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★★★☆☆
10 October 2011
This article is a review of BUNRAKU. |
“All this fighting. It's not who's right. It's who's left,” Nicola (Ron Perlman)
There is much to like in this highly stylized action mash-up. The only problem is the sense that you’ve seen it all done before, and done better. There is the no-named nomad (The Drifter, played by Josh Hartnett) who wonders into a town oppressed by tyrannical violence. Compare the work of Akira Kurosawa and Clint Eastwood. There is a little twist to the formula by having two strangers enter the fray, with superficially differing motives (but there is the sneaking suspicion that their ambitions will coincide). This other is Yoshi (Gackt Camui). As Woody Harrelson’s Bartender says, “A cowboy in a world without guns and a samurai with no sword, team up to defeat a common evil.” This is a post-apocalyptic retro-future where firearms are banned. Punches, kicks and swords are the weapons of choice. Having a comic-book design to the sets and backgrounds, gives it a SIN CITY-styling; adding to the collage of reference points.
There is much to like in this highly stylized action mash-up. The only problem is the sense that you’ve seen it all done before, and done better. There is the no-named nomad (The Drifter, played by Josh Hartnett) who wonders into a town oppressed by tyrannical violence. Compare the work of Akira Kurosawa and Clint Eastwood. There is a little twist to the formula by having two strangers enter the fray, with superficially differing motives (but there is the sneaking suspicion that their ambitions will coincide). This other is Yoshi (Gackt Camui). As Woody Harrelson’s Bartender says, “A cowboy in a world without guns and a samurai with no sword, team up to defeat a common evil.” This is a post-apocalyptic retro-future where firearms are banned. Punches, kicks and swords are the weapons of choice. Having a comic-book design to the sets and backgrounds, gives it a SIN CITY-styling; adding to the collage of reference points.
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Nicola and his lethal gang run the place. The Drifter and Yoshi put a spanner in the works. There are some well-choreographed melees at the beginning, but they start to get repetitive. For all you martial arts fans, there is a breathless amount of fighting; barely a scene goes by without someone getting beaten up. A lot off effort can be seen on the screen with the attention to detail to the look, but similar hard work has not been demonstrated in the characterization (barely any), and the script – there is a seriously annoying voice-over with the narrator spouting stuff like, “Life, every man holds dear. But the dear man holds honour far more precious than dear life. Especially if that man happens to be Japanese.” BUNRAKU is definitely worth a look, as there is an unusual theatricality to proceedings; the filmmakers appear to have had KUNG FU HUSTLE on loop in their house.
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