Japanese zombie meta-horror One Cut of the Dead breathes new life into the undead

By Felicity Gardner, Second Year, Physics

The film has a small budget and an offbeat concept, but proved to be one of the most unlikely success stories of 2018.

One Cut of the Dead, a Japanese horror comedy put together with a shoestring budget, provides two movies in one. The first is a one-take zombie comedy, where an overzealous director (Takayuki Higurashi) tries to make the acting more believable by unleashing real zombies on his terrified cast and crew. He forces them into increasingly dangerous and deadly situations as he tries to get the perfect shot for his film.

The second is a fictional look at the making of the film. It follows the director, who advertises himself as ‘fast, cheap, and average’, as he creates a one-take film that is supposed to be broadcasted live, with all the chaos live filming brings.

The first part has everything you could want from a low-budget horror - fake gore everywhere, heads split from bodies and blood splattered over the camera. The single take concept works well in One Cut of the Dead, allowing a lot of amusing reaction shots to gory off-screen noises, and the handheld camera and sweeping movements help you feel more immersed in the action.

The highlights include the director popping up and screaming ‘action’ while making the crew’s lives living hells and make-up artist Nao unexpectedly turning into a zombie-killing martial artist. This is by no means the best horror-comedy you will ever watch, but it still holds its own in a genre that has grown massively in the last 15 years - especially considering the film’s miniscule budget.

The second half starts slowly; the characters that are working on the movie are introduced and jokes where the pay-off comes later are set up a little too obviously. We are introduced to the director, his family and the other cast members as they prepare for the live filming and doing this effectively forces the film to tread water as the jokes become scarcer.

After this set-up, One Cut moves on to the live recording of the film within a film. This part was by far the funniest - I’ve never been in a screening where the audience laughed as much as they did. Jokes you saw being set up pay off in a way that explains some of the more unusual, semi-improvisational moments earlier on. The second half gives a whole new layer to many of the jokes of the first half and will make the first film even funnier on a second viewing. The second half tries to bring some heart to it as well and succeeds as much as it could do in a short time, giving an uplifting finish to the film.

I loved the breadth of comedy in One Cut. Though the film has a satirical tone, taking aim at tropey horror films, gimmick-laden blockbusters and low budget filmmaking in general, it never feels bogged down by it and never takes itself too seriously.

The cast are generally impressive, with the first half providing perfectly cheesy, over-the-top performances and Harumi Shuhama possessing brilliant comic timing. In the second half those same actors give more subtle performances; each main character has clear development with an unexpected warmth due in large part to Takayuki Hamatsu’s turn as the director Higurashi.

Put together with an incredibly small budget, an unknown cast and only eight days shooting, One Cut Of The Dead has defied the odds to become the seventh highest grossing Japanese film of 2018. This genuinely funny film takes a genre in danger of growing stale and offers audiences a fresh, memorable experience.

Photo courtesy of Third Window Films

Imagine being an extra in this film-inside-a-film?

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