Spoiler Note: as this movie is a remake, the spoiler here will not be a surprise to anyone who has seen Yojimbo or any of the earlier remakes.
I saw Sukiyaki Western Django (SWD) opening night in Kobe. It wasn't really my cup of ocha, as movies go, but I was impressed by the look of the movie, especially the opening sequence with Tarantino which has a bit of a manga feel, as mentioned in a thread on the board for this movie. I especially liked the sky right at the start. My biggest criticism is for the dialog. I'm not sure it was what they said or just how it was delivered, but it came off very stilted.
It's a very ambitious movie and is interesting in that it's more than just a Japanese remake of the Italian movies "Django" and "A Fistful of Dollars" (AFOD) which were remakes of the Japanese movie "Yojimbo." It's a conflation of Yojimbo/Django/AFOD story and and Gempei War which ended with the battle of Dan no Ura in 1160.
That war was between the Taira (or Heike), whose color was red, and the Minamoto (or Genji), whose color was white and those colors also figure predominately in SWD. Characters in the movie also share names with the leading figures in that War (Yoshitsune, Kiyomori, Benkei, etc.) although not in any logical way that could be discerned in a single viewing other than their association with either the White or Red sides.
The two colors are represented by roses though I cannot say that that comes from the War of the Roses as suggested by an earlier poster. Perhaps they did--I won't dispute it.
The Gempei War ended in a victory for the Whites (uniting all of Japan under one central power for the first time) unlike the movie where it seems to be a draw (or, more precisely, both sides lost).
I wondered if the (mostly) red rose at the end of the movie with the white background of snow was supposed to represent the flag of Japan which is also red and white--colors that have been used to represent Japan ever since the Gempei War.
Is it a 'good' movie? If the dialog were better, I'd say yes. However, as it is, I have to say I cannot recommend it to anyone other than hardcore fans of the spaghetti western & samurai genres or "Kill Bill" fans. Among those groups, I'm sure it will find fans.
I saw Sukiyaki Western Django (SWD) opening night in Kobe. It wasn't really my cup of ocha, as movies go, but I was impressed by the look of the movie, especially the opening sequence with Tarantino which has a bit of a manga feel, as mentioned in a thread on the board for this movie. I especially liked the sky right at the start. My biggest criticism is for the dialog. I'm not sure it was what they said or just how it was delivered, but it came off very stilted.
It's a very ambitious movie and is interesting in that it's more than just a Japanese remake of the Italian movies "Django" and "A Fistful of Dollars" (AFOD) which were remakes of the Japanese movie "Yojimbo." It's a conflation of Yojimbo/Django/AFOD story and and Gempei War which ended with the battle of Dan no Ura in 1160.
That war was between the Taira (or Heike), whose color was red, and the Minamoto (or Genji), whose color was white and those colors also figure predominately in SWD. Characters in the movie also share names with the leading figures in that War (Yoshitsune, Kiyomori, Benkei, etc.) although not in any logical way that could be discerned in a single viewing other than their association with either the White or Red sides.
The two colors are represented by roses though I cannot say that that comes from the War of the Roses as suggested by an earlier poster. Perhaps they did--I won't dispute it.
The Gempei War ended in a victory for the Whites (uniting all of Japan under one central power for the first time) unlike the movie where it seems to be a draw (or, more precisely, both sides lost).
I wondered if the (mostly) red rose at the end of the movie with the white background of snow was supposed to represent the flag of Japan which is also red and white--colors that have been used to represent Japan ever since the Gempei War.
Is it a 'good' movie? If the dialog were better, I'd say yes. However, as it is, I have to say I cannot recommend it to anyone other than hardcore fans of the spaghetti western & samurai genres or "Kill Bill" fans. Among those groups, I'm sure it will find fans.