Crazy Samurai Musashi

There’s only one reason to watch Crazy Samurai Musashi: after a brief opening in which the barest of samurai plots is introduced, we cut to a samurai fighting a small army’s worth of rival swordsmen in a forest. For the next 77 minutes, the film unfolds in one continuous take as the prolonged sword fight snakes through the forest and into a small village. The film’s publicity is keen to point out that the main character kills 588 rivals throughout the course of the movie, though if you pay attention to the men he defeats, you’ll definitely notice some familiar faces popping up to be killed and re-killed again and again and again. The long take gimmick is impressive, no doubt about it, but it’s just that — a gimmick. It absolutely, positively never feels like the best way to tell this story. Not surprisingly, it turns out that edits during a fight sequence are pretty essential; when you’re worried that a single mistake will scuttle an hour’s worth of footage, the fight choreography is naturally going to be a bit less involved (putting it mildly). The almost dialogue-free film quickly devolves into a mind-numbing procession of bland fight choreography and endlessly clanging swords. Kudos to the filmmakers for pulling it off, but it’s unlikely that this will be remembered as anything but a gimmicky curiosity.

*1/2 out of ****