One CuT Of THe DeaD
Giving it your best shot
RELEASED OUT NOW! 15 | 96 minutes
Director shin’ichirô Ueda Cast Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki akiyama, Harumi shuhama, Kazuaki Nagaya
A low-budget zombie movie about low-budget zombie movie makers attacked by low-budget zombies... if you think One Cut Of The Dead sounds meta, you don’t know the half of it (and we wouldn’t dream of spoiling). And the half you don’t know is the best bit – so you’ll have to trust us, and the rave reviews that came from festivals around the world.
Shot for around $27,000 and having already grossed $30 million in its native Japan, One Cut begins on the location of a scrappy zombie movie, with a fraught and abusive director, beleaguered stars and an awful lot of flailing about when it looks like a real infection has infiltrated production. Then everything changes…
Workshopped with unknown actors, it’s surprising, ambitious and very funny. Beginning as irritating and progressing to an “Okay, but so what?”, it finishes up as a glorious, emotional love letter to moviemaking. A must-watch for anyone who’s ever been involved in a film or just loves handmade horror. Rosie Fletcher
Shin’ichirô Ueda got the idea for the film’s unusual structure from Ghost In The Box, a play by a Tokyo theatre troupe.