User reviews

This stylized action film can best be described as an orgy of the following films: part Sin City, part Batman (Adam West era), part Dick Tracy, part The Quick and the Dead, and part Enter the Dragon. Squirt some Cirque du Soleil in there and the resulting love child of all these films is "Bunraku". That's really all I can say. Watch it and tell me if I'm wrong. There are parts of this film that are extraordinary, namely the animation, while other segments (or appendages?) are atrocious. It all makes sense in a mad scientist kind of way, where this creature of a film was cooked up in Dr. Frankenstein's Laboratory School of Film, Dance, and Animation. It's ludicrous, but very entertaining. I give it 7 full test-tubes of film DNA out of 10!

Quite an interesting movie,set in kind of an origami environment which is quite unique,has some shiny action moments.......a movie which in my honest opinion had some exquisite potential but got ruined by poorly written scenario,typecast roles for actors that could present much more. Watchable but don't expect some Oscar movie going around....

It may disappoint you or you may even like it.Actors like Woody Harrelson,Demi Moore,hell even Josh Hartnett could give a lot more if properly stimulated with a good screenplay...yet they give them cheesy roles like these.Maybe the idea here was to go with the cheesy but in the end - mediocre with a hint of originality.

In a bleak and heavily stylized future world, two disparate characters are united in purpose. Yoshi (Gackt) is a samurai warrior, and The Drifter (Josh Hartnett) a tight-lipped loner. Making the acquaintance of a wise Bartender (an appropriately cast Woody Harrelson), they take on all the minions of a powerful, hirsute crime lord named Nicola the Woodcutter (Ron Perlman).

Complete with loopy narration by Faith No More frontman Mike Patton, "Bunraku" is pretty goofy stuff, stuffed with various gimmicks. The script has some amusing dialogue, but in the end is pretty routine; one might wish that the filmmakers spent as much time working on the script as they did the visual design. And the film is admittedly a real eyeful in terms of images. The production design, cinematography, and visual effects are first rate. The film is also enough of a curio to make it moderately interesting. It combines elements of martial arts epics, Spaghetti Westerns, post-apocalypse dramas, live-action comic books, and film noir, making it an original mixture of genres. The action isn't the best one will ever see, but it's perfectly serviceable, with the good guys taking some real lumps on the way to the final showdown. The music score by Terence Blanchard is one of the best components.

The cast is variable, as some of them come off better than others. Perlman mumbles his way through his role. Demi Moore is utterly wasted as the object of his affections. Harrelson's bright presence helps quite a bit, and Kevin McKidd has a fun part as the villains' primary henchman.

The bottom line: this serves up some adequate entertainment for people who want to relax their brain for a while. At two hours and five minutes, however, it definitely goes on too long.

Filmed in Romania.

Six out of 10.

I had no idea what this film would be like before I watched it - I saw it was sci-fi and watched it anyway. During the (most impressive) intro, I saw just about every Hollywood name I ever knew mentioned. It has quite an impressive cast.

Set in an indeterminate timeless point in the future where all firearms have been outlawed and the gangs rule the streets, a couple of strangers decide to take them on. Nothing hugely original in the story; I think the cast signed on because of the way it was filmed. It looks amazing. Maximum points to the lighting guys and the set designers - at first I thought it reminded me of a living computer game, however, about half way through it, I changed my opinion to more like a graphic novel.

All the cast seem to be enjoying being in an 'arty' flick, but just sort of mumble their lines. These (slightly over the top) dialogue sequences are intercut with a few fight scenes which are okay as they go, but nothing you haven't seen before.

Yes, it all looks great - every scene is a visual treat on the eyes. There just isn't much more to it than that. I don't know what it was aiming for. Some scenes are downright comical (intendedly so I'm guessing?), others are way too up themselves and serious.

It's probably a great film. I enjoyed it at first, but it got a little old a little too soon. Serious art-house sci-fi fans only. Perhaps the failings are on my part?

