Miyamoto Musashi was a Japanese swordsman, philosopher, and writer who, during the 1600’s, became the country’s folk hero. Stories emerged of his battles and it was said that he had a sword fighting record with an undefeated 61 wins. Like many folk heroes, the stories have grown in scope and have been passed down from generation to generation. There have been dozens of actors who have played the legendary swordsman and the latest to pick up the sword is Tak Sakaguchi. The star of Versus and frequent collaborator, director Yuji Shimomura (Death Trance, Re:Born) have decided to experiment a bit with their latest work, Crazy Samurai: 400 vs 1 aka Crazy Samurai Musashi. It’s thin on narrative but the centerpiece of the ninety-minute movie is a single take action sequence that’s 77 minutes long.
In the early 1600’s, Miyamoto Musashi (Tak Sakaguchi) defeats Master Seijuro and his little brother Denshichiro of the Yoshioka clan. After being disgraced in such a manner, the entire family of one hundred decide to gather all their members, as well as three hundred mercenaries, with plans to ambush the legendary swordsman. Musashi is the greatest swordsman alive and he’s ready to all four hundred fighters just exactly why.
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Crazy Samurai is a very problematic film. The story is paper thin, the budget is relatively small, but the ambition level is through the roof. The only reason it even exists is because of Tak Sakaguchi. In 2013, it was widely rumored that the actor was going to retire from working in front of the camera. Thankfully, it wasn’t completely true because the work he’s done since making those statements has been very exciting. Sakaguchi is a martial arts performer who doesn’t fit into the same category as the others. He tends to try different things and thinks outside the box. So it’s with no surprise that Crazy Samurai is one of those projects. The movie takes maybe five to ten minutes to set things up and then we’re quickly transported into this extended battle.
A seventy-seven-minute single take is a pretty massive undertaking but director Shimomura was up to the task. The fighting tends to get repetitive at times, a single whack, CGI blood, and down they go. At the same time, if you really stop to think about what’s happening, it’s kind of amazing. It’s interesting to watch and see just how Sakaguchi moves from fight to fight, how much fighting he does per battle, and when he grows a bit winded. It happens and you can tell but he keeps pushing forward regardless. There’s tiny bits of action and he takes these little water breaks, then these massive amounts of swordsmen move in. He even has moments where he enters into the equivalent of a boss battle. At times the whole thing feels like you’re in a video game as he goes from one wave to the next.
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Crazy Samurai: 400 vs 1 is far from being a perfect film. In fact, overall, it’s pretty decent. What sets it apart is the risk of skimping on the story and trying to pull off the unimaginable. The disc from WellGo USA looks and sounds fantastic but fails to deliver on the extras, which is what I was most interested in. I wanted to see some behind-the-scenes stuff, how they planned the fight, and how cinematographer Yasutaka Nagano chose to follow the action.
Either way, failure or success will all depend on how the viewer perceives it. I’m not sure I’ve ever been disappointed and amazed at the same time by a movie. I really hope to see Tak Sakaguchi continue to push himself in different directions with each film. He’s most certainly distanced himself from the pack of current action stars and is resting comfortably in a category all his own.
Watch it now on Hi-Yah!, DVD, and Blu-ray.
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