“One Cut of the Dead” is a 2017 Japanese horror-comedy movie directed by Shinichiro Ueda. The movie tells the story of a film crew making a low-budget zombie movie who are attacked by real zombies. The first 37 minutes of the movie is shot in a single take, which adds to the intensity and realism of the film.

However, the movie takes an unexpected turn as the story shifts to how the film was made, revealing it to be a cleverly crafted meta-commentary on the process of independent filmmaking. The movie received critical acclaim for its unique approach to the zombie genre and its innovative storytelling.

“One Cut of the Dead” has become a cult classic among horror fans and has gained a reputation as one of the most original and entertaining films of recent years. It has also been praised for its humor, heart, and surprising twists, making it a must-see for anyone interested in horror, comedy, or filmmaking.

Kamera o Tomeru na! (Don’t Stop the Camera!) features a 37-minute-long continuous shot that took six takes and makes the entire movie. In fact, as boring as zombie movies have become, One Cut of the Dead makes me forget just how bad things have been the last few years.

Like a charming animal-destruction free version of Cannibal Holocaust, the movie has three different ways that the story is told, changing with each new telling of the tale. Higurashi, the director, is losing money and needs to finish his film, but he hates how it kooks. So he makes a blood pentagram that activates real zombies that start biting his crew and actors while he keeps screaming for them to keep shooting, no matter what.

And honestly, if I tell you anything that happens after the actress Chinatsu kills him and stands inside the pentagram in a trance, it will ruin what was one of the best movies I’ve seen in some time.

This small movie went on to earn a thousand times its budget. That’s incredible and if a film is deserving of that success, it’s this one.

Easily one of the most original movies of recent years, ‘One Cut Of The Dead (2017)’ is best experienced if you know as little about it as possible. As such, I’m only going to talk about it in the vaguest of terms. It’s safe to say, though, that I highly recommend you go out and watch it. It’s a film that successfully subverts expectation on more than one occasion, displaying an excellent understanding of its audience in the process. Though its second act does slow things down considerably, it’s wholly necessary to set up one of the most satisfying finales I’ve ever seen. Seriously, the final third is absolutely phenomenal and retrospectively makes the affair’s first movement (which is done as an incredibly ambitious, thirty-seven-minute oner) even more effective. The film feigns amateurism, but it’s actually acutely choreographed and amazingly clever. It’s funny, engaging, surprising, energetic, inspired and enjoyable.

If you don’t like violent zombie films, you might still enjoy “One Cut of the Dead”. Sure, it has blood (as you’d expect) but it is more tongue in cheek and silly as opposed to being gross or gratuitous. So, if you are a parent, you could let older kids watch this one with no serious concerns about your kids becoming warped for life!

The story is a confusing one. It’s kind of like a movie within a movie…within a movie. Instead of explaining the exact plot, I’ll just insist that you watch it and don’t worry if you are confused….stick with it.

The movie is clever, funny and offers something new and different. And, with so many young filmmakers making zombie films, this one actually offers you some things that are unique and well thought out. Well worth seeing….and a great example of cheap but effective film making.

ONE CUT OF THE DEAD is a typically quirky Japanese comedy that nonetheless manages to cut a swathe through genre cliche by looking and acting like no other. It’s a film that’s best to watch knowing nothing about it, because it takes the viewer on a real rollercoaster, starting out with you laughing at it and ending with you laughing with it. Or maybe I’ve just watched too many independent zombie films, because I know exactly what they were getting at here. Great performances, inventive set-ups and a real thoroughness in terms of ability and enthusiasm, this is another winner from Third Window.

“Shaun of the Dead” (2004) seems to me as funny as a standard, modern zombie flick can be–even though that hasn’t stopped others from fruitlessly trying, or blatantly not trying, to top it: “Fido” (2006), “Warm Bodies” (2013), “Life After Beth” (2014), “Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse” (2015), “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” (2016), the “Zombieland” movies (2009 and 2019), “The Dead Don’t Die” and “Little Monsters (both 2019), to name a few. “One Cut of the Dead” rises above the bunch by not really being a zombie movie at all, per se, although it’s about a zombie motion picture. Rather, it’s a meta movie making fun of the making of the film-within-the-film–more “Day for Night” (1973) than “Night of the Living Dead” (1968). I like a good undead feature, but thoroughly reflexive cinema offers some of the best the art form has to offer… even if it’s supposedly live-broadcast TV and not art.

I’m glad I didn’t read up on this one before I saw it, either, as what is revealed in the first scene as a film-within-a-film turns out to be yet another, self-referential movie. Moreover, with the last of the end credits, making-of footage is shown of the making of the actual picture, “One Cut of the Dead.” That’s a film-within-the-film, which breaks the fourth wall by addressing the camera for yet another film outside of that, all of which is exposed in the end by footage of the actual filmmaking crew of the overall movie itself–and that, too, leaves a fourth, making-of camera operator unaddressed. In other words, there are a lot of moving parts and layers to the hilarity here. Actors playing actors, actors playing non-actors, an actor playing a director acting, a camera filming a cameraman filming the same fictional director acting as cameraman, too. The absurd premise of a one-shot live-broadcast zombie movie for TV being titled the same as the actual movie without, the same script within, rehearsals, improvisation and coordinated mishaps. Working through the first half hour of what otherwise appears to be an amateurish and over-ambitious piece of awkward and un-worked-out meta filmmaking is made a rewarding experience by the context of further layers of the making of that movie–and of the making of that movie, too.

Absolutely incredible! Who would have thought a zombie flick could be so unique, original and wildly entertaining – and that it could sidetrack you with the most audacious curve ball that will knock you out the park and some (twice). Perseverance is the key, the best things are always worth waiting for and this is one of those occasions where the reward will leave you agog at the genius, originality and imagination conjured up. Brilliant!!!

ACTION!

Some novels trust you to be able to stick with strange decisions and styles to push through to a few final pages or chapters or lines that achieve the near-impossible, they redefine and reframe the previous ones, they shed a new light, and radically change your thoughts on the previous material/project as a whole.

That happens in this film. To discuss it any further is to completely ruin it. Suffice to say, it is every bit as good as it is being touted as. It’s got clever commentary and a style of comedy that means you can actually be laughing before they even show you anything. I’m still laughing about it today, and I think it even manages to take Zombies and be the first film of this decade to give them a new thematic meaning.

It’s got a denouement too many, but they’ve earned it: I watched this film at the Sitges film festival and the filmmakers and cast received a standing ovation, at which, I was almost in tears, not only because they thoroughly deserved it, but also because they managed to make a film about what making a film is about. It captures almost all of what it feels like in an authentic and different way to usual, and it uses its budget to make a film about making a film at that budget perfectly.

I have no doubt that this cast and crew (of whom none have a single IMDB headshot image!) will get One Cut of the Dead will get a distributor and achieve worldwide success and acclaim, it’s just too special and genuine and innovative not to.

And it even manages to correct that fact that it ‘should’ have been called One Take of the Dead in a way that satisfies a pedant like me! Time to get off my arse and make something…

So at first you just cringe and laugh at the silliness of the movie. Then you are confused. And then you laugh at how amazing the movie is. The last 30minutes were one of my best movie watching experience.

Funniest film I’ve watched all year. Awesome cinematography. Simple plot but it’s fun to see how a film shooting went, how problems are handled and tackled, how some things goes out the window, and the sacrifices it takes to make it work. You could say it’s a love letter to all the behind the scene crews and filmmakers all over the world. Anyone who’s have experience on being one would definitely appreciate and enjoy this film. Highly recommended.