Second Trailer for Takashi Miike’s ‘Sukiyaki Western Django’.

Reader Comments

1. thehzhz 05/01/2007 @ 2:49am

   When was this supposed to come out?

2. Swarez 05/01/2007 @ 4:04am

   So it’s all in english? Jeez I hope not otherwise it will be like a feature version of Miike’s Masters of Horror episode. But the visuals are good and it looks like fun.

3. Caterpillar 05/01/2007 @ 4:08am

   For what it’s worth, I thought the English in this teaser was a lot more acceptable than the phonetic crap in IMPRINT. It actually made me wonder if it wasn’t an English dub as opposed to the actors themselves.

4. Caterpillar 05/01/2007 @ 7:41am

   Hzhz, it says the release is due this September in Japan. Might get some festival play before that, though.

5. Todd 05/01/2007 @ 8:55am

   Holy crap, they’e going to have to either re-dub that or subtitle it if they expect it to play in the west ...

6. Tory 05/01/2007 @ 10:08am

   Oh boy, that was terrible! They really are going to have to re-dub this thing or people are gonna laugh at it.

7. Swarez 05/01/2007 @ 10:21am

   This was no better than the Masters episode. The actors are obviously using the phonetic way of speaking lines, aside from that woman’s voice, but still I couldn’t understand what she was saying because of the noice in the background.

   Does anyone know why they decited to go this way? Surely not to make it more appealing to the West? Or are they doing like they did in Italy and Spain back in the day by making actors speak english and then dubb it later?

8. logboy 05/01/2007 @ 11:16am

   firstly, the initial trailer said september release for japan.

   not the second trailer has that date removed. other references to the film, online, show

   a date of december - it may be delayed, it may not - tarantino was due to shoot his

   contribution to the film in june, maybe that’s an element to the apparent delay.

   as for the dub - i would like to thing it may be a bit of both, in that there could be an ironic use of another language (italian films such as the famous spaghetti westerns used international casts, hence the post-production dubs), and that there may be an intention to bring this to an english-speaking audience at the cinema.

   thing is, as with reference to the downturn of an already marginal business / public interest in odd films, there’s seems to be an element of that idea being connected with choosing to read a marginal interest as a potential for a much public interest with those either not fully involved, so-far interested, or capable / willing to cope with subs.

   i don’t think this is reading the characteristics of the film and thinking they will apply, i think it’s a misunderstanding that those interested in such films have either temporarily turned away from more domestic output, treating it as sheer noveltly, or a desire to read it as an indicator that part of the domestic products audience has spotted something it would like to see integrated into product they want to see on the big screen - i.e, self-imposed distortions in the hope of more cash - that said, there’s always a larger audience for anything simply not marketed effectively, but marketing is still bad (in general) and this doesn’t mean there wouldn’t be more interested if they knew about this stuff more easily, and it doesn’t also mean there’s a limitless audience to be had either. no naturally, anyway.

   either way, this projects still interesting, i would hope for a japanese dub on any given DVD releases (ironic or not) and english subs. as long as i see a film, small or large screen, i’m happy…

9. Caterpillar 05/01/2007 @ 11:54am

   It could be similar to what has been happening with some anime movies, most notably Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s last two films, which were both made in English. The reasoning behind it is to both target it at the West and to then be able to market it as a Western import in Japan, giving it a higher level of prestige. The Japanese have nothing but contempt for the cinematic output of their country, as evidenced every year by the list of top grossing movies and top selling/renting DVDs: these are always dominated by Hollywood fare with maybe the latest Ghibli or Kitano film being able to play in the same league of success. Therefore, selling something as an English language import (with subtitled dialogue) and especially with the inclusion of Tarantino, they should be able to gross more at the box office. Japanese audiences are unlikely to be bothered by the bad English in the same way as Western audiences weren’t bothered (by and large) by the atrocious phonetic Mandarin dialogue spouted in Ang Lee’s CROUCHING TIGER. But in the same way that CROUCHING TIGER bombed in Mainland China, SUKIYAKI WESTERN may bomb in the West. However, what remains of the ever-dwindling number of Miike fanboys plus what emains of the ever-dwindling number of QT fanboys should guarantee some degree of success.

