Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)

Director:

Takashi Miike

Writers:

Takashi Miike (written by) &
Masa Nakamura (written by)

Release Date:

15 septiembre 2007 (Japan)

Genre:

Action | Western

Plot:

Set during "The Genpei Wars" at the end of the 1100s, the Minamoto and Taira gangs face off in a town named Yuda, while a deadly gunman (Ito Hideaki) comes to the aid of the townsfolk. |

Plot Keywords:

Pistol | Spaghetti Western | Sword | Samurai | Remake

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Needs Tarantino-Echtomy

Cast

Hideaki Ito	...	Gunman
Masanobu Ando	...	Yoichi
Koichi Sato	...	Taira no Kiyomori
Kaori Momoi	...	Ruriko
Yusuke Iseya	...	Minamoto no Yoshitsune
Renji Ishibashi	...	Benkei
Yoshino Kimura	...	Shizuka
listado alfabético del resto del reparto:
Takaaki Ishibashi
Teruyuki Kagawa	...	Sheriff
Toshiyuki Nishida
Shun Oguri	...	Akira
Masato Sakai	...	Taira no Shigemori
Hideaki Sato
Christian Storms
Yoji Tanaka
Quentin Tarantino	...	Ringo

Dirigida por
Takashi Miike

Créditos del guión
Takashi Miike		(written by) &
Masa Nakamura		(written by)

Producida por
Toshiaki Nakazawa	....	executive producer
Masato Ôsaki	....	producer
Nobuyuki Tohya	....	producer

Música original por
Kôji Endô

Fotografía por
Toyomichi Kurita

Montaje por
Yasushi Shimamura		(as Taiji Shimamura)

Diseño de producción por
Takashi Sasaki

Dirección artística
Nao Sasaki

Diseño de vestuario por
Michiko Kitamura

Departamento de sonido
Jun Nakamura	....	sound

Otros miembros del equipo
Christian Storms	....	assistant dialogue coach
Nadia Venesse	....	dialogue coach

Production Companies

• Dentsu Productions Ltd.
• Geneon Entertainment
• Sedic
• Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan)
• Sukiyaki Western Django Film Partners
• TV Asahi
• Toei Company

Distributors

• First Look International (2008) (USA) (theatrical)
• Sony Pictures Entertainment (Japan) (2007) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Universum-Film GmbH (2008) (Germany) (theatrical)

Other Companies

• Celluloid Dreams  international sales
• Dolby Laboratories  sound post-production
• Sedic  sales agent
• Sendai Miyagi Film Commission  

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence, including a rape.

Duración:

Canada:121 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

País:

Japan

Idioma:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Clasificación:

USA:R | Canada:18A

Filming Locations:

Tsuruoka City, Yamagata, Japan

Company:

Dentsu Productions Ltd.

Trivialidades:

Based on characters created by Sergio Corbucci.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Django (1966)

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.