• カメラを止めるな（One Cut of the Dead）

8/15/18 (Wed), Tokyo

This zany film – literally, “Don’t Stop the Camera!” or “Keep It Rolling!” – has become a sensation in Japan, a low-budget little-film-that-could by a no-name director and cast that has spread like wildfire from a single out-of-the-way theater to nationwide release. Shows were sold out from morning to night in the peak o-bon holiday season. No one would tell me anything more about the film than that it involves zombies, which would normally make me turn the other way. But the word was so strong that I finally gave in to the hype and snagged a late-night ticket.

The first half-hour is taken up by an amateurish film with overripe acting and questionable direction, where actors making a zombie movie encounter actually zombies. My heart sank, and I started wondering what I was doing there. But then there comes a sharp change in gears that makes it all worth it. The scene flashes back one month to the planning stages, where a new TV zombie network is pressuring a timid first-time director to produce its opening show. Live. In one cut. The shell-shocked director, whose dream of an easy assignment has just become a nightmare, is terrified by the concept but too frightened to say no. He then has to deal with an eclectic cast and crew that he is ill-equipped to control – difficult female star (“I’d personally love to wear this, but my agency wouldn’t allow it”), arrogant male star, actor with a serious drinking problem, sound man with diarrhea, and so forth – and rehearsals are one disaster after another. On top of that, he is distracted by family issues.

As we’re wondering how this film is ever going to happen, we snap forward to the filming date. Making things worse, the producers learn just before the camera is to roll that two performers are in a traffic accident and can’t make it. The exasperated director, throwing caution to the wind, bites the bullet and takes one part, and, to his shock, his wife takes another (while his daughter inserts herself behind the cameras). Amid much panic and skepticism, the show goes on.

The zombie film is then shown again, but this time from the perspective of the filmmakers – casting a whole new light on the proceedings. Unexpected happenings, personnel issues, lots of cue cards (“Stall for time!!”) and quick thinking by the harried staff turn the entire film on its head to hilarious effect, leaving nothing as it seemed. Even the family issues are neatly resolved at the end.

The wacky device is a combination of Japan’s farce-meister Mitani Koki (Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald  comes to mind) and the supreme backstage comedy Noises Off. The story overall was well thought out and handled, including the entire notion of filming a show in a single cut, an accomplishment on its own. Writer/director Ueda Shinichiro threw a lot of crazy ideas out there but managed somehow to bring all the pieces together for a wild ending. Some parts admittedly seemed tacked on for lack of alternatives, but the high energy and pace makes it churlish to complain.

Takayuki Hamatsu as the director and especially Harumi Shuhama as his wife were the standouts in a cast that clearly hasn’t had a lot of experience, but everyone was appealing in the context of the film – the amateurish level was actually part of the point. While this is hardly a masterpiece, I laughed a lot, and not many films can say that. Good fun.