While not an overall excellent film, 2017's "Ice Cream and the
Sound of Raindrops" was shot in one sixty-plus minute take, including
various locations and musical interludes along the way. And the "Inside
No. 9" team revisited the idea of filming a live episode last year.
Relative unknown director Shinichiro Ueda's "One Cut of the Dead" (or
more appropriately the Japanese title: "Kamera o tomeru na!" /
"Don't Stop the Camera") - a film within a film within a film -
combines this use of a single take with the perils of trying to shoot scripted material
live.
In an abandoned army facility, a girl is attacked by her zombie boyfriend.
Except that she isn't. Chinatsu (Yuzuki Akiyama) is a low-rent actress starring
in a zombie film directed by the erratic Higurashi (Takayuki Hamatsu). Dismayed
at her forty-second take failure, they break from filming. But as they wait
around, the small crew are attacked by zombies - Higurashi knowing that the
location has a "history" of army experiments.
What follows is a one-shot chase as the survivors try to escape their
newly dead attackers, with awkward dialogue, strange behaviour, blood
splattering and breaking the fourth wall. The sole survivor, Chinatsu is left
standing on the roof of the facility, staring up at the slowly and awkwardly
rising camera as the end credits then scroll up the screen.
But we haven't got there yet.
It is after this thirty-plus minute single take that "One Cut of
the Dead" actually begins. A month earlier, Higurashi is approached by producers
from the "Zombie Channel" to film a single-take zombie film to be
broadcast live in the afternoon - his "cheap, but average" style
seemingly what they're looking for. Something of a hack director, he is
initially reluctant, but is too weak to say "no." As such, he takes
on the role and is introduced to his cast and crew: a less than inspiring
bunch.
After a troubled preparation, the day of the shoot comes, but as they
prepare for their risky move, everything that can go wrong goes wrong. As such,
Higurashi and his crew are left to improvise and get by as best they can, making
sure to follow the mantra: "kameru o tomeru na!"
Itself a film made on a very small budget, I'd seen a lot about the record-breaking
profit levels that "One Cut of the Dead" had already made and the
strong social media marketing efforts by the cast and crew. As such, I chose to
read little about the film itself before seeing it, trying to remove all
"Blair Witch" comparisons and expectations.
Not just a film within a film within a film, this is essentially the
film, making-of and bloopers all-in-one. To start the "one cut" is a
breath-taking ride of hilarity; seemingly baffling acting, behaviour and
dialogue; blood splattering; gore; talking directly to the camera; various
mistakes; and what must be a very tired cameraman. As the initial end credits
roll, we're left thinking "o-kay."
The film's second part offers explanation as to the above, in what is a
witty, well-crafted script to create all of the mistakes that appear in the
live broadcast we're thrown into. The stress and pressure the crew are put
under shows, with none worse affected than Higurashi and his wife, Nao (Harumi
Shuhama), drafted into the production late on. Both go rogue, not so much
acting, as letting their frustrations out - the director determined to make the
shoot work for the sake of his art.
The television producers, while setting the difficult task, are less
concerned by the art, embracing the chaos. Indeed, much of the middle section
of "One Cut of the Dead" feels like a Japanese TV drama; the style of
shooting and music feeling very much part of a Japanese small screen. But this
is a film made for the big screen and a big audience. The laughter track
provided by a big crowd adds to the undoubted fun that this is. Ueda shows that
a lot of ideas that come out of a live shoot will be improvised out of
necessity, and has fun in doing so. The laughs are big, the timing spot-on and
the acting suitably awkward.
But while showing improvisation is necessary, Ueda's film is one that
has been carefully thought-out and choreographed, like a well rehearsed stage
production. The cast and crew have obviously been challenged in making this,
and the crew's efforts are shown as the actual end credits roll in true Jackie
Chan fashion: the "making-of" cameraman following the actual camera
and sound men as they take a well-earned drinks break as the camera continues
to roll.
