I love this movie so much

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

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.

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.

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.

Every one has their own opinions, but I to disagree with the bad reviews. This was an interesting, good pace, wonderfully styled movie. .it had action that was no too over the top, it was colorful, fun, odd, but not boring. It kept my attention, it was a good story, nothing bad to say. Woody Harrelson played his role as the layer back bar keep. The two fighters, The Man and Yoshikawa were great, they played their parts beautifully. The actor who played number two was good as the villain, he portrayed the bad as well. The story line kept me engaged. The comic book feel of the movie was visually stunning. Most of the movies today suck, but this movie shows there is still some ingenuity and imagination in Hollywood.

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".