Bullet Points: Bunraku
This is one of those movies that I have been aware of for some time but had never given the chance to woo me over by watching it. It was only because a friend had physically placed his Bluray copy into my hand and then asked if I liked it every Monday for 8 weeks that I finally drew up the nerve to watch it. Let’s see if he went through all this trouble for nothing…
Synopsis: The story of a young man who has spent his life searching for revenge only to find himself up against a bigger challenge than he originally bargained for.
- The Future: The world has gone and blown itself into a real shithole. For whatever reason, the city that we’re in is Japanese-inspired but without all of the Japanese people. Sure, there are a few, but mostly doing things like swinging samurai swords around and working in a sushi restaurant. Anyways, the future sucks and we made it this way. Guess we gotta learn to live with it.
- Run this town: The way you fight each other in this future isn’t to drop nuclear bombs on each other but instead to get 20 guys together and beat the hell out of your enemy. It’s a pretty good idea, to be honest. The problem lies in the fact that a gang of 20 guys could easily take over the city without having any real backing by the people and that appears to be what led to the mess that this city finds itself in. Nicola (Perlman) and his band of ‘killers’ took power by force and now the citizens are shit outta luck.
- Strangers: We’ve gotten used to seeing Westerns with nameless strangers moseying into town and fighting against the bad guys but this movie doubles the ante and has TWO! Hartnett and Gackt both stroll into town and have no backstory, no purpose, and no real reason to get on board with their quest. Sadly, we aren’t given much to work with for either character and we’re left kinda/sorta rooting for the strangers to win in the end.
- The Action: The story and characters are easily the weakest parts of the movie so the action has to be the strong point. That is true, for the most part. There are a couple of action scenes that are really fun and a couple that should have been better. The problem is that no matter how good your action is, no one will care if your characters suck.
- Round 1: Hartnett and Yoshi finally decide that they’re gonna beat the crap out of each other. Woody watches them punch and kick each other enough to kill a normal human being but when the smoke clears both men head down to the bar for a drink. They would normally be licking their wounds but neither of them seem to have many. Just your classic fight between heroes to confirm that they’re on level-ground in terms of fighting.
- Breakin’: Eventually, Yoshi gets arrested by the Po-Po and The Drifter takes it upon himself to bust him out. Since there aren’t enough guns in town for him to shoot his way in he’s forced to punch his way through the jailhouse with some ridiculous video game music playing in the background. It’s a bizarre scene but to be expected for this film. The movie really feels like a more violent version of the 60’s Batman television show. If only Bunraku knew how to introduce villains like that show….
- Full-fledged revolt: As you might expect, Hartnett and Yoshi get a group of dudes together and attack the army belonging to Nicola. I thought the film was longer than it should have been and was waiting for what seemed like a long time to finally get to the showdown involving Kevin McKidd’s character and our heroes. Instead, we’re treated to a pretty sweet sword/spear fight between Yoshi and another Japanese dude while Hartnett and another guy bounce around on a circus net like a couple of morons.
- More fighting: Plenty of guys are hanging around to guard the castle of Nicola so we get to see our heroes kick some more ass before they make it to teh big boss. This movie really feels like a film version of a video game like Double Dragon. The characters are all one-note characters and the story is as linear as possible. In fact, I kept waiting for some sort of twist at the end where Nicola was really Hartnett’s dad or something but Bunraku didn’t even worry itself to push that type of thinking on the viewer. Instead, they just gave us another sad fight between the guy from 40 Days and 40 Nights and Hipster Hellboy.
The Verdict: Bunraku is not for everyone. It has a style all its own and in some ways reminds me of what a really good action movie could be without actually being a really good action movie. There are enough names in the film to make the characters memorable but none of them really land. If you told me this was based on an Anime or some comic book I would say “Ahhh” and lift my head and eyebrows in acknowledgment the way that we all do. I don’t believe that it is, however, and that leaves me with the feeling that this movie couldn’t get its world-building and characters stuffed into one feature length film. It’s not the worst thing in the world but look elsewhere if you want to be truly wowed.
