Crazy Samurai Musashi (2020)

The premise is genuinely brilliant. One continuous, unbroken take of a lone swordsman cutting through hundreds upon hundreds of attackers. No edits, no cutaways, no hiding. Just a man, a blade, and an army of opponents stretching on for well over an hour. On paper, that sounds like one of the most audacious action concepts anyone has ever committed to film. In practice, it is one of the most exhausting and dispiriting viewing experiences I have had in a long time.

And that is what makes Crazy Samurai Musashi so genuinely frustrating to write about. This is not a case of a bad idea badly executed. This is a great idea badly executed, and somehow that stings so much more.

The opening fifteen minutes or so are legitimately promising. There is energy, there is style, there is a sense that you are about to witness something special. The staging has a purpose to it, the performers seem locked in, and you start to lean forward in your seat. Right. Here we go. This is going to be something.

Then the centrepiece begins, and almost immediately the cracks appear. And they do not stop appearing. For those who have seen the absolutely relentless corridor and stairwell sequences in The Raid 2, you will know what it looks like when sustained, gruelling action choreography is pulled off with genuine craft and commitment. This is not that. What unfolds here looks shoddy. There is no other word for it. The extras shuffle in, they get dispatched, they shuffle off to presumably join the back of the queue and come round again. The geography is muddled. The energy drains out of the thing within the first twenty minutes of the long take and never remotely recovers. You stop believing in the danger. You stop believing in the spectacle. You stop believing in pretty much anything the film is trying to sell you.

A single take of this length demands an almost inhuman level of preparation and precision from everyone involved. Every extra has to be in the right place at the right moment. The lead performer has to maintain physicality, intensity and believability for the full duration. The camera operator has to move with rhythm and intention. When it all comes together, a long take can feel like watching something genuinely alive. When it does not, it just feels like watching people try very hard and not quite get there, over and over again, for a very long time. Unfortunately, that second description is the one that applies here.

I want to be fair. The ambition is not nothing. The people behind this clearly believed in the concept, and the sheer logistical effort of staging a sequence involving this many performers and this much choreography deserves some acknowledgement. But ambition without execution is just a good story you tell at the pub about a film you nearly made. What ends up on screen is what matters, and what ends up on screen here is a film that front-loads all its goodwill and then squanders it comprehensively.

It is the kind of film that will make you genuinely sad about what it could have been. A tighter, sharper, better resourced version of this concept could have been extraordinary. Instead it is a curiosity at best and a slog at worst, and for long stretches it is firmly the latter.

One and a half stars. A great idea, a completely failed execution, and I cannot really put it any more plainly than that.

Rating: ★½  | Year: 2020  | Watched: 2025-05-18

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Amazon Prime Video · Amazon Prime Video with Ads
Rent: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · Sky Store
Buy: Apple TV Store · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · Sky Store
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
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