What do you get when Takashi Miike directs a film that attempts to capture the feel of the original spaghetti western films while mixing a little bit of samurai play and a whole heap of style in the mix? Just for good measure, he also decided to throw in some trippy animation scenes, an all english speaking cast (most of which are not native speakers), and Tarantino in an acting role.

Oh, and the whole story is based on the Shakespeare classic “War of the Roses”.

This is definitely a tad different from some of the more well known Miike films. It doesn’t quite have the utter shock and disgust experienced in Audition. It doesn’t feature the over the top gross out moments that flicks such as Ichi The Killer and Gozu have. This film is a mash up of classic western influence and modern Japanese experimental film making. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The ending gun duel is one of the most engaging action sequences I’ve ever had the pleasure of sitting through.