A nameless gunman (Hideaki Ito) walks into a torn divided by warring bandit clans that are looking for a lost treasure. Each side attempts to lure the gunman to its cause, but he refuses their offers, choosing instead to follow his own path. As is usually the case, this leads to much violence, bloodshed, and death.

CRITIQUE

The world didn’t really need yet another remake of Yojimbo, much less a needlessly convoluted, self-indulgent, jumbled, remake of Yojimbo, but that’s exactly what Sukiyaki Western: Django is.

Despite borrowing part of its title and few plot elements from Sergio Corbucci’s cult classic 1965 spaghetti western (which spawned a cottage industry of knockoffs second only to that of Emmanuelle), this recent offering from director Takashi Miike is nothing more than a rehash of Akira Kurosawa’s samurai classic. And despite the fact that Miike has cribbed from two good movies (among other sources), his own movie is a victim of the law of diminishing returns; Yojimbo is perfect, Fistful of Dollars is great, and Last Man Standing is mediocre at best. Guess where that leaves Sukiyaki to fall.

It would be ridiculous to expect Miike (who still seems intent on mucking with every genre of cinema he can) to make a straight western, and Sukiyaki is anything but a straight western. What you’ll find here is a mixture of standard genre conventions, overblown stylistics, incongruous comic relief, and more of the director’s puzzling peccadilloes.

I know Miike has fans who would willingly follow him to the gates of hell if he asked, but I don’t know how even the most ardent members of his cult could satisfactorily justify the director’s decision to take a story American west of the 19th century and populate it with Japanese actors who speak English phonetically, garb many of the characters in letterman jackets or hooded sweatshirts, and pile on plotlines that only serve to muddle the story and in the end don’t matter. Is it a joke? Another failed postmodern critique of some sort? Or is it simply yet another cavalcade of pretensions from a director who believes his own hype?

I’d argue it’s the latter; as is so often the case, Miike turns Sukiyaki into another of his excuses to wallow in his own decadent excess for one reason: because he can.

This being the case, it will likely come as no surprise to learn that Quentin Tarantino, who can be just as frustrating a filmmaker as Miike, turns up as the sole American member of the cast. It will also likely come as no surprise to learn that his fellow actors act rings around him. They may sound as if they’re reading from flash cards much of the time, but they still put Tarantino, who sounds as if he flunked out of the Larry Storch School of Acting, to shame.

But Tarantino’s presence did solve one mystery. I’ve often wondered what Emperor Palpatine would have looked like had George Lucas and Richard Marquand cast Marlon Brando in the role, and the makeup Tarantino sports in his final scene means I’ll have to wonder no more.

THE VIDEO

Given the doggedly unnatural visual scheme Miike brought to the movie, the 2.35:1/1080p transfer, while definitely not the sort of material you’d use to show off your equipment, is nonetheless a very good approximation of the director’s intent. There’s hardly a natural color to be found, as Miike and cinematographer Toyomichi Kurita employ filters, gels, every lighting trick known to man, and digital manipulation in their quest for stylization. Contrast is jacked, whites are blown out, and colors are garish, but that’s how it’s supposed to look.

Yes, all of this results in flagged detail and a somewhat flattened image, but there’s no reason to fault the transfer. There’s a fine sheen of grain visible throughout, but there are times when the transfer fails to compress it properly, as in some shots the grain appears in the form of noise (this is particularly noticeable on the artificial backdrops employed during Tarantino’s segments).

THE AUDIO

The Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track ably conveys the schizophrenic nature of the sound design. Any scene heavy on dialogue tends to favor the front channels, while the numerous gun-/swordfights make excellent use of the entire soundstage. Low end action is quite often thunderous, with the sounds of gunshots pumped up to the level of a cannon blast. Dialogue is given perfect placement in the mix, although this does little to improve intelligibility. An English Dolby Digital 5.1 track is also included. English SDH and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

The primary bonus feature is a lengthy making-of featurette (52 minutes). Guided by a narrator who sounds like he could pass out at any moment and subtitled in English, this featurette combines copious behind-the-scenes clips and interviews (including Miike doing his standard rock star bit) with the cast and crew to provide a very good look at the movie’s production.

The only other extra is a selection of deleted scenes (15 minutes), which are just more of the same.   

FINAL THOUGHTS

I try to be open-minded about these things, but I still tend to like my westerns to come from the classic mold, not the mold that casts sheriffs who give off an All of Me-meets-Dr. Strangelove vibe (did I not mention that part?). If you’re of a like mind, you’ll certainly want to skip this one.