One Cut Of The Dead is a film I did a complete 180 on while watching it- going from rather underwhelmed, to been both charmed and amused. For the first half-an-hour or so it plays like a rough ‘n’ ready low-budget Zombie flick about a film crew making a zombie film, getting attack by real zombie. Then for the rest of the film is a meta-comedy/drama, that is both charming, quirky and heartfelt. Here from Third Window films is a recent Blu Ray release of the picture- bringing together a spin-off film, and a great selection of extras pushing the extras up to around four hours.

One Cut Of The Dead (aka Kamera wo tomeruna!) appeared in 2017- it was directed by Shin'ichirô Ueda, who also wrote the screenplay based on a play entitled Ghost in the Box! by Shin'ichirô Ueda. And it’s most certainly a film you need to hang in with, as what seems initially seems somewhat of bumbling mess blooms into a heartfelt and life-affirming romp. I'm Not sure if you’d be wholly satisfied if you were after a good and effective Zombie picture, but if like me your always looking for an original and distinctive twist on this most overplayed of horror sub-genres, then I think you’ll enjoy what we have here.
 
The film begins in an abandoned WII factory- inside we find a film crew led up by Higurashi(Takayuki Hamatsu)- a breaded, grumpy and uptight director, who is trying to film a zombie picture with actors who can’t act. Fairly soon things start to unfold, as it seems a real zombie attack is happening with members of the small cast/ crew get infected and attacking each other- from here we get a load of shaky-then- drop it cam footage, rough and ready effects, and on-camera meltdowns…then thirty-five minutes in the credits roll, and you're completely thrown. From here we zoom back a month, to find out how/ why the production happened- and it does not go where your expecting- that is all I’ll say, as the switch between tone is done in a very clever and rewarding way, which is best watched unprepared.
 
Cast wise Hamatsu was most impressive, showing lots of depth and range of emotion. Harumi Shuhama is great as his believable wife, and Mao as their film-loving daughter is good too. Other worthy mentions are Hiroshi Ichihara as geeky and awkward PA Kasahara, we have a bumbling and boozing older actor, and a few other amusing/ memorable characters. On the whole, I was very impressed with One Cut Of The Dead and really can’t recall a film that I did such a 180 shift on while watching it.
 
Moving onto this new Blu Ray release- and apparently, it is only ltd to just 2000 copies. And featured on the disc we of course get the original film, but also we get the film's sequel 2019’s One Cut of the Dead Spin-Off: In Hollywood- this was directed by Yûya Nakaizumi- who was assistant director of the first film. The sequel is a TV movie and rolls in just under the hour mark. And basically, it has a similar structure to the first film- we begin with one of the first film's character now working in LA as a waitress- she’s lost her voice, and wears a white wig- then a zombie holocaust hits- this footage last around ten minutes, then like the first film we zip back a month to explain how the film came about. This follow-up brings back a lot of the original cast, and once again it is rewarding enough- though maybe learning more on the comic side of things, with little of the first film original heartfelt moments. Also on the disc, we get the following extras- a forty-three-minute making of, seventeen minutes on-camera interview with the director of the first film. We have thirty-eight minutes of different camera footage from the first film, four minutes of cut scenes, and a minute worth of quirky background footage relating to one of the key characters in the first film.
 
All in all, One Cut Of The Dead, is most certainly a very original/ distinctive take on the zombie genre- but not in the way you might expect. I would say if you’re looking for something different within the living dead genre, but don’t mind it not having many of the expected tropes- then I’d give this a go, and this new edition is certainly the way to go.