Banraku

Banraku

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVabHVw4dMc

Banraku takes place it what practically an alternate universe. It seems part Samurai Era Japan, where they use guns instead of swords let they have modern technology in other areas. A lot of them either act like a gangster from the 40’s or Samurai from a kung fu film, which gives it a unique feel. Think Bruce Tim Batman animated series...where it was like it took place in the 40; s but didn’t. It is about a crime lord who rules the town with an iron fist along. He has 7 men each called killer 1-7 depending on their rank. He also has an army of henchmen and the cops in his pocket. Every now and then someone challenge him to control the city…and homicidal killer being the orderly chaps set up a fight. He hasn’t lost a fight in a 100 fights. One day two men come to town separately.  One is cowboy type guy searching for revenge of some sort. The other is a Samurai search for a medallion that was taken from him. They soon join force after fighting of course, to battle this army.  Seem like standard revenge fair but the way it told is pretty cool.  The backgrounds look like a popup book or story book at times. The moon look likes it’s made out of paper. It like if Jon Woo directed Paper Mario movie. If that doesn’t sound awesome…well then I don’t want to know you. The car chases have bird eye view shots that sometime look like toy cars crashing into this model toy city. The cars made pinball sound when the crash and their sometimes video game sound when people fight.  It uses Comic book caption for subtitles, and a lot of fights are announce like a sport. On top of all that, it sounds like the guy from the Soul Caliber games narrating the story.  All of these could have easily got annoying, and screaming to try to be artistic. But it all flows well due to the cast of actors knowing how to play it just right. The actors a nice mixed, of Ron Pearlman, Josh Harnet, Ron Pearlman (chews the scene like its mcrib) Demi Moore and Woody Haralson (pretty neat stunt casting) and a few other character actors. The fights are fast pace and always add something different. Each of the 7 killers is odd which makes each of their fight different. They pretty good blood affects and special affect. If I had any complaint it would be the narration. As I said it sounds like the guy from Soul Caliber at times...and that gets pretty annoying for a 2 hour movie. It’s a lot of Fortune cookie shit the guy spews out. Also to be honest...some of the character not really deep, while other could have been explored more. But it not that kind of movie I guess. There more archetype. I kind of surprise this didn’t get a wide release. It looks like it cost some money.  So seem like a waste to have it direct to Netflix. It’s a really great movie.