 | MOVIE DETAILS • Name: One Cut of the Dead (aka Kamera o tomeru na!) • Year: 2017 • Country: Japan • Director: Shin’ichirô Ueda • Main cast: Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama • Runtime: 96 minutes • Production company: ENBU Seminar,Panpokopina • TRAILER
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I love horror movies. Do you also? In fact, I love the concept of cinema itself. Creating alternative realities to show to other people via a screen, with movement, sound, infinite image possibilities, and it all wrapped up in a story as cool as our imagination can support. Yes, undoubtfully movies are my thing. That’s why I am so happy I saw this movie yesterday, and especially in this amazing environment that the Sitges Film Festival is, and together with some of the cast of One Cut of the Dead (2017).
It all started with the introduction by one of the festival crew of the movie and the cast members guesting at the screening. It was mentioned that it was a very modest student film, with a budget around only 37.000 dollars, and with non-professional cast and crew. It all was done with the motor of good intentions and love for cinema. But the movie works, it’s been part of international festivals since last year (several in Japan but also New York Asian Film Festival, Fantasia International Film Festival in Canada, FrightFest London, MOTELX – Lisbon International Horror Film Festival, Berlin Fantasy Filmfest and not here in Sitges. Both some rumors I’ve heard about the movie and the so enthusiastic introduction the screening was making me fear this would be one of those hypes that at the end result on nothing worth. Only this time the hype was right.
This movie came preceded by the saying of being one of the longest one-take sequences in horror history. And it’s true, not a single cut for the first half an hour, and what we see is a low cost but funny horror comedy with some zombies, plot twists and hilarious situations in an abandoned WWII Japanese facility. So far, correct but nothing never seen before. But then the real craziness starts. And I’m sorry I can’t get into details here because I would ruin the whole thing. Believe me, this is hard, I would be talking long about this movie but I can’t. You just have to see it by yourself.
This is probably the weirdest review I’ll ever write because I’m talking more about the reactions of the movie than the movie itself. I am not going to say anything else about One Cut of the Dead (2017). Only that after the screening the whole auditorium exploded in 5 minutes standing ovation towards the cast and crew of the film attending there. I had them right behind me and along the screening I could turn and see their infinite satisfaction on their faces when the whole room was laughing at some of those amazing cinematographical movies they created. And at the end everybody was happy, emotional, I could even see some tears and some unbelieving faces. What did we just see? What was this magic moment? I attended to the screening with a friend that a few hours later had the new Takashi Miike movie screening scheduled (his favorite filmmaker ever) and he was thinking of skipping it because he couldn’t digest yet the amazing experience One Cut of the Dead (2017) was. By the way, he went to see Miike.
I’ve been saying for some time I can’t give a 10-rating to anything else but Twin Peaks (TV Series 2017), because I think that there is nothing that is so perfect that you wouldn’t change a single thing. But One Cut of the Dead (2017) could be. My rate is 9,5/10, but coming together with the experience of being in that magical screening you can consider it a 10.
RATE: 9,5/10
IMDB URL: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt7914416
