Big Picture Big Sound

The Film

Sukiyaki Western Django is Japanese director Takashi Miike's tribute to spaghetti westerns, combining that genre and samurai films into this colorfully filmed story. The film concerns a lone gunman who enters a town where two warring gangs, the "Reds" and the "Whites" are searching for an ancient treasure. He offers his services to whichever side can offer him the highest compensation. Naturally, many gun battles ensue, and there are some revelations along the way about legendary gunmen, old battles and other lore relating to the long-raging feud.

The film itself is rather convoluted and difficult to follow most of the time. There are even a few incoherent appearances from Quentin Tarantino that only serve to disrupt and confuse the plot even more. It's difficult to discern whether Miike was purposely trying to make a parody of a classic western, or if it just turned out that way, but Sukiyaki's dialogue at times is so silly and its fight scenes so unlikely that it's almost impossible not to chuckle, or at least wrinkle one's forehead in confusion every so often.

Despite its flaws, Sukiyaki is produced with a strong creative vision by Miike. At times the sets look more like murals than anything lifelike. Miike sacrifices substance for style at almost every turn, but he does have an eye for it. It’s a visibly engaging film that one can sit back and enjoy for what it is if one decides to suspend disbelief and stop trying so hard to understand why things are going on.

The Picture

Due to the initial artistic choices by the director, Sukiyaki hardly stands as reference quality video material. Many scenes are oversaturated with bleeding colors, blacks are crushed, contrast is hot with blooming whites and bleached out details while in more normal scenes, the heavily filtered materials lead to softened edges, not quite as sharp as some of the better transfers out there. The VC-1 encoding is hardly to blame, rendering the director's choices faithfully and without any noticeable added artifacts of its own. Other than that, it is unlikely that many will find this release one of the better examples of a high definition release.

The Sound

Sukiyaki Western Django offers English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby 2.0 audio options. The lossless TrueHD mix is aggressive and fully engrossing. The surrounds are utilized to carry everything from ambient effects to the sounds of gunshots and footsteps. Low frequency extension is deep, with booming explosions and lively gunshots that crack with realism. Dialogue, which is sometime hard to understand dues to most of the actors' very heavy Japanese accents, is well balanced, only occasionally getting lost in the mix.  This 5.1 mix will make for a good reference showpiece.

The Extras

Unlike the other recently reviewed release from First Look, Transsiberian, Sukiyaki Western Django comes with a fair amount of extras related to the film, both on the disc itself and via BD-Live. Although most BD-Live features to date have been less than compelling, it is encouraging to see the feature making its way onto even releases from smaller studios like First Look.

The extras available on this release are:

• Deleted Scenes (4:3/windowboxed/standard definition) -- A few deleted scenes that do not add much to the story played continuously.
• The Making of Sukiyaki Western Django (4:3/standard definition) -- This making-of featurette documents the film's production through behind-the-scenes footage and interview segments with the director. One fascinating bit of trivia found in this featurette is that the lead actor is a western enthusiast and every piece of his wardrobe in the film was his own.
• Previews (standard definition) -- Previews for more First Look releases:
  • Transsiberian
  • War, Inc.
  • August
  • Priceless
• BD-Live:
  • Special Features:
    • Making of Visual Effects
    • Gun Guide
    • Location Map
    • Press Function On-Set Q&A
    • Press Junket in Japan
    • Venice Premiere
    • Cast & Mike Q&A
• Digital Copy -- This release also contains a bonus disc with a digital copy that can be transferred to a PC/Laptop or Windows Media-compatible portable device.

Final Thoughts

Sukiyaki Western Django sounded like a promising concept -- bringing together the spaghetti western with Eastern sensibilities. The film, however, does not quite live up to expectations. I'd suggest if you want to see a strong "Eastern" western, check out Warriors of Heaven and Earth. In the meantime, if you'd like to try this Blu-ray release out, rent it first.

Where to Buy

• Sukiyaki Western Django on Blu-ray Disc (Amazon.com)

Product Details

• Actors: Kaori Momoi, Koichi Sato, Quentin Tarantino, Takaaki Ishibashi, Teruyuki Kagawa
• Director: Takashi Miike
• Language: English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English Dolby 2.0
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
• Region: A
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rating: 
• Studio: First Look Pictures
• Blu-ray Disc Release Date: November 11, 2008
• Run Time: 98 minutes
• List Price: $34.98
• Extras:
  • Previews
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Making OF Featurette
  • Sukiyaki Trailers
  • BD-Live
  • Digital Download Disc