The prolific Takashi Miike co-wrote and directed this strikingly postmodern remake of Sergio Corbucci's 1966 Spaghetti Western Django, which essentially follows the original storyline, but adds a highly stylized fusion of Japanese gangster overtones and operatic musings, wrapped in a creative cinematic package. Feuding for centuries, the Genji and Heike clans both come to a 19th-century Nevada town looking for rumored hidden treasure. After a solitary no-name gunslinger (Hideaki Ito) arrives, he is unsuccessfully courted by both clans, and ends up playing one group against the other, setting off a bloody chain of events. The film's kinetic energy, dynamic camerawork, and almost tongue-in-cheek performances are potential-cult-film-level fun, but the narrative itself begins to flag just past the halfway point, and Miike seems content to fill the void with exhausting new ways of filming blood-spattered mayhem for its own sake (although Quentin Tarantino fans will want to keep an eye out for the director in a small role here). A strong optional purchase. (T. Keogh)
Sukiyaki Western Django
First Look, 98 min., R, DVD: $28.98, Nov. 11 Volume 23, Issue 5
Sukiyaki Western Django
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