One Cut of the Dead(2017)

Pooper:
It turns out that the zombie attacks at the beginning was, in fact, a low budget movie B-movie being aired live on Japanese TV. The movie then re-starts at the beginning to show behind the scenes how hilariously difficult it was to make the movie.

Long Ending:
The film opens with a small cast and crew shooting a low-budget B-level zombie film in the middle of nowhere. The director, Higurashi (Takayuki Hamatsu), is intense and berates his two actors – Chinatsu (Yuzuki Akiyama) and Ko (Kazuaki Nagaya). ADuring a break in the shooting, Chinatsu and Ko spend time bonding with the makeup artist Nao (Harumi Shuhama), who oddly teaches them self defense techniques. Nao also explains that the abandoned building they are in was used for human experiments by the government and that’s why the Director chose the location.

One of the crew members is attacked by a real life zombie in front of the cast and crew. They initially think the attack is staged, but it soon becomes apparent that there is a real outbreak. The zombies quickly devour everyone but Chinatsu, Ko, Nao, a cameraman shooting all the events, and Higurashi. The director goes crazy and begins thwarting their escape attacks, yelling “action” whenever a real zombie appears and helping the zombies break through barricades. Higurashi believes that with real zombies menacing his cast, he can make a masterpiece. Nao goes crazy when she sees what looks like a bite on Chinatsu’s leg and tries to kill her. Ko tries to stop Nao and ends up killing her as Chinatsu flees. When she returns, she finds Ko is zombified. Full of grief, Chinatsu chops of Ko’s head and kills Higurashi for what he’s put them all through. The camera then pans out in an overhead shot to reveal that Chinatsu is standing in the middle of a pentagram drawn in blood by the crew members at Higurashi’s insistence. It turns out that Higurashi engaged in occult rituals to summon the real zombies for his movie.

There are also many odd things that happen throughout these events, such as a zombie puking on its victim, awkward pauses between the actors, one of the crew members running outside despite knowing zombies are out there, and Nao seemingly still being alive (and not a zombie) despite Ko putting an axe her in the head. The events are shot all in one cut (meaning that there is no editing or takes or cuts, and the events are shown all at one time with no cuts and in sequential order).

We then flash back in time one month. We meet Higurashi, who is a poor commercial director eking out a living making low budget fare and has a reputation for sacrificing his artistic drive to make films cheaply and quickly. He is approached by TV executives who, knowing of his reputation, want him to make a movie about a film crew shooting a zombie film when they are attacked by real zombies that is done in one cut. In other words, the events shown above are itself a movie. The rest of the film shows the behind the scenes action going on while Higurashi shoots the movie (think Back to the Future 2).

Higurashi casts the film. Ko is revealed to be a pompous rising actor who belittles those around him. Chinatsu is a pop star in her first role who refuses to do any of the stunts. One of the actors cast as a crewmember of the fake zombie film has weak bowels, and an actor playing a real zombie is a recovering alcoholic. Throughout the preparations, Higurashi is belittled by the studio and the actors, although his real life crew are hard working and loyal. He is also sad at the gulf that has developed between him and his daughter Mao (Mao). She is an aspiring director and thinks her father too often compromises artistic vision to please his producers.

After months of preparation, they go to shoot the movie and it will air live. Because of the one cut style, they will have no chance to fix any mistakes. Right before they are supposed to air, the actors cast as the director and the makeup artist get in a car crash. This forces Higurashi himself to play the director in the movie and his real-life wife Nao to play the make-up artist. Mao is thrust into the director’s seat. Mao explains to her crew that Nao was an actress but would get lost in the roles, hurt people on set, and hadn’t acted in years.

We see how all of the weird quirks from the zombie movie came to be (and it is HILARIOUS). For example, the initial zombie has a relapse and is drunk, thus why he begins puking on people. The onscreen crew member who willingly runs outside into the arms of the zombies does so because he needs to take an emergency poop. The awkward pauses and Nao’s teaching of self defense are because the actors need to buy time as Higurashi, Mao, and the real crew try to overcome these obstacles and keep the movie rolling. Nao also relapses and genuinely tries to kill Chinatsu, forcing the real life crew to knock her out off camera and make it look like Ko killed her as part of the story (when Nao seemingly appears alive again onscreen, it’s because she just came to after being forcibly knocked out).

After the crane needed to shoot the final overhead shot of Chinatsu standing in the pentagram is damaged during the chaotic filming, the on-site TV executive wants them to change the ending. Higurashi finally stands up for his artistic vision, refusing to change out the final shot. Inspired by her dad finally showing a backbone, Mao has the real crew form a human pyramid by which they can shoot the overhead shot without the crane. Despite all of the chaos and poor production that preceded it, the cast and crew unite to form the human pyramid and manage to get the perfect overhead shot of Chinatsu in the pentagram. The TV executives are happy with the outcome and the cast and crew rejoice that they pulled off the movie. Mao and Higurashi share a special hug, their affection and respect for each other now restored.