Uneasy East-West mix

The 83-year-old Japanese master of 'Yakuza-cool', Seijun Suzuki, is said to have influenced Tarantino among a good many others. Yet this is a strange and sometimes strained effort to marry Eastern and Western modes.

It is a mythical folk tale of a handsome prince with a jealous father and a yen for a girl who turns out to be a raccoon.

The girl is played by Ziyi Zhang - so there's something good to look at throughout, along with the production design and CG effects, which are skilfully manipulated by Suzuki with imagination.

But the thin storyline and the odd mixture of Japanese kabuki and Noh, Hong Kong period drama, Western operetta, and a score that seems to have been gathered from all parts of the compass, make an oddly unsatisfactory fantasy.

Princess Raccoon
Cert: PG