One Cut Of The Dead

One Cut of the Dead (Kamera Wo Tomeruna!) (2017)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Shin'ichiro Ueda

Starring: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya, Hiroshi Ichihara

From: Several Japanese companies

I have known of this film for a few years now; that was when it first got buzz in its native Japan for being a hit at small film festivals. It spread like wildfire and for something said to have a budget of only the equivalent of $25,000, it is a great achievement to have made over 30 million bucks worldwide. I was intrigued yet once it hit Shudder, I put off giving this a spin. While I only subscribe to it once in awhile, it was excuses made for why this wasn't jumped on sooner, despite almost universal acclaim. In hindsight, what a fool I was.

This starts off with a 37 minute-yes, in a row-one shot take, which I presume was edited to appear that way... that does not diminish how well it was pulled off, especially considering the budget and most of the actors not being experienced in the movie world. A no-budget zombie picture is being filmed in an abandoned water filtration plant and the director is a tyrant and a bully who is so deranged, he keeps on shooting even with the arrival of actual zombies. In fact, he prefers this as the resulting “real” reactions from the cast makes for better material in his warped mind. On this journey, surprises will appear; of course none of them will be revealed here as the movie was fortunately not spoiled for me.

To tap-dance around any revelations, One Cut managed to be creative and a different look at the zombie subgenre... as mentioned by me several times by now, zombies are incredibly hackneyed and tired, and it's been that way for a few years now. I appreciated its take; another benefit was it being a horror-comedy that actually had plenty of laughs. Something I've said even more often is my viewing of modern comedies as a blight that in general I try to distance myself from, and not even socially. It's a film that is a crowd-pleaser while being clever & saying plenty about such topics as the art of movie-making & the struggles of a low-budget production.


One last note: those of you that start to get weary or a little flummoxed during the 37 minute opening take... stick with this.