Film Illiterate, wherein the proprietor records movies seen, and sporadic progress through assorted lists of the "best". Originally started after regretfully renting something forgettable for the third time. I've forgotten what, but never again! A tedious endeavour since 2005. Hello. 🙂
A good western on its own merits, crisply-shot and entertaining, Sukiyaki Western Django is elevated by its appreciation of its own position within the traditions of the Western genre and the Japanese film industry.
It's got an interesting pedigree. Sergio Corbucci's legendary 1965 spaghetti -- made by Italian filmmakers -- western, Django, is the immediate influence, though all the two films have in common are a machine-gun, a coffin and a pile of gold. Django itself was an attempt to reproduce the success of Sergio Leone's For a Fistful of Dollars (1964), which in turn was a re-imagining of Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961), about a wandering swordsman playing a town's two rival factions against each other.
Takashi Miike's "sukiyaki western" draws explicitly from all three, plus more besides. Bloody Benten's introduction is a sly nod to Kill Bill; Quentin Tarantino also has a minor role. Most charmingly, the setting is transplanted into the Wild West of 15th(?)-century Japan, pistoleros and all. The two warring factions are the descendants(?) of the Genji and Heike clans. It even opens with Tarantino reciting the opening passage of The Tale of the Heike: "The sound of the Gion Shouja temple bells echoes the impermanence of all things..."
That the film is part joke is impossible to miss, given its brief descent into slapstick, replete with "sproing" sound-effects. It's also an interesting attempt at bringing Eastern philosophy into a Western context (like Kung Fu and Red Sun before it). It's certainly worth a look.