Weekly round-up

Japanese cowboys and hapless hunchbacks

by MALCOLM FRASER
and CHRISTOPHER SYKES

Sukiyaki Western Django
Takashi Miike has two separate MOs. When he’s not pushing the limits of onscreen brutality (Ichi the Killer, Audition), the relentlessly prolific Japanese director is busy subverting genres, as in the musical Happiness of the Katakuris or his ostensible children’s film The Great Yokai War (which would likely give any kid, along with most adults, nightmares for years).

With his latest, Sukiyaki Western Django, Miike turns his genre-bending eye to the Western, with delirious results. The film begins with a cameo from Quentin Tarantino (usually a bad sign under any circumstances), doing cartoonish gun tricks on a Technicolor Western set that resembles the video for Devo’s “Whip It” more than anything else. The film then abruptly switches gears to a (comparatively) traditional Western aesthetic and storyline, with a lone gunman (Ito Hideaki) arriving in a town divided between two rival gangs—dressed in bright red and white for good measure—fighting over buried treasure.

The all-Japanese cast speaks entirely in English, some of them clearly enunciating their cliché-soaked dialogue phonetically. Whatever Miike’s reasons for this, it brings the already perverse genre exercise to a new level of absurd audacity. As always, you’re left shaking your head at Miike’s imagination and his willingness to take a conceptual ball and run with it all the way. Topped off with some unforgettable imagery, like an extreme close-up of a rose blooming in slow motion to reveal a blood-soaked newborn baby at its centre, it’s a must-see for fans of bizarre and visionary cinema. (MF)

LAB LIFE: Igor

Igor
The Kingdom of Malaria is the land far away that’s been plunged into darkness for the better part of a generation in MGM’s new kid-pic Igor. Of course nobody knows why the lights went out, and King Malbert (voiced by Jay Leno) likes it that way.

Doing his best Dr. Evil impersonation, it’s his idea to hold the rest of the world ransom using a series of diabolical inventions to threaten destruction if they dodn’t cough up the big bucks. Each year, Malbert holds a contest for the most fiendish scientists to submit new inventions. The winner will be used as the year’s extortion device.

Which brings us to lead character Igor (John Cusack). In Malaria, if you’re born with a hunchback, you’re forced into a life of servitude pulling levers for evil scientists. Despite his slouch, Igor’s been concocting evil plans since he was a kid and yearns for the limelight currently shining on ace evil scientist Dr. Schadenfreude (Eddie Izzard).

After his stubborn master Dr. Glickenstein (John Cleese) bites the dust in a lab accident, Igor and his creations Brain (Sean Hayes), an impossibly stupid brain in a jar and Scamper (Steve Buscemi), a suicidal rabbit who Igor’s managed to make immortal, do their best to win the competition.

It could have been a nifty idea for the kids to laugh at, but Igor stumbles off the blocks and always feels more awkward than clever. Despite its star-studded vocal cast, Igor is a largely forgettable CG-animated feature that tries so hard to look like a Tim Burton creation, yet lacks any of his originality and heart. (CS)

BOTH FILMS OPEN THIS
FRIDAY, SEPT. 19

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