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Sukiyaki Western Django (2007) is an example of the effect of globalisation on cinema with its swirling mixture of inspirations being shot entirely in the English language it is a Spaghetti western inspired by Sergio Leone who was inspired by John ford and Akira Kurosawa also starring a cameo by Quentin Tarantino. This evolution of style full circle across continents from Japan and back again has Hollywoodized the Samurai tale of Sukiyaki Western Django.
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Director Takeshi Miike is taking back the Samurai tale as
interpreted by Hollywood as a “Western” by reclaiming originally Japanese
inspired “Western” story elements as a Japanese director telling his story within
a period of Japanese history but in English in a Spaghetti Western style with
cowboy hats, guns etc. The title itself is a combination of different elements
that signify the connections to its source material.
Japanese Samurai film - Sukiyaki,
Classical Western – Western,
Spaghetti Western - Django.
It is a story of conflicting Genji and Heike clans clashing within a poor mountain town and the skilled lone gunman (ronin) who is on no one’s side. Knowing his services are valuable to either side he offers himself to who will offer up the larger slice of the pie. It is a melting pot of a film that shows its global appeal and hollywoodization through many clear elements of the visual style of a spaghetti western’s brutal action, editing and costume, the music and cinematography of a classical western and the story, taking place in Japan several hundred years after the Battle of Dannoura in 1185 remaining Japanese.
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The time of the Western had been long dead in Hollywood by
the time of Sukiyaki Western Django’s
release but the reclaiming of it by Miike is clear evidence of the statement of
Klein’s (2004) that:
“Asian film industries are not so much resisting
globalization as learning how to turn some of the transformations it has
unleashed to their own advantage.”
Miike isn't reacting to the Hollywoodization
of the Samurai film in anger, if he is almost 50 years too late, but I would
suggest he is taking advantage of the Hollywoodized elements and reinterpreting
them as Japanese even despite the film being spoken in English.
REFERENCES:
Klein, Christina 2004, ‘Martial arts and globalisation of US
and Asian film industries’, Comparative America Studies, vol. 2, no. 3, pp.
360-384
Sukiyaki Western
Django Dir: Takashi Miike (Japan, 2007)
http://twitchfilm.com/assets/2007/10/Sukiyaki_western_django_(2).jpg
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