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BUNRAKU is one of those hyper-fantasy action flicks that looks like a comic book, a la 300 and SIN CITY. The story takes place in some colourful fantasy world where everyone seems to be an expert in the martial arts and has some legend or other connected to them. As the tale progresses the story lines gradually coalesce with the heroes teaming up to battle the big bads at the climax.

According to the director, his intent was to make a film that looks and feels like SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, with the twist that the dances are replaced by fights. To this end, BUNRAKU is a success. There's a lot of action here, and while none of the fighters are amazing, the choreography is crisp and fluid. The fights look good, at the very least. They reminded me of the famous tea house battle in KILL BILL: VOLUME 1.

The producers have also assembled a decent cast for this one, and I appreciate the casting of a Japanese guy in the lead role (even though he's a singer, Gackt looks the part all right). I'm no fan of Josh Hartnett but he's at the very least passable, while Woody Harrelsen brings plenty of charm as the third person in the story. Thankfully Demi Moore's screen time is kept to a minimum, but Ron Perlman and Kevin McKidd make a good tag team as the bad guys. BUNRAKU isn't a perfect film - it's not something I would be tempted to watch again - but at least it looks and feels fresh and invigorating, which is more than can be said for most modern American productions.

Bunraku is a cartoonish film film with real actors all doing a bad-ass job. Have a large bowl, put a dash of Sin City, A scanner Darly, Kill Bill, A Clockwork Orange, Matrix with a dash of Westworld, even the Mask and ragtime western and odd old timer cars and the brew coming out could be Bunraku.

Maybe it's too much style over story. I was fascinated of the style, but the story doesn't engage me at all. Some might think this is a mess. Others will love this. The producers obviously had great hopes for this becoming a popular cult movie, with a budget of 25.000.000 dollars, but it obviously failed at the box office. It's lightly to be forgotten instead of airing it's money. Still it's got a cult potential. You'll have to decide yourself!

Depicting the history of man's taste for intraspecies slaughter, the rather nifty, silhouette-animated opening sequence sets up the events leading to the movie's post-apocalyptic, gun-controlled future setting. In these surroundings arise two warriors, each seeking out the villain of the piece for a reason of his own.

This star-loaded feature seems to have everything going for it: a cast of proved pedigree (including Ron Perlman done-up like Rob Zombie); a stylised comic book setting (with the use of modern-day comic heroes as "ancient" legends); and some nifty narration. Unfortunately, I found it quite difficult to give much of a shi t about the story and characters, insipid and generic as they were. The action sequences, whilst hardly the worst I've seen, fail to make much in the way of impact, and half the lines delivered are mumbled, necessitating quite a bit of frustrating backscanning. Admittedly, Harrelson's bartending mentor and Perlman's ennui-stricken Big Bad provide a smidgen of interest, but they're no match for the aesthetically-appealing mediocrity of the film they find themselves in...and can someone tell me what the point of Demi Moore's character was? In summation, a beautifully bland beat 'em-up which took up two hours too many of this viewer's life.

After seeing the relatively low rating on this movie I decided to just give it a go without expecting too much.

Boy was I wrong! One of the most compelling intros I've seen this year, with humor, fast paced storytelling and very, very stylishly done, what's not to like? Well: the story is fast but not so much original. The action is good but didn't quite blow me off my chair. Woody Harrelson is fun, but this role seems to be typecast for him, don't expect too much out of the ordinary. Harnett pretty much copies the role he had in Lucky number Slevin. Gackt makes his debut I think and does so convincingly.

Should you see this movie? Yes! It's beautifully made, switches visual styles, languages and mood a lot and does so convincingly. Just don't expect to many surprises from the writing department. 8/10

