One Cut of the Dead

At this point I'm sure we've all seen plenty of zombie movies. Each new zombie movie tries to put a new spin on the genre. In the early days, when George A Romero invented the form, a new spin apparently meant setting it at different times of day: Night, Dawn, Day. More recent zombie movies change things up by making zombies fast (see 28 Days Later or World War Z, in which they never do tell us what the Z stands for but as a significant portion of the movie is set in Israel I'm going to guess it stands for Zionism). Shaun of the Dead made zombies funny, Train to Busan put zombies on a train. Going into One Cut of the Dead I expected the new spin on the genre is that it would be all in one cut - a novel enough idea if pulled of neatly, but probably pretty boring in reality. Of course I was wrong. This movie's new spin on the Zombie genre is that it's not really a zombie movie. Instead it's an entry into Liam's favourite genre: films about filmmaking.

I quote Liam's review of The Artist, which I have now read 74 times. Yes, it was me.

" I typically find movies about making movies completely self serving tributes to themselves and rarely enjoy them. There are a few exceptions like Once upon a time in Hollywood which obviously has more than this going on. In the same vein I doubt I’d enjoy reading books about writing books or listening to music explaining the intricacies of music production. "

To an extent I agree with Liam. Hollywood is a bunch of self-aggrandizing dicks who routinely need to stroke themselves by awarding very mediocre films about filmmaking. The mastabatory Oscar winning Argo comes to mind.

But there's also something in films about filmmaking that I love. The idea that so many people must come together and try to pull off a reality that exists only within the camera-frame is always interesting to me. It's particularly interesting when compromises have to be made and effects pulled off in surprisingly basic or cheap ways. It's like seeing the inner workings of a magic trick. The Oscars regretfully missed out on awarding Be Kind Rewind, which achieved a similar sensation of giddiness in me as this movie, when Jack Black and MosDef have to remake all the films in Danny Glover's video store after Jack Black becomes magnetised and accidentally erases them all. If you haven't seen Be Kind Rewind you are missing out on a true classic of cinema.

So yes, despite the pretty bad zombie movie that the first hour of this movie appears to be, and a subjectively bad soundtrack, I love this film. I love all the cooky Japanese characters, from the guy who is desperate to shit to the self-defence learning, method-acting mum, from the drunk zombie to the director who looks like a Japanese Sam Walker.

love the surprise reveal and fake credits an hour in - I can't help but wonder how many people genuinely turned off the film or left the cinema at that point. I love how the structure of the movie allows for so many set-ups and pay-offs with a piece of stilted bad acting in the first hour later explained by things happening off camera or ulterior motives which we've learned since seeing the events the first time through. It gets a little sentimental at the end but honestly I didn't care because by that point I'm along for the ride.

It's a zombie film with brains and heart. It's one of the cleverest films I've seen with one of the dumbest first hours, and that alone is an impressive feat.

4.5 Poms out of 5