For years, I wanted to see Shin’ichirō Ueda’s One Cut of the Dead but it never made its way onto any of the streaming services that I pay for. But after I gave in and got a Shudder subscription, it was one of the first films I watched.

When One Cut of the Dead first circulated in festivals, the film made a lot of noise as the low-budget-underdog-zombie-film-that-could. (In fact, the estimated budget for the film is just a measly $25,000, yet it went on to gross over 27.5 million at the international box office.)

So, when I finally had my opportunity to watch it, I was a little surprised by how “cheap” and “mediocre” it looked at the start, but its reputation and that singular long shot, never an easy feat, kept me watching. Then, after the credits roll at the 37-minute mark- and yes, this is a 96-minute film- the high-esteem people have for Ueda’s film came into better focus. 

One Cut of the Dead is a film about people who think they are making a zombie film before real zombies show up. At the start, there is a fun movie-within-a-movie story at play, but eventually this will get taken to a whole new level. Looking back, I am amazed that I was kept sheltered from the film’s brilliant meta-gimmick. I don’t want to be more specific because part of the fun of the remaining 59-minutes is seeing how it changes our perception of the 37-minutes that came before. What I will say is that One Cut of the Dead is a cinematic experience that, to lazily quote the trailer, is “like no other.” 

Normally, I would say something about how those making zombie films keep managing to find new ways to reinvent the genre, but let’s be honest- it is a bit disingenuous to call One Cut of the Dead a zombie film. It is a comedy with some blood and a few shots of dismembered body parts. But more, it is an ingenious meta love letter to those involved in low budget filmmaking. 

Of course humour, like horror, is subjective, so I’ll let you decide for yourself how well Ueda’s jokes land. Personally, I found it hard not to love Harumi Shuhama’s character regardless of which part of the film we were in. And Takayuki Hamatsu is great as the show-must-go-on director yelling “Keep rolling!” But even if a few jokes don’t land or something seems a bit improbable, these negatives are all blunted by the sheer brilliance of the film’s intelligent reveals.

When I started watching One Cut of the Dead, my wife, was killing away time on her computer only looking up occasionally. In that early third of the film, she would groan, making me feel a little embarrassed to be watching the film. By the end, Shin’ichirō Ueda’s film had her full attention. She even ended up calling it “a surprise” and said that it was “really clever.” She now wants to rewatch again from the beginning.  

I mean, damn, if this movie can win over my wife, then it should be able to win over anyone.