Summary
A one-take horror film may not shake the foundations of originality, but that’s just the first 40 minutes. Where it goes from there will surprise you.
There are some films that pull the rug out from under you with their insane twists. Others will shock you with their outlandish comedy. ONE CUT OF THE DEAD (カメラを止めるな!) is a fusion that you may not see coming, and is definitely one for the sub-sub-genre fans of metafictional zombie films.
Ueda Shinichiro’s zombie film begins in the familiar modern horror territory of found footage. Perfectionist and slightly crazy film director Higurashi (Takayuki Hamatsu) is abusing his leading lady Chinatsu (Yuzuki Akiyama) for stuffing up lines for the 42nd time with the co-star playing her boyfriend Ko (Kazuaki Nagaya). On a break, hairstylist Nao (Harumi Syuhama) tells them of the legend of the building they are shooting and soon they are being attacked by real zombies.
What follows is a schlocky zombie flick where every cliche in the book is thrown at the increasingly bloody protagonists. Limbs fly as readily as axe blades, torrents of blood drench the survivors, and it all builds to a Final Girl standing on a rooftop in a moment of grim realisation. Then it all changes. (If you don’t want to know how, spoilers follow after the photo below).
Flashback a month before, and we find out the movie we just watched was a one-take, live television show on the new zombie channel. A director (still Takayuki Hamatsu), known for being “fast, cheap, but average,” is hired to make it happen. Complicating matters are his assembled cast and crew: one actor is always drunk, his daughter Mao (Mao) is obsessed with the male lead, a crew member has bathroom issues, and his actress wife (Harumi Syuhama) gets a little too heavily into the role.
The intensity of the horror-filled opening act doesn’t quite follow ONE CUT OF THE DEAD into the second half, but it does become incredibly funny. The crew stumbles through a series of misadventures and battling egos to pull together the live performance. What’s remarkable about the structure is that we are actually watching the entire first half of the film again from a different angle, but it still feels fresh and original.
While it may not entirely satisfy genre fans, they will certainly appreciate the level of fidelity Ueda Shinichiro has given to low-budget productions in Japan. This might be because it was a little too real for some: Mark Schilling of Variety recently wrote about the ethics of low-budget filmmaking, noting that the student cast actually paid to be in the film as part of a project. It might add to the realism of this film, even if it does signal a worrying trend in cinema.
2017 | Japan | DIRECTOR: Ueda Shinichiro | WRITERS: Ueda Shinichiro | CAST: Hamatsu Takayuki, Syuhama Harumi, Nagaya Kazuaki | DISTRIBUTOR: Nikkatsu International Sales, New York Asian Film Festival (US) | RUNNING TIME: 96 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 13 July 2018 (NYAFF)
