Touches You

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

old well known story. fight scenes. basic virtues as honor, courage and sacrifice. two cultures. pop art inspiration. memories about "Kill Bill". and few good Romanian actors in small roles. maybe, the last detail is the motif to see, for me, as more than a decent film. because, in essence, it is an embroidery of imagination and a kind of popular philosophy. nothing bad . and , not ignoring Woody Harrelson and Ron Pearlman, the reasonable job of Josh Hartnett and Gackt Camui, it could be an interesting proposition. not real credible but a good visual delight. and this is a good motif to see it.

Bunraku demonstrates exactly what the term 'interesting failure' looks like on screen. It's got some wild elements that never really pull together into a cohesive whole which one can call a successful package, but oh does it ever try. It's basically Yojimbo in a colorful, oddly static world where assassins don't use guns and everyone dresses in samurai costumes designed by Abba. It succeeds with the visual element, drawing inspiration from stylistic tropes like Sin City and the titular form of Japanese puppet theatre bunraku. I know that all sounds like ingredients for an instant classic, and yeah it should be. However, things don't always work out and we are left instead with a lively piece that can't overcome it's laggy, strange pace and ultimately uninvolving story. Josh Hartnett is solid as The Drifter, a lone warrior who comes to town looking for revenge, bringing along his companion Yoshi (Japanese pop idol Gackt). The town is a technicolor zen garden and bursting with enthusiastic production design, ruled over by a ruthless and reclusive crime boss named Nicola (Ron Perlman under a bushy nest of snowy dreadlocks). Many a battle ensues, all rather staccato and without the ruckus of gunfire. I was reminded heavily of the final fight scene between Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu in Tarantino's Kill Bill. It's neat that they payed homage here, if a little overly obvious and without added originality. Drifter is assisted by a pacifist bartender (Woody Harrelson, barely registering on the acting seismic meter), and Alexandra (Demi Moore) Nicola's concubine. This might have been something special had a little more effort been put into greasing up the tracks of the plot with some life, instead of mainly focusing on making action scenes that have wandered right out of a painting. They are impressive for what they are, though, and I suppose worth a watch. Just don't look beneath the brushstrokes for a heartbeat or brainwaves.

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?