One Cut of the Dead (2018)

A Fresh Take on the Zombie Genre

I've read many good reviews about this movie so I decided to see what's so special about it. I dive in with less expectation because the poster and synopsis looks weak, and also I am not a huge fan of the zombie genre. The beginning is a bit boring and to be honest very amateurish but as soon as that moment arrived I just realize the fact that this looks very low budget actually helps and I couldn't think it would work if they had the budget. I tell you this underrated gem is a cult classic in the making just like Fish Story when it came out. It also happens that both films have the best epic ending in a movie ever. The fact that I compare it to Fish Story says a lot to the quality of this movie. Best movie to watch with friends as this movie is highly entertaining and the best rewatch value I've given to a Japanese movie.

I can't talk anything about the plot because it would be a huge spoiler even if I say a bit or even hint anything about it, let's just say there are three acts in this movie, first act is somewhat engaging but may get boring especially if you're distracted by the low budget-ness of the film, second is clever and fresh, and the third is the best and the funniest part of the movie. What I want you to do is dive in, give the movie at least 30 minutes and do yourself a favor and avoid watching any trailers because from what I've seen, all of them spoiled the movie.

This is the debut film of the director, Shinichiro Ueda, who manages to give this genre a fresh idea. He is hailed as a genius director from most of the reviews I've seen and as a reply, in one of his interviews, he said that he don't particularly like zombie movies and when people ask him what he thinks the future of zombie movies is, he told them he don't care lol. I don't know if he's a genius or this movie is just a fluke, but he would so god damn lucky if that's the case, like he's just a passionate guy who decided to pick a camera and started to do movies and as a result he is hailed as a genius and competes with koreeda in Japan's version of Oscars. His story could be a plot in a movie, reminds of that character in sion sono's "why don't you play in hell".

Every actor here is unknown. I checked their asianwiki page and most of them only appeared in this movie. There are parts where it's quite evident that they are amateurs, which actually helps and you would realize that after you see the movie, but there's also parts where they shown stroke of brilliance and that happened during the most important and the climax part. This movie became a big hit in Japan that most of these actors are now getting acting gigs and commercials and that's the best part.

A film that has managed to achieve something groundbreaking in the zombie movie genre, which you can find title "ONE CUT", a zombie film that has 30+ minutes long uninterrupted shot. It's not the same tearjerker zombie thriller like Train to Busan or the fun head exploding epic thriller like I Am Hero, but after you see this film you would value the technical aspects in a movie more and if you haven't seen anything like it would leave you in awe. An inferior Hollywood remake is inevitable. This is a masterpiece.

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Just watch and enjoy

A movie that I can only review with: "just watch and enjoy". The plot offers a simple theme in plain sight, but wait until you notice your video player telling you this movie hasn't over yet! With fairly low budget, mostly unknown cast, but aggresively smart script, One Cut of the Dead is the one that you MUST watch for once (and perhaps just once) but it's a MUST WATCH!

It's really hard to review this one, because telling everything even more about this movie, constitutes a spoiler. Even telling you the genre of this movie, constitutes a spoiler.

So, I will zip my mouth and stop typing. Without further ado, "just watch and enjoy"!

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