Fantasia 2020: Crazy Samurai Musashi
We're at the extreme tail end of the 'long single take' craze that started around the time Birdman's technical prowess helped earn the film multiple Oscars. Single takes, no matter how long, usually end up being no more than a showy flex of the filmmaking muscle. Last year's zombie-comedy indie film One Cut of the Dead successfully used the single take 'gimmick' as a meta device to suit its overall theme; it goes to show that the act of accomplishing a long single take in a film, usually, isn't enough. With any technique—from a close-up to a fade-in—there has to be some meaning behind it. At the center of Crazy Samurai Musashi’s 92-minute runtime is a 77-minute single take action sequence that sees that titular crazy samurai Musashi battling hundreds upon hundreds of foes in feudal Japan. On paper that's one hell of an intriguing set-up; the question isn’t whether it delivers on the promise of non-stop action for an uninterrupted 77 minutes, it’s whether it delivers on anything substantial beyond that.
The samurai Musashi has had a long history on screen. A real-life samurai whose story was the basis for Hiroshi Inagaki’s Samurai Trilogy, Musashi (Sakaguchi) is a legend among men in Crazy Samurai Musashi. We get that sense in the opening moments of the film, as a samurai clan prepares to take on Musashi. Hundreds of members of the clan and sword-wielding mercenaries wait in the woods for the ‘monster’, as one of them puts it. There’s not much story set up as Musashi all of a sudden appears and jumpstarts action.
The plot is so thin it’s almost non-existent. When the action starts, what drives the film is Musashi’s survival; he takes on opponent after opponent and, for the most part, he takes them down with a quick swing of the sword. After two minutes this becomes… repetitive. Swing to the head, that's a kill, swing to the abdomen, that’s a kill, swing to the legs, that’s a kill, too. As the action continues, Musashi makes his way through a near abandoned town and fights more and more nameless thugs. What makes things interesting are the ‘bosses’ that Musashi runs into as he progresses through the fields of Japan; during these instances, at least, the monotony of one-slice deaths is broken up.
Turns out Crazy Samurai Musashi's single take is an effective tool in the film's arsenal, and not because it's a wall-to-wall, sword-on-sword dueling action set piece—the repetitiveness keeps it from being successful in that aspect. It's the performance of Tak Sakaguchi as Musashi that ultimately gives credence to those 77-minute. You get the sense of Sakaguchi’s endurance early on; after taking down a group all on his own, he takes a water break and composes himself before taking down another group. It’s not until more than an hour into the sequence that you see Sakaguchi’s face become more strained and sweaty. He starts to slow and stumble, and the thrill becomes watching him finish the action sequence itself. You see a man put everything into over an hour of pure sword-swinging adrenaline, and you desperately want to see the film cut away before he collapses in front of us—at one point I honestly thought he was going to call it quits at around minute 70 and whether it’s acting or not, I was on the edge of my seat and cheering for Sakaguchi by the end. It’s a surreal experience that breaks the fourth wall, veering into watching a real sporting event and rooting for your favorite team to come out on top.
Crazy Samurai Musashi turns out to be more of an experimental film in my book. I can’t see traditional action fans being entirely entertained, the repetition doesn’t do the film any favors. But seeing how exactly the one take is thought through and how the lead performer holds his own on screen, it makes Crazy Samurai Musashi a good exercise in putting your lead character through hell, and having your lead actor go through that same hell for the sake of our entertainment.
