Sukiyaki Western Django is a 2007 English-language Japanese Western film directed by Takashi Miike, and produced by Sedic International, Geneon Universal Entertainment, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Dentsu, TV Asahi, Shogakukan, A-Team, Nagoya Broadcasting Network and Tokyu Recreation. The film features an ensemble cast, including Hideaki Itō, Kōichi Satō, Yūsuke Iseya, Masanobu Andō, Masato Sakai, Yoji Tanaka, Renji Ishibashi, Sansei Shiomi, Takaaki Ishibashi, Shun Oguri, Quentin Tarantino, Yutaka Matsushige, Yoshino Kimura, Teruyuki Kagawa and Kaori Momoi. The title refers to the Japanese dish sukiyaki as well as Sergio Corbucci’s Spaghetti Western film Django, with additional inspiration from the “Man with No Name” stock character variously used in the Spaghetti Western genre but most notably in the Dollars trilogy by Sergio Leone (initially inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s jidaigeki film Yojimbo).
Inspired by the historical rivalry between the Genji and Heike clans, which ushered in the era of samurai dominance in Japanese history, Sukiyaki Western Django is set “a few hundred years after the Genpei War”. The Genji and Heike gangs face off in a town named “Yuta” in “Nevata”, when a nameless gunman comes into town to help a prostitute get revenge on the warring gangs. The film contains numerous references both to the historical Genpei War and to the Wars of the Roses, as well as the films Yojimbo and Django.
Cam Lindsay of Exclaim! magazine wrote admiringly: “The fast-paced action is well staged on a set that borrows from both western and samurai traditions; Miike mixes both good old gunplay (a Gatling gun that’s housed in the original film’s iconic coffin) and martial arts swordplay, which intermingle cohesively until the last fight. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Miike’s western is his decision to use a Japanese cast to speak English. Supported by English subtitles, it’s a peculiar choice that at first feels like a novelty, only to fade into the film’s absorbing environment. Sukiyaki Western Django feels very much like a genuine western, and with it Miike demonstrates his mastery of working a genre film until it becomes a creation of his very own.”
