Once upon a time in Japan, a nameless gunman comes to a remote town where two clans feud over the control of the town’s hidden treasure of gold. The gunman helps the locals – more specifically, a beautiful young widow, her son, and his grandmother – fight the two warring clans to restore order to the town and then rides away.
The above summarizes the basic plotline of Sukiyaki Western Django (2007), which resembles the seminal spaghetti western, A Fistful of Dollars (Sergio Leone, 1964). Sukiyaki Western Django is also derived from another spaghetti western classic, Django (Sergio Corbucci, 1966), which is evident from its use of similar images such as a machinegun hidden in a coffin and a cemetery filled with freshly made graves topped with crosses. The film’s director, Miike Takashi, who is best known for gory scenes and extreme violence in his films, creates a Japanese-style western – hence, a “sukiyaki” western – by combining conventions of the western genre with visual elements of the samurai film. Miike replaces the two rival clans of Americans and Mexicans from the original Django with the Genjis (also known as the Whites) and the Heikes (or the Reds) and transposes their battle into feudal Japanese history.
There are several markers of “Japan-ness” in the film including Buddhist imagery, a samurai sword and bushido used by the Genji gang’s leader, and a torii gate that marks the entrance to the town. The cultural and generic blending of the American/European western with the samurai film seems natural given that A Fistful of Dollars is a remake of Kurosawa Akira’s samurai film, Yojimbo (1961) and John Sturges’ western, The Magnificent Seven (1960) is an adaptation of Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai (1954). In fact, Sukiyaki Western Django ultimately serves as a prequel to the original Django by accounting for Django’s cultural heritage.
Yet, Sukiyaki Western Django has no intention of offering a serious reflection on the cultural legacy of Japanese filmmaking or a tribute to Kurosawa Akira’s films. The film relies on empty spectacle and playful pastiche while utilizing anachronistic props and cross-cultural references. Although the film is set in feudal Japan, dynamite, shotguns, and a machinegun are juxtaposed with samurai swords and crossbows. Furthermore, the Heike gang’s leader identifies himself with Henry VI after reading William Shakespeare’s book and often delivers Shakespearian lines like “Confess thy error. This time, we win!” It should come as no surprise then that the film features Quentin Tarantino, who is a huge fan of Miike’s and who is notorious for his pastiche films, as a sukiyaki-eating gunslinger who provides the film’s backstory. The film’s anachronistic qualities reach their peak with the aging Tarantino’s character reminiscing about his son Akira, whom he named after the Japanese anime, Akira (1988) because he was “an anime otaku [or obsessive fan] at heart.”
I think that Tarantino had much more fun in this cameo role than most of the audience watching the film. It is difficult to identify with any of the characters because they portray specific archetypes rather than well-motivated characters with three-dimensional depth. The narrative’s use of flashbacks accompanied by excessive voice-over narration also reinforces a sense of detachment from the characters. Moreover, Miike’s decision to have the Japanese cast speak in English is another odd choice given the actors’ difficulties with the language, which makes the use of subtitles obligatory. This choice shifts the audience’s attention away from what they are saying to how they deliver their lines in awkward English.
I find it very interesting that the director seems most enamored with the sheriff who suffers from a split personality, given the large amount of screen time dedicated to this comical yet inessential character. Just like the sheriff who hears two conflicting voices, Sukiyaki Western Django becomes a schizophrenic film spilt between East and West and filled with contradictory source material. It is entertaining to some extent to discover intertexual references, but I am not sure what kind of subversive meaning those references carry in this film. The representation of women demonstrates conflicting notions of a feminine role as well. It is intriguing that the film represents the legendary gunfighter called “the Bloody Benten” as a female. However, this presumably strong female character is not enough to compensate for the extremely disturbing violence against the beautiful widow-turned prostitute, who isn’t even given a name and is treated like a sexual toy by both gangs in the film.
JaeYoon Park © 2009
