'One Cut of the Dead' Is Absolutely Awesome; Deserves More Hype

Written  and directed by Shin'ichirô Ueda, One Cut of the Dead – which was initially released in 2017 in Japan, but only got released in the West in 2019 (hence, I’m counting this as a 2019 film) – is one of the most impressive films I’ve ever seen.  It was made in just over a week with unknown actors, and within a budget of just around $25,000.  Still, it ended up becoming the greatest zombie comedy film of all time – yes, I think it’s better than Shaun of the Dead – and grossing more than $30.5 million (a whopping 121,900% return on investment).

One Cut of the Dead centers on a production for a zombie film that occurs in an abandoned water filtration plant.  Frustrated that the shooting is going badly so far, the director throws a fit, and calls for a break.  Then, out of nowhere, a real zombie apocalypse breaks out, threatening the film crew and cast.  However, the director is only delighted by it, and insists that they continue filming.

The story summarized by the previous paragraph occurs in just one continuing shot.  But that’s not necessarily the thing that makes One Cut of the Dead remarkable (more on this later).  It’s not the 1917 of zombie films at all.  In fact, the opening third of the film is quite messy and bungling.  If that had been the entire film, it would have been perfect for Mystery Science Theater 3000.  However, it will soon be apparent that the first 37 minutes of its 97-minute runtime were intended to be bad.  I assure you that it’s worth sitting through.  In the end, you will come to the realization that it’s an awesome film.  Seriously.

Now, trust me on this: you really don’t need to know anything more about this movie going in beyond the information I presented above.  So, if you haven’t seen it yet, I recommend that you stop reading, watch it first, and then come back to this article.  It’s for your benefit.  But if you don’t mind SPOILERS – since it’s impossible to discuss what makes it brilliant without spoiling its twist – or you’ve seen it already, then you may continue reading.

The one-take zombie film mentioned above actually transpires in its entirety within the aforementioned “bad” 37-minute opening.  It’s then revealed that the whole thing is just a film within the actual film.   The remaining hour then reveals the hilarious behind-the-scenes story on how that lousy zombie film was made.

In other words, it’s not really a comedy about zombies (so, technically, it can’t really be better than Shaun of the Dead as a zombie comedy film, sorry), but a comedy about filmmaking.

You see, this is what’s really going on with One Cut of the Dead: a director is commissioned to make a zombie TV special that has to be done with just one camera and in a single cut.  Not only that, but it will also be aired live!  The concept behind the project already makes it tough as it is to be pulled off, but then, to complicate it further for the director, problem after problem arise prior to and during the broadcast.  We then learn that the numerous flaws that we noticed from the 37-minute zombie film we watched at the start – drawn-out dialogue, chaotic camera work, uneven storytelling, awkward delivery, etc. – are actually caused by various technical difficulties and random mishaps that pop up in real time as well as the remedies for them that the cast and crew have to conceive and improvise on the fly.

This setup initiates a wonderful comedy of errors, in which the hilarity of the whole thing only amplifies as it progresses.  I was literally LOLing all throughout the last third of the movie.

On top of being balls-to-the-wall funny, One Cut of the Dead also has heart.  There’s something very touching about the implication that going through such extraordinarily problematic production and still making the best possible film out of it, although still bad, has granted the exhausted film crew and cast a special sense of camaraderie and fulfillment by the time their broadcast ended.  It was as if they have just fought together in a terrible war, and the shared experience has bonded them forever.  Furthermore, it also involves a father and daughter, who had drifted apart in recent years, becoming closer again because of it.

Then, just when we think that One Cut of the Dead can’t possibly impress further, it does.  During the end credits, footage of the actual filming of the movie is shown.  We get to see the movie’s film crew filming the live-broadcast, one-cut film crew filming the film crew in the middle of a zombie apocalypse – three layers of filmmaking reality.  That’s some Inception-esque stuff right there.  It’s something we might have already assumed at the back of our minds while we were watching the movie, but the Russian Babushka doll nature of the film being confirmed to us by the end credits stirs excitement nonetheless.

I absolutely love One Cut of the Dead.  Clever, original, immensely fun, and even inspiring, it’s definitely an instant classic.  If there’s a Japanese film deserving of Parasite levels of hype, it’s One Cut of the Dead.