Bunraku [DVD]

Bunraku is the tale of The Drifter (Josh Hartnett - Lucky Number Slevin), a man who has come to seek revenge on Nicola 'The Woodcutter' (Ron Perlman - Hellboy) the leader of a shadowy gang of ten killers. This is a world where what is left of humanity has shunned mechanical weapons due to damages they have ravaged on the planet. In their place; swords, fists and clubs rule supreme. Yoshi (The rather effeminate Gackt) is also looking to avenge his family's honour with Nicola, the Drifter and Yoshi combine their fantastic fighting styles to try and topple Nicola and his gang, will they succeed?

Well, where to begin? This is more comic than it is film, the animation is fantastic - the introductory scenes about how man nearly destroyed himself with weapons makes this film a must see for that reason alone. What follows is half graphic novel - half film, the fight scenes are heavily stylised and the sets are unlike anything you've seen before, basked in primary colours that change with the mood - credit to the director Guy Moshe. Hartnett's character is his typical stoic affair, Woody Harrelson plays a bartender with great aplomb but it's no runaway performance and Gackt is just a bit too feminine to be taken seriously.

The Japanese sections are subtitled with graphic-novel-style banners as the characters speak - a neat trick that fits the ethos of the film well. I believe this was an issue on the early releases of this disc, but mine was fine so I guess it's something they have addressed now.

In conclusion, this is a great film for comic fans and people who love samurai-style films, but the story is just a little too uninteresting to be dragged out for just under two hours. Commendable performances all round and completely different to the rest but not really pushing the envelope in any respect, nonetheless, worth a watch for a refreshingly different piece of cinema!

Very mixed reviews on this one. I borrowed it on dvd from somebody in work.

Bunraku is the Japanese art of puppetry which uses 4 foot tall puppets operated by three people dressed in black so you cannot see them. You also have a chanter who performs all the vocals, usually one person voices several characters!

The movie is the classic story of a stranger/s drifting into town to try to sort the baddies out. There's several characters the main ones being the drifter (Hartnett) who has a score to settle, a samurai (Gackt) looking for a family golden dragon that was stolen and the bartender (Woody Harrelson) with his infinite wisdom who brings the drifter and samurai together in order to defeat the woodcutter Nicola, the most feared gang boss played by Ron Pearlman. Nicola has nine killers who are his top people. No2 killer (Kevin Mckidd, Poseidon in Percy Jackson and the lightening thief) is his red hat wearing and ever so slightly camp lieutenant.

This movie has been filmed in such a way as to look like a Bunraku play with a twist. It's a mix of western and samurai movies. Very colourful sets that cleverly pop up looking like card (think punch and Judy sets but full scale), stylised fight scenes which are almost like a dance routine at times, Kevin McKidd is brilliant at this, like a deadly Fred Astaire with a sword! The fight scenes are good throughout and the story is narrated by Mike Patton of Faith no more.

I would say this is worth a watch if you liked Sin City and Kung Fu Hustle as its a bit of a mix of the two, something different. I thought it was okay but I probably won't watch it again.

Loved this. it's very comic book. once you get used to that it's great fun to watch. the only thing I didn't like is there are no subtitles on this bluray and there is about 10 minutes of Japanese dialogue you have no idea what exactly they are saying. So other then a bit of guess work with the Japanese it's quite an enjoyable film :-)