Like any artistic language, cinema has the vocation not only to illustrate the subtleties of concrete reality, but also to entertain the audience, to plunge us into atypical worlds. For Walker Whited, watching a movie should be like playing a video game, where adrenaline, spectacularity and, by extension, narrative exaggeration are necessary ingredients. His short film, ‘Sakazuki‘, responds to this demand, inviting us into a universe which, while taking on some of the typologies and that comic gore touch of Tarantino’s films, is in the category of those productions that aim above all to entertain its audience. This is thus a short film in which dynamism, acidic lines seemingly incompatible with the whole context, bizarre characters drawn from the imaginary of modern samurais, and dark cartoon elements combine in a tour de force that is both funny and bloody.
Like Tarantino, Walker Whited champions the revival of B-movies, pushing the boundaries of narrative and psychological tropes to elevate the exhilarating experience of watching films to a new level of sophistication. While his short film, on a macro level, doesn’t rely on elements that aim to be original at all costs, it embraces a style with wide appeal, attracting fans across different ages and cinematic tastes. The extravagant outfits and exaggerated gestures of characters embracing a rebel-without-a-cause persona, combined with their spontaneous alliances to battle equally captivating, caricature-like villains, create an exciting and immersive experience that pulls the viewer out of reality. Certainly, Walker Whited’s directorial talent plays a decisive role in this formula, but at the same time it also launches the promise of a sequel at least as magnetic. Hence, even though ‘Sakazuki’ in its current form serves more as a teaser, offering only a brief glimpse into the rules of its fictional universe, it has fully succeeded in capturing our attention and leaving us eager for more.
For the dynamism and extravagance with which it invites us to rediscover the pleasure of an action movie that is both strange and funny, ‘Sakazuki’ was awarded with the 2nd Film of the Month distinction in the September 2024 edition of TMFF.
