Sukiyaki Western Django

Rather than hiding at home from treat-o-trickers yesterday (we never have candy), Ryan and I decided to go on a dinner and movie date. We'd both heard of Sukiyaki Western Django, the latest movie from Takashi Miike, who's warped and bizarre mind brought us Ichi the Killer, so we decided to check it out. It was only playing at Ken Cinema in Kensington so we grabbed a deep dish pizza from Lefty's in North Park before hand. Strangely enough, during dinner we witnessed about 100 people on bicycles whiz by, many of them dressed for Halloween. Apparently they have a bike run every last Friday of the month in that neighborhood. Poor me, I wish I lived in such a fun area.

Once we got to the theater, we settled in with some Junior Mints, not knowing what to expect. What we'd read about the movie was that it was a Japanese spaghetti western, spoken in English. Since it was a Miike film, we knew there'd be a lot of violence and gratuitous blood baths, but other than that we didn't know what direction he'd take. The opening scene featured a cameo from Quentin Tarantino and was so bizarre that I gave Ryan a pensive look. What have we gotten ourselves into? Once it moved to the main story line, things got more interesting, especially when I saw the devilishly handsome leader of the white clan. The main gunman was handsome too but not so much my taste. Plus I suspected he was less handsome under his cowboy hat. Anyway, we'll just say that I don't usually find Asian men particularly attractive but when I do, I'm head over heels haha. Aside from perking up at the sight of hot men, I also grew accustomed to the thick Asian accents and was able to understand maybe 75% of what they were saying, versus the 40% in the opening scene.

The main story line revolves around a mining town that was invaded by two clans, the reds and the whites, both looking to strike it rich with gold. The reds were largely brutes while the white were vicious but proud, following what they thought was the samurai way. To keep it short, a stranger arrives and all hell breaks lose with almost everyone dying at the end - typical. The violence wasn't over the top, the way it was with Ichi, although there were some scenes that were tough to watch. There were also some plenty of funny tidbits involving the leader of the red clan and the sniveling schizophrenic ex-sheriff. All in all, I found this highly entertaining and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys slightly strange movies.

To end with, let's revisit my favorite hot Asian man, Takeshi Haneshiro. He's a half Japanese, half Taiwanese actor. You might remember him as the beautiful man in House of Flying Daggers.