This movie had a promising pedigree, a great cast and interesting if a bit obvious art direction yet I couldn't connect with anything happening on the screen. The point was obviously to mix cliches of eastern and western and present the whole melange in a unique look that could have worked in the hands of a better filmmaker or as an animated movie. I was on board for the first 5 minutes of the film. The prologue was very charming and made me curious for what was to come. Some may find the premise too ridiculous to believe but I'm perfectly fine with a fantasy setting writing its own rules. The main problem is that set design, however pleasing to the eye, does not make a movie and the movie doesn't deliver anything beyond that. There is no tension to the action scenes that lack weight and impact and I don't find any of the cast relatable or interesting. Dialogue is very artificial which is probably intentional, but it seems like the creators of bunraku were too focused on making the movie look stylish to notice that none of it means anything. What is oddly lacking in style for the most part is ironically the cinematography itself. The movie moves in very predictable and uninspired ways. Occasionally there are some shots that work as a comic book panel and/or look cool but do not necessarily work as a scene or connect to the rest of the movie. Film has a very specific language to it that is different from comics, videogames and the theatre. It is rather deceitful in many ways. You have to take your audience by the eye and guide it through your film. A picture says more than a thousand words and the pictures in Bunraku only tell me some very talented people didn't get their hard work presented in the most flattering way. Copying the aspects of other art forms and applying them to cinema as an experiment can be intriguing but you have to go all the way. If you get caught right in the middle of the road you fail. The fact that I even noticed the lacking cinematography should tell you something about how unengaged I was throughout the entire movie. If all you want to do is style over substance, fine. Not everything has to be deep, wordy and literal. Some of the most intriguing films, especially in animation, would work solely as visual experiences without dialogue of any kind. If you find language clumsy, be visceral. Hong Kong action has that down without any pretense of being art. If you do go for style only though, you really have to deliver.

I must say at least to all the viewers who expect something else from this movie, you really need to understand what Bunraku is. It's a one word title. That itself tells you what to expect from the movie. With the amazing star-cast, each one does justice to his little role with ease. The script is not demanding so the acting is sombre in accordance with the characters. I really did not know what to expect from this movie and truthfully had to look up the meaning of Bunraku in the end of the film. I was awed with the direction, it takes some really amazing talent to put a script like this on film and gt it interesting. For every penny worth, if I were 10 yeas old, I'd love the movie, I'm 35 now and love it even more. Starting from Pac-Man up to Afro Samurai and from the Wild west to Shichinin no samurai, the Script Writer and Director have left no stone unturned. The movie is very very aesthetically pleasing in context to the title. I remember as kids when we had the pop-up story books, I couldn't have imagined anything better than this movie in my head. The movie may not be for everyone...... But for people who can appreciate the difference from run of the mill animation and Tarantino like action, here a movie worth watching a few times.

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 saw this movie randomly on TV, without expectations, and I just can't finish it, and that's pretty rare for me.

The cast was wonderful, but the end result just don't justify it. The film was a fusion of sin city plus kill bill plus a large chunk of "I want to be different and artsy-fartsy", and I just don't like what came out of the blender. The script is plain, the art direction was too intentional, and the fight scenes are like watching a crappy cartoon.

I loved sin city, I loved kill bill, but Bunraku just isn't even near the same ball park as those. It's fine when a film have a low budget, crappy script and cheesy effects, at least they don't pretend to be something else, but trying to run before you can walk, art direction wise, is just a big no no for me. To create the new, you gotta first know the old.

This film might be entertaining for some who likes to see some eastern flavors in a movie, but growing up watching a good share of films from both the east and the west, the amount of cliché of both types annoys me.

A film that wasted a great cast.

I really can't understand why those bad reviews about this movie, this was a great entertainment, never been bored for 2 hours. This could just have been directed by Tarantino, nobody would have noticed and everyone would loved it. The story is imaginative, i mean this is not just the story of a a young man who has spent his life searching for revenge like stated in the plot line. (i will not spoil but the beginning says it all). Also the acting is great, every role is carefully, naturally and so damn well interpreted. Demi Moore was a bit unlucky about that not very interesting character, and in my humble opinion like stated before kind of a waste of Demi's talent. Anyway i would even say theatrical, with Kevin McKidd's performance. If i could choose a mix of films to describe this one i would say: Sin City + Kill Bill + A Clockwork Orange + Dark City ...all with a nice perfume of old japan vs wide west western.

8/10

I never heard about or seen film until recently on Sony movie channel and enjoyed watching it,lots of action, comic book style. The only way I could watch it was in two parts over two days because its quite intense.

