are too self-referential, a little too ripe with “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” melodrama. But this doesn’t change the fact that the acting and direction is good enough to finally push Takashi Miike into the Pantheon of top shelf, A-list, “in demand”, Hollywood directors. Plus I should probably re-iterate that the action is so bloody and insane that it makes the new Rambo look like Kindergarten Cop.


Bloody Benton.

CraveOnline Rating: 9 out of 10

1 if you’ve already seen a lot of Takashi Miike’s films or Sergio Corbucci’s original “Django”
-2 if you’re squeamish or if you don’t like watching movies that don’t have some cracker ass mug like George Clooney or Brad Pitt in them