Thursday, March 23, 2023

Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 (2020)

The movie is what it says on the tin, though it's original name may actually be Crazy Samurai Musashi, according to IMDb. Miyamoto Musashi (Tak Sakaguchi) had killed two clan leaders, so the clan has challenged him while setting up a trap so he'll have to fight 400 dudes. Maybe. I didn't actually count, and IMDb's summary says this was Musashi's most famous battle, where he fought 598 people.

The fight scene is done as one continuous take, from the title screen a few minutes in, until a flash-forward in the last 10 minutes. I'm assuming with a drone, because there's a point late where the camera draws back and then rises to give an aerial shot of Musashi being ringed in by yet another wave of guys. The whole thing reminds of those Dynasty Warriors games, where your character would just fight an entire army.

It's not explained why Musashi killed the first two clan leaders, but he was apparently expecting this fight, as it moves towards a deserted village where he's hidden some water and a bunch of extra swords. So there are brief breaks in the fight where he staggers down an alley, throws aside a rice paper screen, chugs some water and grabs the next sword. Then either the next wave of guys find him, or he ambles down the alley and finds them.

The longer the fight goes, the more Sakaguchi shows the exhaustion, though I don't know how much of that is acting versus actual fatigue from swinging swords around for 75 minutes straight. He gradually stops holding his sword in the stance he uses at the beginning, where it's out to one side and parallel to the ground. He staggers side-to-side after he kills or drives another person back, like he's got no energy to devote to his legs.

It helps that the guys he's fighting don't seem very smart by and large, though some of that is no doubt a concession to trying to do this in one take. I can only remember one guy that actually tried to attack from behind, even though people will repeatedly shout, "Surround him!" Sometimes they do, but mostly they form a half-circle in front of him. But you'll see guys run behind him within striking distance as the try to get in position, and do nothing. Sometimes they'll attack two or three at a time, but sometimes it's one guy tries and dies, then another, then another.

It's especially ridiculous when you watch one guy charge with sword held overhead, only for Musashi to take one step to the left and swing into the guy's gut. Then next guy tries the same thing, Musashi takes one step to his right, sword to the guy. Repeat five or six more times. But there are parts where you see the attackers gradually lose the aggression as they watch him strike down their comrades. Musashi will stand advancing on them, striking while they're hanging back waiting, instead of letting them attack and countering.

I thought we'd see a bit more variety, especially after one guy challenged him with one of those short sticks with the sickle blade on one end and a weighted chain on the other. See some guys wielding pikes or more chains, or try to surprise him coming out of a doorway or leaping from the second level of one of the buildings.

Probably hard to coordinate all that in one take, though, and that's the thing about it. It's interesting as an exercise in filming, but I think the limitations it places hamper it as a viewing experience. It's a 90-minute movie that's basically one guy after another rushing Musashi to be chopped down in one of a limited number of ways. After a while, with little dialogue, little character work, no time whatsoever spent on why Musashi is doing this (at the end he says he, 'just wanted to win,' which seems like a dumb reason to go around killing people), that's pretty boring to watch.

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