If not anything else, this movie looks really amazing. You may feel that it drops the ball on almost every other occasion (though I would slightly disagree with that statement), but you can't fault the movie for its cinematography. It's superb, with all the color schemes and framing, that you wish the other departments (minus set design that is) were up to par. The cast is good (with Demi Moore having one of her better roles in recent years, still a short one though) and Josh Brolin tries his best as the leading man.

While he almost succeeds (or maybe he even does completely succeed in your eyes), the stellar Woody Harrelson could've had a bit more screen time too. The action is nicely filmed, though it isn't anything that will make your jaw drop to the floor kind of stuff. Enjoy a "B-movie" that looks more expansive than it probably was.

Mortal Kombat meets The Warriors meets Clockwork Orange meets Kung Fu Hustle in this East meets West film.

It's the future in "Little Westworld" (an ode to the amazing 1973 film) which is actually an "East-Meets-West-World", stylistically speaking. To prevent utter destruction by Men, guns have been outlawed and society has reverted to the sword....and, well... axes, hatchets, brass knuckles and extremely acrobatic Kung Fu. There is no longer any government, Gangs rule an Ultraviolent Warrior Society where you must KILL your way to the top. Little Westworld is controlled by Nicola the Woodcutter (Pearlman) and his Gang of Killers (of which there is a hierarchy of 10, himself being Killer #1). They keep order by having their henchman- the Red Suits (led by Killer #2, played amazingly by Kevin McKidd)- violently extort the general public, ruling by Fear.

Enter our two lone wolf characters. The Man With No Name (Hartnett) and Yoshi, the Jin Samurai (Gackt- who received more applause than all the other A-list actors at the TIFF Premiere). The Man is a vicious fighter known for having the quickest hands in the west; whose strength and rage is exposed when he sniffs an unlit cigarette. He has no goals or direction, he's just a drifter who wandered into town looking for a game of cards (gambling is banned by the way)- a lone man in a land of ultraviolent gangs. Yoshi is a young Samurai from the East who has been sent on "The Quest" by his father. His mission is to find and retrieve a Dragon Amulet that represents great power for his family...and while he's at it...to become a man.

Seeking information, both men end up in a small bar (with a sort of western/clockwork orange theme), of which is tended by Woody Harrelson- The Bartender, who has a knack for making Pop-Up books. After each individually beats down the biker gang that frequents the bar, their paths cross and the two lone wolves turn eyes toward each other. To get their issues with each other out of the way, The Bartender agrees to moderate an epic atmospheric battle where the two warriors stylistically beat the sh*t out of each other. (fight scene was a bit drawn out for my taste)

The plot develops as The Man is able to gain access to Nicola's weekly poker game. Nicola plays in costume via video link, and despite being cheated, The Man is able to knock out all the other players and obtain a significant chip advantage. Angered, Nicola demands to end the game face to face...if The Man can continue to "beat the odds", that is... Subsequently, Yoshi's Uncle- who runs a sushi restaurant- is being harassed by the Red Suits, and Yoshi's intervention puts him at odds with Killer #2. Things happen, battles ensue, people die, and our two lone wolves realize that they have a common enemy and, thus, could benefit from each others' friendship.

During the poker game, The Man realizes that Nicola has the Amulet that Yoshi seeks. The Man, on the other hand, simply wishes to end the game he started earlier. Throw The Bartender into the mix- as Nicola ended his Warrior career and be-whored the love of his life, Alexandra (Demi Moore)- along with the soldiers of the Proletariat Peasant Uprising- who seek to overthrow Nicola's violent and oppressive rule (their leader looks like Castro!)- and you have a force that is able to take on even the Killers and their army of Red Suits.

As the Peasants battle the Red Suits, our two warriors must slay their way up the hierarchy in order to reach their ultimate matches, vs Killer #2 and Nicola himself. Will good triumph over evil in this epic tale from the future? You'll have to watch it to find out, and trust me...you won't be disappointed.

