Sukiyaki Western Django (2007)

A western movie with samurai elements, based on (and/or a prequel to) an old spaghetti western movie, that was based on a samurai movie. This movie is an absolutely gorgeous love story from the director to both the samurai and western genres. It may be a loose remake of a loose re-make but it is a very unique movie all on its own.

It’s the classic story of the nameless wanderer who comes to a town where two rival factions are fighting for supremacy. In this case it is a small mining town being fought over by two rival gangs of samurai cow boys, the Heike and the Genji, which in itself is also loosely based of an actual war in Japan during the late 12th century.

One of the really cool parts of the movie was that with Japanese actors making up the majority of the cast the dialogue was all spoken in English, it wasn’t dubbed, the Japanese actors just spoke English. It did make it a little harder to understand but I have had hearing issues for a long time, so subtitles are a normal part of the movie watching experience for me. The film opens with a scene with a character named Piringo, played by Quentin Tarantino, where he is greeted by a gang who has been looking for him. He sets up our story before killing the gang. The first half of the movie is played out in flash backs with a few of the town folk explaining the history of the town and the reason for the tension between the two gangs. I was glad the entire movie wasn’t played out in this manner. Depending on the version of the movie you watch the pace picks up a lot more in the second half once our hero decides who he will help. The story is not very unique, but the cinematography is phenomenal. It well acted, its funny at times, a little gross at times, the characters are memorable, and it is weird throughout its entirety. I don’t want to get too much into the spoilery details. It is not a movie for everyone, but it has a little of everything. If you appreciate Japanese movies and Westerns, it is definitely worth a watch.