Bunraku (2010)

This is by no means a masterpiece, but it's a cool fantasy/action flick with beautiful and cool scenery, interesting characters and cool fight scenes! It has flaws, but if you go in with an open mind and don't expect too much you shall be entertained!

I had never heard of "Bunraku" when it first came out in 2010...in fact, the first I knew of it was when I saw it priced for $5.00 in the DVD remaindered bin at my local Walmart in 2014. For that price, I was willing to take a chance and invest two hours to watch it.And it turned out OK.Since the actual "Bunraku" referenced by the title is, in fact, the institution of Japanese puppet/marionette theater, the thrust of the film's visuals and the fairly empty and two dimensional nature of the characters and the dialog (and the plot) make sense. "Bunraku" has an arresting and novel approach to its settings and is obviously meant as sheer spectacle and diversion...and not much more. If all you want out of your movie is pretty colors and flashes of motion and light...well, this is the movie for you.I'm not a big fan of Josh Hartnett, but he (and everyone else) does what the role requires of him - deadpan tough-guy schtick reminiscent of the old Spaghetti westerns. Hartnett does this as well as any modern actor, and he performs admirably here.It would have been nice if the plot had any surprises at all, or if the characters deviated in any way from the clichés we've all come to expect from action films, or even if the fight choreography had a little less style and a little more grit. But in the end, the freshness of the fantasy setting kept my interest.I would watch "Enter The Dragon" for the 200th time before I would queue up "Bunraku" again...but I might watch "Bunraku" AFTER the credits rolled on "Dragon".

I imagine when Quentin Tarantino saw this film, he went mad with envy. It's just up his alley, only without so much obnoxious dialogue and a lot more style. In fact, style is the major asset of this movie as the story itself is just a prop, a carefully placed cliché put there only to emphasize the amount of effort put in the visual styling of the film.Bunraku is a Japanese form of theatre that involves puppets, instrumental music and singers. The film is structured like that, with over the top characters like puppets, a narrator in place of singers (thank God!) and a melange of instrumental Japanese music and American rock and roll.But Bunraku is not perfect. One of the major points I had was with the sound, people kept whispering for dramatic effect right before engines and sword fighting brought on a deluge of volume. It's difficult to watch this without either accepting loud noises or not hearing everything that is being said. Another disappointment, I guess, was the ending, which wasn't really thought through. The cliché was done, exposed, brought all it needed to do; at the end, the writer should have destroyed it with an original and creative finale. They did not do that.Bottom line: If you liked Sin City or Tarantino films, you are going to like this one, as well. It has a stellar cast: Ron Perlman, Josh Hartnett, Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore, Kevin McKidd (doing his best to impersonate Christopher Eccleston, I guess?). Did I mention Ron Perlman? They all seemed to have fun doing the film, so why not have fun watching it?

I'll keep my review of this wonderful movie brief. For sheer entertainment value, you need go no further. It delvers on all levels. From the astonishing fight choreography to the comic-book sets, Bunraku is the perfect escape from the doldrums of everyday life. It's eerily accurate in the I-just-don't-know-what-I-want-to-watch category. Josh Hartnett, Gackt, and Woody Harrelson are all three perfectly cast, and really, the only person that was miscast was Ron Perlman. And even miscast, he still did a wonderful job. This is a movie I'd heard very little about, and just happened across it while perusing IMDb. I'm very glad I did. It's a double-caffeinated kick in the pants.