This is one of the most visually stunning and original films I've ever seen. The opening animation (which gives us the back-story) uses CGI that emulates paper cut-out stop motion in combination with Japanese style Bunraku origami puppeteers, and sets the stage for the aesthetic atmosphere that will absorb the rest of the film. The background scenery has an origami look and feel to it and, as the camera pans over "Little Westworld", the scenery "unfolds" as if it were popping up from pages opening in a pop-up book. Moshe cleverly plays with this idea with The Bartender character. This has an absolutely amazing effect- I've never seen anything like it. It is definitely the atmosphere which makes this film so artistically incredible and visually consuming.

Original, Engrossing Atmosphere, Mind Blowing Action, Wonderful Casting and Acting...all in all this is a pretty awesome film that CANNOT BE MISSED. A Cult Classic waiting to happen. 9 out 10.

This is one of those movie that you wonder how you missed when it came out in theatres. I don't ever remember seeing an ad on TV or online about this movie. I'm sure they were there but I didn't find out about this movie until I saw it recommended to me on IMDb. I went to check it out and set an evening aside to enjoy this film.

That is where the problems started to happen. The film was fast paced and at some points I would miss what they said. So with the wonders of technology I rewound the first time to find out what someone said. Then a few minutes later I had to rewind again because I couldn't understand what someone said. I thought, "OK, that's OK I'll just turn on the closed-captions." Then I discover, there were no closed-captions available on the DVD. I was shocked. I couldn't believe that. So what was suppose to be a great movie experience with all the colors and sometimes over choreographed fight scenes, became a nightmare of just trying to figure out what everyone was saying. I'm not an old guy, a guy in college and I don't have any hearing problems.

The movie took longer to watch just because of that whole issue of having to rewind to find out what they would say. Most of the times, just to create effect in the movie, the actors would talk under their breathe. Every time that would happen I would have to rewind, it was so hard to understand what they were saying.

As for the visual design, they were wonderful watching. It was almost like a Kill-Bill style of colors mixed with Sin City look. It was really interesting to watch all the paper design of the cities and how they all worked together. In the beginning the fight scenes looked like they were going to be great but then when I saw the first fake deaths in a fight scene I knew this was not going to be at the level of quality I had expected. If you are wondering what I'm referring to, watch the first scene where Josh's character kills three guys at the same time in the "Town" location and you notice the three guys just fall down.

There were times I had to rewind to catch certain mistakes because they were so obvious. Now having worked in the film industry making films, I can understand how hard it is to due with continuity issues but I also realize on a film like this, because of lighting and set-ups, continuity can become a nightmare, but at the same time it's important for the script supervisor and anyone else watching the monitor to keep an eye out for those, especially with the budget they had.

If you plan to watch this movie, just make sure you have an excellent stereo system and a DVD with closed-captions. It's sad to know that those who are deaf will not be able to enjoy this visually appealing film.

What a pleasant surprise! So many symbols, details and colors. This movie is, like it says in the summary - moving pictures. Of course, the comparison with Sin City is inevitable, but this is different. Original. Poetry of composing colorful images. And yet, it still looks like a comic book brought to life. Or a theater of shadows. Or puppets (which is what Bunraku is all about, as a traditional Japanese theater). Everything made of drawings, cardboard and wood, except for some vehicles (Europeans will feel some nostalgia seeing old Fiat 600 and Reanault R8 Gordini) and swords. Surreal and yet very much close to what we imagine as real. Cast is excellent, as well as direction, editing, music and camera. Why not 10 stars then? There are some theatrical element I thing are not adequate for the whole composition. But you don't have to be so picky. Watch it and enjoy the art of making movies as moving pictures.

This thing was definitely, as one guy on here put it, barely even boredom relief. Was so confusing as to the plot it was hard to even care about where it was going. There was a narrator, but he didn't help the direction at all. It was like they were trying to be artsy and slightly funny but just came off like a highschool film project. The fight scenes alone were horrendous! Most of them didn't even include anything but sticks. And not even in the way martial arts does, they were just bad fight scenes. Some were more like West Side Story fight scenes. The sad excuse for sets really rang highschool film project not artsy. The big names is what kept me from turning it off but they couldn't even save this monstrosity. Put it this way, we bought it off the fifty cents rack and didn't get our money's worth.