One Cut of the Dead (2017)
(Kamera o tomeru na!)
Country: JAP
Technical: col/1.78:1 96m
Director: Shin'ichirô Ueda
Cast: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama
Synopsis:
A film crew making a zombie movie in an abandoned factory is affected by a curse which turns some of them into zombies. But it's all a stunt for the telly to make a single take half-hour splatter movie.
Review:
Quite hard to describe how unspeakably awful this is, but I shall try. The 'film within the film' ends 36 minutes in, after which the work has nothing new to offer; the use of first person camera is at times diegetic, at times not; the fact that 'mistakes', occasioning ad-libbing, are explained later, does not really help establish an air of professionalism; the middle section, covering rehearsal, serves merely to set up some interpersonal high stakes and is a write-off; the final act, in which we are treated to a re-run of the main feature covering different angles, revealing how it was done, and triumphing in the unity of purpose and creativity of our cast, is, one suspects, meant to be both hilarious and uplifting. It isn't. Finally, the film does not even deliver on the basic requirement of an indie zombie flick: to provide us with zombies. Which may be a good thing.
(Kamera o tomeru na!)
Country: JAP
Technical: col/1.78:1 96m
Director: Shin'ichirô Ueda
Cast: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama
Synopsis:
A film crew making a zombie movie in an abandoned factory is affected by a curse which turns some of them into zombies. But it's all a stunt for the telly to make a single take half-hour splatter movie.
Review:
Quite hard to describe how unspeakably awful this is, but I shall try. The 'film within the film' ends 36 minutes in, after which the work has nothing new to offer; the use of first person camera is at times diegetic, at times not; the fact that 'mistakes', occasioning ad-libbing, are explained later, does not really help establish an air of professionalism; the middle section, covering rehearsal, serves merely to set up some interpersonal high stakes and is a write-off; the final act, in which we are treated to a re-run of the main feature covering different angles, revealing how it was done, and triumphing in the unity of purpose and creativity of our cast, is, one suspects, meant to be both hilarious and uplifting. It isn't. Finally, the film does not even deliver on the basic requirement of an indie zombie flick: to provide us with zombies. Which may be a good thing.
(Kamera o tomeru na!)
Country: JAP
Technical: col/1.78:1 96m
Director: Shin'ichirô Ueda
Cast: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama
Synopsis:
A film crew making a zombie movie in an abandoned factory is affected by a curse which turns some of them into zombies. But it's all a stunt for the telly to make a single take half-hour splatter movie.
Review:
Quite hard to describe how unspeakably awful this is, but I shall try. The 'film within the film' ends 36 minutes in, after which the work has nothing new to offer; the use of first person camera is at times diegetic, at times not; the fact that 'mistakes', occasioning ad-libbing, are explained later, does not really help establish an air of professionalism; the middle section, covering rehearsal, serves merely to set up some interpersonal high stakes and is a write-off; the final act, in which we are treated to a re-run of the main feature covering different angles, revealing how it was done, and triumphing in the unity of purpose and creativity of our cast, is, one suspects, meant to be both hilarious and uplifting. It isn't. Finally, the film does not even deliver on the basic requirement of an indie zombie flick: to provide us with zombies. Which may be a good thing.