SUKYAKI WESTERN DJANGO: AN ODD MIXTURE THAT WORKS

 

  

What happens when you take a little bit of the spaghetti western mix it with a touch of martial arts add a sprinkle of oriental mysticism and then place a dash of style to it? You get SUKYAKI WESTERN DJANGO from famed director Takashi Miike. Once again Miike shows that he is a force to be reckoned with.

For those unaware Django was a character found in several spaghetti westerns made mostly in the sixties and seventies. The character was given new life by director Quentin Tarantino in DJANGO UNCHAINED in 2012. But before that in 2007 was this film that took the name and style and transferred it to Japan.

The Genji and Heike clans have had a long standing feud and are now battling one another over a small village where they both think there is hidden gold to be taken. The rivalry between the two clans is historic and ancient but we now find them here in this town called Yuta. Wandering into the town is an unnamed gunfighter whose abilities are sought out by both clans to use against the other.

The gunfighter is given shelter by a woman named Ruriko who lives with her grandson Heihachi. She is the one that tells him of the rivalry between the clans and how they’ve driven nearly everyone out of the village.  The sheriff, who has aligned himself with the Heike clan, tells the stranger the story of a Heike man named Akira who fell in love with a Genji woman named Shizuka. They married and had a son, the aforementioned Heihachi. One day the angered Heike leader Kiyomori killed Akira. The end result was Heihachi becoming mute and Shizuka becoming a prostitute for the Genji to survive and protect her child.

As happened in many of the great spaghetti westerns the gunman plays one clan against the other. But there is more to this man and what he knows of the situation than anyone realizes. That secret fills in many of the missing parts of the story. Guns will blaze, swords will swish through the air and many will die before the final credits roll.

One would think that the combination of these various parts wouldn’t work but they actually do. Oddly it was the reverse that led to some of the greatest westerns made. THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN was based on SEVEN SAMURAI. A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS was a western remake of YOJIMBO. So seeing the western transported to Japan seems a natural progression.

Miike shows once again why he is a master of image and composition. The movie looks beautiful in spite of the barren landscape. Production values here are amazing to see. His use and choreography of action scenes continue to amaze.

The film was released before but this new version adds so much. Included here is an extended cut of the film, deleted scenes, a making of featurette, a sizzle reel, promotional clips and Japanese and US trailers and TV spots. The quality of this blu-ray transfer makes the film pop like never before. If you own a copy of the film I would suggest picking this one up anyway with because of the quality of the transfer and the extras. 

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PENNY DREADFUL-CITY OF ANGELS: LACKLUSTER HORROR

 

I was really looking forward to watching this series, especially since they had done such a great job with the initial series. But as each episode unfolded here I was less and less impressed. Where was the pulp fiction found in the penny dreadful books on which the series was based? It was as if that was all tossed aside. And what it was replaced with was social justice preaching wrapped in Mexican culture instead.

Set in 1938 Hollywood, the series involves the battle between two Mexican folklore icons. Santa Muerte is the guide to the great beyond and caretaker of the dead. Her sister is Magda, a demoness who believes mankind is evil. As the story opens Magda is determined to make her point to her sister and involves herself in many forms and ways to change what transpires, mainly using the members of one Mexican-American family.

Tiago Vega (Daniel Zovatto) is the first Mexican-American to become a detective on the police force of Los Angeles. Derided by his fellow officers and insulted about his ethnicity he is befriended only by his partner Detective Lewis Michener (Nathan Lane). Michener is Jewish and has his own run ins with the same group and thus feels a kinship of sorts with Tiago.

Tiago’s family is the main center around which the story takes place. Tiago was touched by Santa Muerte years ago when he ran to save his father and carries her handprint on his chest. His mother Maria (Adrianna Barraza) is a believer in Santa Muerte and worships her faithfully. Raul Vega (Adam Rodriguez) is Tiago’s older brother and a union organizer for the local factory. Mateo Vega (Johnathan Nieves) is the youngest brother, a hot head prone to outburst and action without thinking of the consequences. And Josefina Vega (Jessica Garza) is the youngest of the Vega clan, an innocent in a dark world.

Tiago’s first case involves bodies found in a riverbed, stripped of their clothes and faces and painted in Day of the Dead style makeup. The city is at a boiling point with the Mexican-American populace at present and violence erupts when the city has determined to build a freeway through the Mexican-American neighborhood that the factory and Vega home are found. The workers protest and stop the bulldozers from plowing through. A face-off between police and the workers is pushed forward by Magda as she makes an officer fire his weapon. In the melee Tiago is forced to shoot his brother Raul.

