One Cut of the Dead review – meta zombie fun

A scene from One Cut of the Dead. Photograph: Third Window Films

For a movie about the undead, Japanese director Shin’ichirô Ueda’s horror comedy is certainly lively. Beginning with a single take that lasts more than a third of the film (that’d be one way of reading the “one cut” referenced in the film’s title), it opens in an abandoned water treatment plant, where a film crew are shooting a low-budget zombie movie. Director Higurashi (Takayuki Hamatsu, scruffy beard and puppyish eyes) fancies himself something of an auteur (though later he’ll describe himself as “fast, cheap but average”), insisting that the camera continue to roll as filming is interrupted by actual zombies. After a 40 minutes of sprightly, spirited shlock, out of nowhere, a set of end credits roll and the film’s cheaply shot aesthetic breaks. We’re then shown the manic runup to the shoot before returning to set with new knowledge; behind-the-scenes mishaps beget happy accidents in this satire about the chaos of film-making.

Watch a trailer for One Cut of the Dead.

• One Cut of the Dead opens in the UK on 4 January