Bunraku - Movie Review

Bunraku falls upon the backdrop of a world where guns are forbidden, replaced by the blade as the primary weapon of choice. The story introduces us to The Drifter (Josh Hartnett; The Faculty) who fancies himself quite the gambler and is looking to get in on the biggest poker game in town which is run by the overpowering overlord of the land, Nicola (Ron Perlman; Sons of Anarchy). Meanwhile, a young samurai named Yoshi (Gakt) seeks to obtain a precious medallion stolen by Nicola and his band of nine assassins.

While having a drink at the local bar, Yoshi and The Drifter come to realize that they share a foe, and the more Yoshi learns about The Drifter, the more personal his intentions appear. Together with the aid of the Bartender (Woody Harrelson; Natural Born Killers), the three men comprise a plan to overthrow Nicola, his army of Red Suits, and his nine assassins.

Bunraku is a genre-bending piece of work that is undoubtedly inspired by a love of Western comics and Eastern manga. The brightly colored lighting is reminiscent of Dick Tracy while the story and dialect could have been torn from the pages of Frank Miller’s Sin City while the entire package is wrapped up under a crisp, divine martial arts flare. The entire film was shot on a sound stage using backdrops that one might associate with a lavish college production but is done so intentionally in tribute to the visual inspirations which withdrew unfortunate flashbacks to Joel Schumacher’s tenure on the Batman franchise. There were times when you weren’t sure if whether a fight or a dance number was about to ensue.

The movie is director Guy Moshe’s second full length feature from his own script, but inspired by a Boaz Davidson story who is responsible for many of SyFy Channel’s own movies. The movie looks hokey at times, menacing in others. The pacing during some of the dialogue is slow which wouldn’t be a problem if the dialogue wasn’t so drab and at times difficult to comprehend. Many actors try to play their characters as cool, deep, and soft spoken like Marlon Brando would when some of them may have benefitted more from a loud and cantankerous John Wayne approach. The gang rumbles are staged well but it’s the one-on-one fights that’ll have you rolling your eyes a bit. Josh Hartnett didn’t try nor pretend to be some master martial artist; he stayed within his own realm of finely tuned hand to hand combat. Killer No. 2 (Kevin McKidd; Dog Soldiers), however, is supposed to be a master of the blade and the fist, but his fight scenes were choreographed and shot at a slow, paint-by-numbers pace, causing his tyrannical moments to suffer and appear unthreatening.

The movie was a nice attempt at doing something fun, and paying tribute to genre’s that have helped make filmmaking a beloved art form, unfortunately at over two hours long there is something to be said for keeping things simple, whether it is the visuals or the story. Bunraku is worth a viewing, particularly if you enjoy the cast which also includes Demi Moore and Mike Patton (singer; Faith No More) as the narrator, but don’t expect to be at the edge of your seat the entire time for as much as Bunraku tries to be a helping dose of coolness, it tends to trip over itself into a bearable, lukewarm offering.