Sukiyaki Western Django

There’s something out there called “suspension of belief.” It’s what makes a great deal of fiction – specifically, in my opinion, those works in the “fantasy” genre – possible to read and watch. When you read or watch Lord of the Rings, you know for a fact that there is not a Middle Earth where wizards and balrogs and hobbits run around wielding magic and fighting an spiritual entity represented by an enormous ocular fireball perched atop one of two giant towers. To say it that way, it sounds comical. But we suspend our belief when seeing such things, making the works enjoyable. Without suspension of belief, Stephen King would be out of a job. As would an entire fiction industry. To say that Takashi Miike’s Quentin Tarantino-produced Sukiyaki Western Django asks you to suspend belief a little bit would be…well…an understatement.

The movie begins with a man preparing a meal in the desert…but it’s not really a desert. The background looks visibly like cardboard of sorts. They’re already asking us to suspend belief. Next thing you know, there are signs in Japanese saying “Nevada” and nothing but Japanese people speaking thickly accented English. Perhaps the epitome of belief suspension is the fact that, in one scene, it goes from clear skies to flurrying to heavy snowing to almost a foot of snow on the ground over the course of two minutes. But that doesn’t make the film bad. Actually, it makes it all the more enjoyable. It’s just a fun film. It doesn’t try to be overly serious. I am vaguely reminded of Grindhouse, where everything just seems to have a fun feel to it. (come to think of it, Tarantino has a flare for the suspension of belief – Kill Bill, Grindhouse, acting in From Dusk Till Dawn). That movie gave tribute to the old school horror/action flicks. This movie gives tribute to the western and the samurai films…somehow simultaneously. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking mixing the two is a mildly strange combination.

The film centers on a town in “Nevada” where two warring factions (Minamoto and Taira) have descended upon the town, terrorizing the villages and looking for treasure. A lone gunman shows up, and, with the help of the remaining townsfolk, works on getting rid of the Minamoto and Taira. That’s all you need to know about the movie. There’s a side plot about a boy losing his parents, but it muddles things to some degree, and is the only major detriment to the movie. There’s cowboys, and a gatling gun (that plays a major part in the movie), and samurai-ish characters, shootouts and swords, and Quentin Tarantino. It doesn’t pretend to be anything it’s not. Sukiyaki Western Django is just a damn good fun time.

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