Crazy Samurai 400 Vs 1 2020 Written by Atsuki Tomori and directed by Yûji Shimomura. Japanese film originally titled Crazy Samurai Musashi.
Director Sion Sono wanted to do a 10 minute single take scene for a unmade film called Kenkichi in 2011. A stunt team worked for months on the 10 minute scene. Actor and stuntman Tak Sakaguchi proposed expanding that scene and continued working with the team for 8 more months. The scene was filmed in 2011 but the project was shelved, in 2018 crowd funding was used to finance filming the framing story, rerecording the audio, adding CGI blood and marketing.
Tak Sakaguchi plays Miyamoto Musashi, he was a real person, born in 1584 and dying in 1645. This story is an exaggerated version of an incident in Musashi's life. In 1604 Musashi fought 3 duels with the Yoshioka clan. In one of the battles he arrived early to find an ambush of between 70 and 200 men. He surprised them, killed a bunch and then ran away.
The movie opens with clan members discussing the situation, one of the men mentions they've gotten 100 students and 300 mercenaries waiting in the surrounding area. The audience can see them hunkering down behind some bushes. Back at the compound Musashi leaps out of a tree and slices a young boy down. Then the 77 minute single take starts. Small groups of men attack Musashi, lucky for him they attack one at a time, unlucky for them he chops them down one by one. The fight ranges through the village and eventually cuts off rather abruptly, the next scene is 7 years later.
There's mention on the IMDb Trivia page of Musashi fighting 588 men but I didn't start counting at the start of the sequence so I can't confirm that. Many of the mentions of the scene say Musashi's killed all these men but so many of them just get up and walk away, that there's little sense of the carnage. The viewer can't help but notice that the battle field has so few bodies on it.
Sadly the highly touted feature of the film is a bit of a let down. The 77 minute single take is pretty repetitious and kind of dull. There's no real cool action bits, hardly any closeup action, nothing to really give it some oomph, just the same few moves used over and over. By contrast, the last scene, the one 7 years after the big fight, is edited, it's way more dynamic than the main action scene and it's not outstanding in anyway. It was interesting to watch and while the 77 minute scene is a good technical feat on film, I'm reminded that they've been putting 2-3 hour long operas on stage with hundreds of performers for centuries.
Thirst 2009 Based on Thérèse Raquin by Émile Zola, screenplay by Park Chan-wook and Jeong Seo-kyeong, directed by Park Chan-wook.
A Catholic priest volunteers to test an experimental vaccine for the Emmanuel Virus. The drug fails and he's infected by the killer virus. Surprisingly he doesn't die, he the only survivor of a lot of 50 test subjects. People think he's got magic healing ability and flock to his church. An old friend invites the priest to Mahjong night at his house. There the priest finds himself attracted to the friend's wife.
Soon after the priest has a relapse and finds he's become a blood sucking vampire who's can't go out int he day anymore. He starts feeding on people, he has an affair with the old friend's wife. She talks him into helping kill the husband and then into making her a vampire. It's all pretty sordid. The priest thinks so too and he arranges an early morning visit with Mr Sun for him and his old friend's wife.
A well enough made film that just didn't have a story that I cared that much for, it's a good reminder that vampires suck. Not something I would buy, I wouldn't need to bother with it again.
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