Raul survives but is forever changed. So is Tiago, torn between his heritage and trying to carry the weight of his position on a blatantly racist police force. Mateo having watched the shooting takes matters into his own hands and joins a gang of zoot suit wearing Chicanos. All of this will come around and collide before the series ends.

In the meantime the investigation of the bodies by Tiago and Michener leads them in different directions, none of which the police department wants to tackle. The first is to a hugely popular faith healer named Sister Molly Finnister (Kerry Bishé) whose radio program and following are massive. Her mother Adelaide (Amy Madigan) runs the business side of things and protects her daughter at all costs. Clues have led Tiago and Michener here but it isn’t long before an attraction between Tiago and Molly begins to develop.

The other lead involves a case Michener has been investigating on his own. This one involves Nazis implanting themselves here in the states. One of their big targets is an ambitious and conniving city council member who is pushing for the freeway. The fact that he is gay in a time when it was far from acceptable gives them a way of controlling him.

So it sounds like none of this would work well together and to be honest in the long run it doesn’t. There are too many things that feel like coincidences that take place here. The acting is great and the look of the show is above average and appealing. What it lacks is a story that’s believable. And this is from someone who found more belief in the previous series involving vampires and Frankenstein.

The biggest problem with the story I found is trying to impose political drama from current times into that of another period. There is zero subtlety used here in trying to compare the complaints of President Trump as a racist when it comes to immigrants to the story that takes place. That the racist politician is connected with Nazis shows the heavy handedness of how they connections are made. Political commentary is one thing but when you try to blend it into entertainment it takes a deft touch. Unfortunately you won’t find that here.

Nor will you find the horror elements in this series like there was in the first and that was its main attraction. Instead we’re presented with an unstoppable evil with no counterpoint to oppose her. Magda inserts herself in the lives of all on display here while her sister Santa Muerte does nothing to oppose her. This leaves little but a one sided battle and that gets boring.

All of the loose ends depicted here come together in a culmination that is so far-fetched and coincidental that it is beyond belief. It’s as if the makers of the show realized they only had one episode left to finish the story so they jammed it all into one last hour. The end effect is a show that doesn’t entertain, doesn’t frighten and doesn’t offer much.

I should take one part of that back. The dancing sequences at the club the zoot suit gang hangs in were tremendous. Too bad it was such a small part of a ten episode series.

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STREET SURVIVORS-THE TRUE STORY OF LYNYRD SKYNYRD: THEY DESERVE BETTER

 

I can’t in good faith give this title a lengthy reviews though I will do my best. The great southern rock band known as Lynyrd Skynyrd produced a number of hit song and best-selling LPs placing them in the pantheon of rock bands that will long be remembered. Hailing from Florida they established themselves as a force to be reckoned with on the road playing to everything from bar crowds to stadiums in their short lived career. Their first LP was released in 1973 but in 1977 their career was cut short when their chartered plane crashed killing lead vocalist/songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and backup singer Cassie Gaines while seriously injuring the rest of the band. The band struggled but eventually regrouped with Van Zant’s younger brother Johnny on lead vocals. It would seem like this would be a great story to turn into a feature film. Unfortunately it gave us this.

Drummer Artimus Pyle kicks the film off appearing as himself and telling his version of the band and what took place the year the crash happened. Actors portray the various band members in what appears more like a cliché of the hard drinking, hard living rock bands of the time. While I have no doubt that they lived that lifestyle the script and performances here make it almost a cartoon version of that.

Most of the film takes place in small locations. Backstage rooms where fights and arguments break out, tiny clubs that the band no doubt was not playing by the time they died and interactions inside the airplane they were spending plenty of time in. To watch this film you would think that the reason they died was because the co-pilot was so much of a fan boy for the band that he forgot to fill the spare gas tank among other screw ups. I don’t know if that was the case but I wouldn’t trust this film to give me the facts.

Bits and pieces of songs are heard no doubt because they couldn’t get the rights to feature them all in their entirety. Pyle is seen in different spots leading into the various segments as well as the end of the film where he’s playing drums. Why he loaned his participation in this film is beyond me unless the producers convinced him that it was going to be more than what the final product ended up being.

I liked the band but was never a die-hard fan that would still listen to them on a daily basis now. That being the case it is sad to think that this is the legacy they left behind. Fans will most likely clamor to pick this up thinking they are getting some new insight into the band. Unfortunately that isn’t the case. 

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