Sukiyaki Western Django
User Score
6.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 14 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 14
  3. Negative: 3 out of 14

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  1. ScottJ.
    Jul 18, 2009
    10
    This movie is a hyperactive live action anime-manga twist on the Italian Western. Like Alex Cox's "Straight to Hell," this film blends two genres (here, Chanbara/Samurai and the Italian Western) to give us something surreal, shocking, and ironic. The Japanese cast speak English in an almost stereotypical "ESL" way and it comes off like a riff on the crappy dubs Asian movies of the 70s got in the West. Quentin does his bit perfectly and even switches to a stereotypical "white man doing a Japanese accent" for some dialogue. Everything is knowingly artificial and it works - well. A saloon features a Japanese theater stage, where an interpretive dance based on a variety of Asian dance forms is performed; instead of the usual painted backdrop found in old westerns, here we have a painted Japanese screen as backing; katanas fly against six-shooters; the clothes are a hodgepodge of street gang, old west, and samurai; The War of the Roses meets Yojimbo meets Fistful of Dollars. All in all, I am extremely pleased and enjoy the film immensely. Gets more repeat viewing than Kill Bill at my house.… Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
55 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 13 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 13
  3. Negative: 1 out of 13
  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Derek Elley
    50
    Basic joke wears off after five minutes, and many bystanders will start to head out of town. But genre/Asian buffs prepared to ride shotgun for two hours will be rewarded with some classy action sequences and densely accoutred widescreen lensing.
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  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jim Ridley
    60
    This delirious spaghetti eastern could only have come from the boiling brain of Takashi Miike, the prolific Japanese auteur whose spectacularly uneven films account for the lion's share of the past decade's most utterly batshit movie moments.
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  3. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    50
    More often there is a frantic, compulsive quality to the action. Fanboy intoxication with the idea of formal ingenuity too often stands in for the thing itself.
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