01-03-2009, 12:35 PM
This is Miike's attempt at combining the Western and Samarai genres. I saw the preview on Doom (I think DM posted it many months back) and it looked brilliant.
What a huge disappointment. A complete disaster. I knew something was wrong when all the previews on the DVD were for tame US film misfires, like War, Inc. Nothing remotely outrageous.
Then the film starts, and Tarantino's mug fills the screen. Yep, he's this legendary gunfighter in the opening, and he reenters the movie halfway through. Both appearances are unfortunate. He's a horrible actor, especially here. Then things get worse when everyone talks English, or attempts to. Yep, this is heavily adverstised as an English-language film. So all these Japanese actors struggle with English the whole way through. I turned on English subtitles so I could catch some really bad pronunciations.
Anyway, here's my take on the genesis of this disaster. I suspect that Tarantino, who worships Miike, approached him with the idea of melding a Western and a Samarai film, and do it in English to gain a wider audience. It makes me want to pound Tarantino in the chest with girly fists and shriek, "You keep your mitts off Miike and let him DO HIS THING!"
Everything is stilted here. The characters are cardboard cutouts. Nothing holds together. The plot is paper thin. There is just one interesting sequence where a woman whose husband was just brutally murdered dances on stage, licking her hands and doing other weird things, to the accompaniment of drums and a digerido.
But trust me on this; it's not worth waiting for. I give this my lowest rating -- which I've only done for one other Miike film.
But the official preview does make it look impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y93atLUsO...re=related
-cranefly
What a huge disappointment. A complete disaster. I knew something was wrong when all the previews on the DVD were for tame US film misfires, like War, Inc. Nothing remotely outrageous.
Then the film starts, and Tarantino's mug fills the screen. Yep, he's this legendary gunfighter in the opening, and he reenters the movie halfway through. Both appearances are unfortunate. He's a horrible actor, especially here. Then things get worse when everyone talks English, or attempts to. Yep, this is heavily adverstised as an English-language film. So all these Japanese actors struggle with English the whole way through. I turned on English subtitles so I could catch some really bad pronunciations.
Anyway, here's my take on the genesis of this disaster. I suspect that Tarantino, who worships Miike, approached him with the idea of melding a Western and a Samarai film, and do it in English to gain a wider audience. It makes me want to pound Tarantino in the chest with girly fists and shriek, "You keep your mitts off Miike and let him DO HIS THING!"
Everything is stilted here. The characters are cardboard cutouts. Nothing holds together. The plot is paper thin. There is just one interesting sequence where a woman whose husband was just brutally murdered dances on stage, licking her hands and doing other weird things, to the accompaniment of drums and a digerido.
But trust me on this; it's not worth waiting for. I give this my lowest rating -- which I've only done for one other Miike film.
But the official preview does make it look impressive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y93atLUsO...re=related
-cranefly