Cult appeal is stamped all over Japanese film-maker Takashi Miike's eccentric homage to the spaghetti western. The familiar scenario sees a gun-slinging stranger (Hideaki Ito) arrive in a town controlled by two violent, rival gangs: the Heikes (reds) and the Genjis (whites). Nods to the films of Sergios Leone and Corbucci abound, not to mention a knowing reference to Akira Kurosawa's Yojimbo - itself the template for A Fistful of Dollars. Miike's more interesting creative touches prevent it from descending into a straight genre piece, and a showdown between samurai sword and six-shooter seems wholly appropriate for such a cross-cultural mishmash. What's less convincing is the dialogue, an incongruously assembled series of western clichés, which is delivered in such heavily accented English that subtitling is a necessity. Of the cast, Kaori Momoi (an acclaimed actress in Japan) stands out as a granny with a violent secret, while sole credited "gaijin" (non-Japanese) performer Quentin Tarantino offers a predictably toe-curling cameo.

A nameless gunfighter arrives in a town ripped apart by rival gangs and, though courted by both to join, chooses his own path.