10. logboy 05/01/2007 @ 12:39pm

    caterpillar - of course, it is more likely (if not the most certain reason) that there’s aims for the japanese perception before the western one. i, for one, wouldn’t read the financial success of non-domestic (i.e hollywood) product in japan as a sign of contempt from the japanese people for japanese cinema : it simply wouldn’t then also be the case, by similar logic, that japans domestic output is growing in quantity, quality and financial success in recent years. hollywood can, after all, obliterate competition by sheer force of publicity and spectacle; this has no relation to appreciable qualities in relation to the audiences perception as much as it does ability to master certain aspects of the business that take it out of the realms of the films themselves being judged in isolation.

    i’m a huge fan of miike - a miike fanboy, of sorts - like many. thing is, if you’ve ever been into something as much as i have accepted miike into my life (as one of the key figures in my life’s interests) you can’t help but feel a slight tingle of doubt every now and again… almost the same as being into death metal and finding, suddenly, sever-year-olds walking around town wearing your favourite death metal bands logo on his new hooded top, in order to give a certain impression of himself.

    i’m all for making mistakes, progress, variation, and try to remain open-minded about such similar occurances, but they’re also heavily connected to the kind of distortion that many things fail to ever totally recover from. miike will eternally, perhaps, be connected or mentioned with reference to, the ravenous appetite for certain aspects of his work. on the contrary to popular belief and conceptions, it’s not the inclusion of violence and death that makes his work so interest - it’s, for me, the sheer sense of life in his work that’s so charming and impressive. incomparably vibrant and alive, so richly, instinctively captures life like no other.

11. Helu 05/01/2007 @ 1:07pm

    I would not want a japanese dub of the film. Dubs don’t work because the dialogue doesn’t match the mouths… but in this case, a re dub might actually work since it would be possible to match it up closer. Still I didn’t have a problem with it. I couldn’t understand msot of it, but it’s Miike making a western, making it in english is just another weird choice of many he ahs made in his career, let’s just hope this is one of the times it works. I can’t wait.

12. Rhythm-X 05/01/2007 @ 2:27pm

    Still looking gorgeous, but the English dialogue is totally incomprehensible, and nobody in their right mind would release it in any English-speaking countries in that form. Fortunately, as this is a spaghetti western of sorts, I have no problem with anyone’s decision to dub it with an actual English language track… it would be entirely traditional and appropriate to do so. Even a Japanese dub subtitled in English would be fine… but the on-set dialog recordings are simply not usable in English territories, except maybe as a DVD special feature.

    Just please, please keep the usual bunch of anime dubbing teams as far away from it as possible. I don’t need to mention any names, Jack Fletcher.

13. crazybee 05/01/2007 @ 8:43pm

    I couldn’t understand 90% of that, but it looks amazing!

    Hey, at least we’ve finally gotten a Miike movie that will have an “English-friendly” DVD releases in Japan.

14. Isao K 05/01/2007 @ 11:38pm

    I wanna kill that voiceover guy. Or at least point him toward some advanced NOVA courses. “THIS is an apple.”

    Kaori Momoi should never be given any lines in English ever again for the rest of her acting career.

15. Fallister Twarson 05/02/2007 @ 9:21am

    God damn, movie looks almost as sexy as me.

16. neoboon 05/04/2007 @ 12:08am

    This is not dubbed. These are the voices of the actual actors. The film is much easier to watch than IMPRINT. After five minutes, a bit of accented English doesn’t bother you that much. And you can’t expect the actor’s English to be flawless. It’s strange to see Asian faces speaking LA accented English.

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