Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 24, 2021

Like the takes themselves, the list of “one shot films” (i.e., no edits, either actually, or in appearance) is getting longer. There are whole corners of the internet devoted to this particular phenomenon, many of them focusing on now legendary movies like Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope (which fans will of course know really wasn’t shot in just one take, but was edited to appear like it was), and moving on to a host of international offerings like Béla Tarr’s version of Macbeth, Mike Figgis’ exploration of the virtues of digital cinematography, Timecode, the fascinating documentary from Alexander Sokurov, Russian Ark, as well as other “pretenders” (in terms of really being done in one continuous take) like the relatively recent Birdman and 1917. For those who want their cinematic wonderment to revolve around an evidently real life 16th to 17th century Japanese swordsman named Miyamoto Musashi, Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 will probably fit the bill quite nicely, though that said, this is a film that is all about the cinematic wonderment of “one continuous take” rather than any other niggling elements like plot, characterization or narrative coherence.

It’s perhaps salient to to note that Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 was seemingly originally released as Crazy Samurai Musashi, one assumes because Musashi’s name is so widely recognized in his native land. The choice to retitle the film may make sense in one regard (since my hunch is Musashi's name is not that widely recognized outside of Japan), but is almost funny in another, since it seems apparent that the “400” is meant to somehow refer to but also maybe seem like a “new, improved” version of 300, when according to some biographical data on the rōnin I read in preparation for writing this review (none of which admittedly may be accurate), Musashi actually fought a somewhat disputed number of combatants, from a relatively paltry 60 or 70, to the much more impressive 588.

There is some very brief (non one take) contextualizing in the film that bookends the long, single take middle section. This allows for some brief introductory material attempting to give the "backstory" as to why Musashi (Tak Sakaguchi) is about to battle countless acolytes of the Yoshioka Clan. The information may give Westerners in particular at least a bit of a "foothold", so to speak, but it's frankly completely unnecessary, since the bulk of the film is the battle itself, which basically is nothing more or less than Musashi dispatching enemy after enemy.

As a result, there's actually surprisingly little interest in the action, since there's absolutely little if any emotional tether to Musashi, let alone any of the numerous people he slices and dices on his way to victory. Instead, this is an admittedly virtuosic piece of film making which is all about being virtuosic. It's almost unavoidable that any given viewer is going to be thinking of things like, "Well, how did they do that?", not necessarily caring about what's being depicted. In the category of stagecraft, there might be a decent drinking game available based on taking a swig every time an extra "victim" is dragged out of frame by someone else, I guess to make room for someone new, or perhaps to "reintroduce" that particular actor as a new recipient of Musashi's sword wielding proclivities.

Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Crazy Samurai: 400 vs 1 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. I haven't been able to find any authoritative technical data on the shoot, but as usual I am assuming that this apparent digital capture was finished at a 2K DI. There are some odd looking moments here, notably in the brief opening vignette, where things can look pretty seriously noisy (see screenshot 19), but even throughout the presentation, which boasts substantially better clarity than the opening scene, things look rather harshly digital at times, as if sharpened (I'm not saying there's any tweaking involved, simply that it can look that way). The prevalence of blue tones both in the production design and also with regard to hints of grading can also give the entire presentation a slightly artificial, even alien, appearance. All of this said, detail levels are often quite appealing, though the peripatetic camera moves may make them hard to spot at times. Frequent close-ups do offer good, precise looks at things like hair and the texture of fabrics.

Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 features a bombastic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. This is the second Japanese film in a row I've reviewed (after Shogun's Joy of Torture) which features a battery of percussion instruments providing a lot of the "underscore", and the thundering drums resonate with nice clarity and at times spectacular force. The outdoor environments also offer good opportunity for realistic placement of ambient environmental sounds. The clash of metals with regard to sword mixed with "gooier" sounds of flesh being mangled also offer a glut of surround activity. Dialogue is really relatively sporadic throughout the film, but is delivered cleanly and clearly when it is delivered. Optional English subtitles are available.

Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• International Trailer (1080p; 1:51)


• U.S. Trailer (1080p; 1:38)

Note: As tends to be the case with Well Go USA Blu-ray releases, the supplements have been authored to follow one another automatically (so that clicking on the the International Trailer under the main Trailers menu option is essentially a Play All button). After the U.S. Trailer for this film plays, the disc has been authored to automatically move on to trailers for other Well Go USA releases. Those trailers for other Well Go USA releases also play automatically at disc boot up.

Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As an exercise in cinematic stagecraft, there's no doubt that Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 is going to be of interest to all sorts of people who pay attention to things like framings, edits and generally "how did they do that" aspects to filmmaking. As a story, there's next to nothing in Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1 to really latch on to, despite what look like "afterthoughts" in terms of some bookending framing moments. This seems like perhaps an unwise decision, given how seemingly fascinating Musashi's real life and battle skills evidently were. The action here is often amazing, if ultimately probably unavoidably repetitive, and fans of Sakaguchi in particular may want to check this one out in any case. Video is occasionally problematic, but audio is great, for those who are considering a purchase.