Crazy Samurai: 400 vs 1
The movie opens with a gathering of a Japanese clan. Their top swordsman was just killed and the head of the clan wants his warriors to track down the killer and execute him. The killer has other plans. Rather than hide from his assassins, he takes them all on.
What follows is unlike anything I've ever seen. For seventy-seven minutes, in a single take, the killer takes on not 400, but 588 samurai.
It was exhausting just watching it. It was relatively unscripted. The director would order twenty or thirty actors into the fight and as they died, he'd send in the next bunch.
It's based on a supposedly true incident in the life of one of Japan's legendary heroes. It does get a little silly at times, as a very distinguishable assassin is killed only to reappear minutes later in the next wave of attackers, and because it is shot in one take, there are no decapitations or excessive bloodletting.
Quote: billryanI watched this amazing movie last night. It's a bit thin on plot but long on action scenes
The movie opens with a gathering of a Japanese clan. Their top swordsman was just killed and the head of the clan wants his warriors to track down the killer and execute him. The killer has other plans. Rather than hide from his assassins, he takes them all on.
What follows is unlike anything I've ever seen. For seventy-seven minutes, in a single take, the killer takes on not 400, but 588 samurai.
It was exhausting just watching it. It was relatively unscripted. The director would order twenty or thirty actors into the fight and as they died, he'd send in the next bunch.
It's based on a supposedly true incident in the life of one of Japan's legendary heroes. It does get a little silly at times, as a very distinguishable assassin is killed only to reappear minutes later in the next wave of attackers, and because it is shot in one take, there are no decapitations or excessive bloodletting.
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On IMDB it is Kyô Samurai Musashi (2020), but searchable as Crazy Samurai Musashi. It is rated as 4.7/10
This movie was supposed to be a totally different film, called Ken-kichi. Tak Sakaguchi (the star) was going to make a single-take action sequence lasting 10 mins. This movie then got cancelled because the director became unavailable. Tak still wanted to make a movie because he had been practicing a real samurai fight for a year with his stunt team. Tak decided to make a movie with one long action scene. he and his stunt team didn't have the time (or abilities) to write much of a story. Yuji Shimomura is listed as director but he directed only the first and last scenes (10 minutes). Why did the action grow to 77 minutes in length?? Because to be defined as a feature movie, a film must be 70 minutes or longer.
Some claim that this movie isn't a real movie, its Tak's documentary on sword fighting. They didn't plan any action design at all, just stunt guys (his stunt team) attacking him. Audiences have gotten used to watching "designed action movies" so most people think this movie action is too simple, whereas it is almost certainly a more realistic depiction of sword fighting, except extended to an absurd length.
Tak is reported to have gotten injured during the movie: broken ribs, finger, teeth. Also Tak is now retired because he sustained PTSD from filming the 77 minute long fight scene in this movie. Reportedly, he can no longer even hold a sword; he vomits every time he holds a sword.
