A man with no name, a dusty Mexican border town in Spain, feuding gunslingers ... Ah yes, many of us have savored a classic Spaghetti Western. But who among us has sampled a Sukiyaki Western?

Well, evidently Quentin Tarantino has not only tasted the strange Takashi Miike concoction, he's one of its many ingredients. In the opening scene of Sukiyaki Western Django he's the hawk-eyed cowboy with the samurai voice who unveils the film's thorny plot -- gold- and blood-thirsty gangs; Heike (red) vs. Genji (white); facing off in the desolate mountain settlement of Yuta. In typical Spaghetti Western style, the movie's a culturally creative stew of cinematic flavors (think samurai swords battling Gatling guns). But directorial chef Takashi takes the exquisite surrealness of it up a notch way up. Until it's a mind-boggling, film-genre car wreck that you can't stop staring at.

Yuta is a windy Wild West ghost town littered with tumbleweeds, wooden-crossed grave stones and dragon-screened samurai hideouts. The white leader dresses like Cher on winter holiday or a drag queen (same thing). The red leader demands his posse call him Henry (as in Henry VI). Badass Bloody Benten is part gravity-defying Ang Lee martial artist, Annie Oakley, and comic-book crusader. The soundtrack includes horns and didgeridoos. Church bells? No. Asian temple chimes? Yes. And all while a few tender symbols (a trio of father, son and mother roses) and operatically-played tragedies cinematically weep. Brain-splitting gore, surprise farts and Clint Eastwood-worthy lines are all absurdly delivered. "Payback's a bitch — and she's in heat."

It's A Fistful of Dollars, Yojimbo, Kill Bill, and Sergio Corbucci's Django on a cross-genre road trip reading comic books. Oh, and of course, Takeshi Miike is driving. Have you met Takashi Miike yet? No? Well maybe getting to know him a bit will clear things up...

Miike is notorious for pushing the boundaries of directing style (and censorship) with extreme violence, bizarre sexual perversion, black humor and cartoonish bloodshed. On his very prolific resume: Audition (a blood-curdling romance); Happiness of the Katakuris (a musical-comedy-horror film featuring claymation sequences and zombies); and Ichi the Killer (a sadomasochistic Franken-Yakuza). Reportedly, promoters handed Ichi's Toronto premiere audience barf bags beforehand. Nothing if not a Miike of all genres, Takashi also directed the lighthearted children's film Zebraman.

It's no wonder Tarantino dubs him "one of the greatest directors living today." And that he has a supporting role in Sukiyaki. Could Miike be ... perhaps ... Quentin's Japanese brother from another mother?

As to whether you'll find Sukiyaki Western Django cinematically satisfying or a big-screen bellyache, remember what your mother always said. "You'll never know 'till you try it." (Go ahead ... you know you want to!)

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