Hash Import 2026 05 18 12 34

Crazy Samurai Musashi (2020)

★½ — Crazy Samurai Musashi (2020)

Crazy Samurai Musashi is a Japanese action film built almost entirely around a single audacious formal conceit: a continuous, unedited 77-minute single-take sequence in which its lead actor cuts down roughly 400 opponents. Tak Sakaguchi, a cult figure in Japanese genre cinema since Ryûhei Kitamura's Versus (2000), reportedly trained for months specifically for the sequence, which was filmed in one location on what was clearly a tight budget. Director Yuji Shimomura comes from a stunt and action-choreography background (he worked on the Resident Evil films), and this project reads as a showcase for that specialism above all else. The film arrived in Japanese theatres in 2020 before picking up international attention on streaming, where its central gimmick proved easier to market than to sustain.

The intro 15 minutes is better than the entire rest of the film. An entire single take dispatching of hundreds of extras just does not work. It looks shoddy. It looks shit. I'm sorry but this film was a great idea but a completely failed execution

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

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Where to watch (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

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