Essentially, Sukiyaki Western Django is a remake per se of the film Django (I’ve never heard of it either but apparently it also has a coffin that hides a machine gun). You have a fairly straightforward story of a town overrun by two gangs in hopes of finding the town’s hidden treasure. That’s when a lone gunman (Hideaki Ito) walks into town with uncanny fighting ability. But, before all of that goes down you get a nice little introduction to the story by a lonesome cowboy Piringo (Quentin Tarantino). I have no idea why, it’s just the way it is. I think you could effectively call it dramatic foreshadowing. Anyways, from the entry of the the gunman to the falling action, the film is Yojimbo but with cowboys instead of samurai. We are then given multiple plot elements that lead to typical Miike confusion. We are finally left with a promising ending, after almost everyone dies a horrible death. It’s no surprise then that the red gang’s leader Kiyomori (Koichi Sato) is utterly fascinated with Shakespeare.

One other quirk to mention before I go into my favorite character, all of the actors speak their dialog in English rather than Japanese. Very bad English in fact. Another aspect of the genius (madness) of Miike. It makes the film and the characters more humorous and sublime. Speaking of sublime, the town’s Sheriff Hoanka (Teruyuki Kagawa) is a shining star in this film. Not really because of his acting, but because of the character’s tendency to be psychotic. Quite literally, he becomes schizophrenic from being pulled back and forth between the two rival gangs. There are moments where even though the pace of the film has slowed, Hoanka comes into frame carrying on a conversation with himself, including a few fist fights between his own hands. I’m not sure why this one character is able to create such continuity, but without him the film would go to deep in the lulls of storytelling.

Sukiyaki Western Django could easily be considered a film that flirts with postmodern ideals. Even though it acts as parody, it is more along the lines of pastiche (or a blank parody). Miike is not making fun of the films he references (such as Scary Movie), instead he turns it into an homage (much like Hot Fuzz, but Hot Fuzz does it better). You really just have to go with the film at times and accept the sublime nature of what you are watching.

My only knock on the film is that it does drag on. I think that some of the homages and humor become tedious and the film should have been cut down a bit. Just when you think you reach the end, a new plot detail is added to extend it. Yes the end is rewarding, but more like that nice glass of water after you’ve run a marathon rather than a truly cinematic reward (I’m not sure exactly what I mean by this but it is something I’m going to look for more often. Perhaps it comes from Reception Theory and feeling fulfilled at the end of the film even if the ending is open rather than tied up nicely). Would I suggest watching Sukiyaki Western Django? That’s a tough call, but only because it is very strange, and could easily be overwhelming or misunderstood. It is fun and worth it just to see a filmmaker trying to push the envelope a bit.

I was very excited to watch this film just to get a different take on the Japanese film industry. I am currently researching various aspects of Japanese horror films, including intended audience, and am almost at my limit for number of avenging women ghosts. Now by chance, or some subconscious circumstance, Kamikaze Girls is somewhat similar to many of the J-horror films I have been studying, specifically when the intended audience is considered. The movie itself is a look at two specific Japanese subcultures popular among teenage girls, the Lolita look and the Yanki. Through my study of J-horror, the main group that holds sway over popular culture, fashion, and technology (you’ve seen the Hello Kitty Back Massager, right?) is the teenage girl. This film follows some of the same paths that a J-horror film follows to reach that magical demographic. While films like Ju-on and Ringu use horror and preying on teenage fears their way in, Kamikaze Girls uses their loves. Before we move into the good stuff, I first have to discuss the mechanical bits of the film.

This is on of those films that comes at you with every filming cliche that represents the “new wave” or “MTV” style of cinema. Kamikaze Girls is a mix between the fast pace cutting and visual style of Moulin Rouge and the unique juxtaposition of many film techniques in Kill Bill. Even though I did not see anything new in this film, I really thought that it seemed to all work. Every once in a while you get a film that does not innovate in terms of film techniques, but makes everything work well together. One of the only sections that stands out is the use of an animated short to tell a mythological story about the baddest Yanki there ever was. This was straight out of Kill Bill, yet I think it worked better here, especially after discovering the ending of the film. The film is very fast paced, but slowing down parts that need extra emphasis. I also enjoyed the use of a narrator to tell certain parts of the story, this created some humorous situations.

Aside from technique, this film simply tells a good story. I laughed, I cried (well I got something in my eye and tears did follow), I felt good and bad. I could go on and on. The story is well crafted, and the viewer is rewarded at the end of the film for following all the twists and turns (and even some mild confusion). The main focus is on Momoko (Kyako Fukada), a young girl that comes from a broken home and longs to be living in the Rococo era in France. She dresses in frilly dresses and tries to avoid any type of physical exertion. Eventually (yes there is more, but then there would be no reason to sit through the 20 min at the beginning of the film that tells Momoko’s life story), Momoko meets Ichigo (Anna Tsuchiya), a Yanki badass that acts like a cross between the Fonz and a really angry Joe Pesci. Momoko best sums this up by wondering why Ichigo must continually spit. These two girls are from very different lives, yet share a common bond of being teenage girls. I don’t want to reveal most of the plot because it is crafted with care and precision that you simply have to watch it to see the beauty of the storytelling. Yes they become friends, but there is more to it than that.

The cultural significance lies within the analysis of general Japanese popular culture and more specifically, the lifestyles of Japanese teenage girls. I was surprised to find that the official website includes two cultural essays on the Lolita image and also Speed Tribes (of which Yanki’s are a part of). I can also suggest picking up Speed Tribes: Days and Night’s with Japan’s Next Generation by Karl Taro Greenfeld. Although not truly a cultural study, it does have some fun stories dealing with late 80′s culture in Japan.

So here is the bottom line, watch the film and enjoy the storytelling, and you may just learn a little something along the way. I may revisit this post in the future, I just found out that Anna Tsuchiya has released an EP. Ah, I forgot to mention that both main stars are also singers, J-pop idols if you will.