Naturally "shoddy"
The filming cost of Ueda Shinichiro's debut feature film "The Camera Don't Stop" was only 3 million yen (equivalent to 180,000 RMB). It is such a film whose cost is even lower than that of some students' graduation works (in fact, this film is indeed a school project hosted by the film and television school sponsored by the director himself), relying on word of mouth to counterattack all the way, it has achieved more than 1,000 times in Japan. The box office return has exceeded 3 billion yen. At the 31st "Tokyo Film Festival", all the crew members who created the box office miracle were invited to the red carpet.
This "movie about film" opens with a 37-minute long shot. Even this long shot itself is quite "persuaded to quit"——
The director named Nigga led the crew to shoot a zombie film called "One Cut of the Dead" in a water purification plant in the deep mountains, but the heroine Qianxia's acting skills were too poor. After taking a scene 42 times, it was still NG, and the director was angry. After yelling "your life is fake from beginning to end", he left the scene angrily; makeup artist Nao appeased the two protagonists and talked about the urban legend here: casting a blood curse will attract real zombies. Just as the three of them were chatting, the real zombies appeared.
The outbreak of the zombie crisis made everyone panic, except for the director. It turned out that the blood curse was ordered by the director. He tried to summon real zombies to shoot real panic, in other words, to make a feature film into a documentary. So, the crew started the life and death escape in the camera...
This 37-minute long shot is quite clumsy, not only shaking violently, the performance is stiff, but also the camera falls to the ground, and even a hand wipes blood on the lens glass in the frame. It is said that after 37 minutes, when the credits began to roll, some out-of-the-box audience members left the theater (they thought it was the end of the film). I believe that many people must also frequently make "what the hell" reactions during the viewing. However, this long shot, filled with what appears to be a crossover, is only the first part of the film.
After the credit roll ends, the transition title "A Month ago" emerges, and the second layer of narrative unfolds here. It turned out that "The Camera Don't Stop" is about a director with mediocre qualifications who took over a TV station project and shot a "zombie movie filming accident" live on a TV station in a one-shot manner as required. Unfortunately, not only did the sponsor have no pursuit, but "it's good to see it", but the recruited actors and staff were also strangely shaped. The quality of the film is really not optimistic.
The origin, casting, rehearsal and other scenes of the "One Cut of the Dead" project constitute the second part of "Don't Stop the Camera", which presents the daily work of a director and his crew.
The film then enters the third layer of narrative: the (disastrous) filming process, and it is in this part that the audience learns that the incomparably clumsy performances and weird connections in the first part are due to the various conditions that have arisen in the process. . Or it should be said that the third part is not so much "explaining" the first part, but rather that the third part is "deconstructing" the first part, and then together with the first part and the second part, constructs the complete "Camera Don't Stop". The film itself - a film about the production of a low-budget, bad film, covering and finally presented according to the arrangement and editing structure of "finished product (fiction) - preparation (realistic) - shooting / tidbits (realistic)" - how shoddy the front is, It's so natural in the back.
True Zombies and Cinephile Passion
"The Camera Don't Stop" actually finished filming as early as last October. In April this year, at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, the film won the second place in the Audience Choice Award, so it was exported for domestic sales. However, the lineup of new directors and amateur actors really lacked selling points, and only two small theaters were willing to play it at first. However, with word of mouth, the film started a counter-attack fermentation at the box office.
There is no doubt that "The Camera Never Stops" itself is about "the birth of a bad movie", but it is by no means the behind-the-scenes documentary about filmmaking that NHK TV often broadcasts (such as Miyazaki's "The Myth of Nowhere") , or the bonus clips that come with DVDs that are common on the market today. It should be said that being able to make "The Birth of a Bad Movie" a masterpiece is quite a test of skill.
There are not a few movies about movies (the so-called Metacinema, meta-movie), Fellini's "Eight and a Half", Truffaut's "Day Is Night", Reiz's "The French Lieutenant's Woman", etc. Beads. If this classification is expanded to "play within a play", the number will be even greater, and the application of this nested and intertextual structure in the history of literature and drama can be seen everywhere.
Most meta-films deal with issues of truth and falsehood, and at the same time use the blurring of boundaries to explore the absurdity of life and the sublime of art. But "Don't Stop the Camera" in the first part is quite comical and unabashedly hinted to the audience: what you are seeing now is fake, and even the theme of "zombie" is to highly reinforce this fake feeling, even if director Higaka In order to capture the "real", a blood curse is cast to try to summon "real" zombies. The blurring of the boundary between the virtual and the real is by no means what the film is about and pursued here.
It should be said that "The Camera Don't Stop" is a winding path. The presentation in reverse order (with the help of the project order "Live Broadcast") effectively integrates the form and has to be said to be a wonderful idea. If you choose to take out the "true false" without reservation from the beginning, you can move towards the "true" step by step. Of course, the risk of doing so is not small, and it is indeed possible that the uninformed audience will leave the venue directly at the end of the first part. Fortunately, the third part is well-connected, climaxing and full of jokes, all of which depend on the careful arrangement and polishing of the screenwriter and director.
So in Don't Stop the Camera, what's real? Did the crew love the movie? Not accurate. Because most people, whether it is the heroine, heroine or the staff, are not involved, they even perfunctory and damage the filming work with various excuses or self-indulgence. The corpses are the zombies that the film implicitly satirizes.
However, it is against the backdrop of this group of vegetarians that the love of director Niguro, Nao, and Harumi for the movie is even more precious and significant. In the play, Higashi, who is insane, Nao, who is extremely involved in the play, and Harumi, who is extremely witty off the field, are all devoted to "One Cut of the Dead". In other words, the family of three is not only the biggest hero of "One Cut of the Dead", but also the real protagonist of "Don't Stop the Camera". The three of them's enthusiasm for movies is what the director wants to express with the help of "zombies".
More importantly, as a genre film, the "Resident Evil" (either too superficial or too heavy) encountered by zombie movies is subtly avoided here, and the spectacle of fear and killing is digested into "One Cut of the Dead" The spectacle of the filming process itself. The element of "zombie" is used as a metaphor for filmmaking, and the battle with zombies is the practice of guarding the passion of fans.
The birth of a "bad movie" may itself be a thrilling battle, and refusing to shout "card", "don't stop the camera" (and several tributes) is the true confession of the two directors inside and outside the movie to the movie .
Chicken feathers in one place and "Bang" flow self-defense
In "The Camera Don't Stop", the "zombie spectacle" is not only a means, but also an end-serving the expression of the passion of cinephiles. However, just as discrimination and ethics are the themes that zombie genre films have always served, "The Camera Never Stops" has also not given up its appeal in this regard.
Or it should be said that the description of chickens and dogs on the set, and then only relying on the passionate investment of the three members of the Nigata family in filming, will inevitably become a narcissistic whisper of the filmmakers, and it is also difficult to meet the emotional needs of the wider audience. As a result, Director Ueda briskly introduced the father-daughter friendship, and skillfully built it into the ultimate weapon to overcome the difficulties of shooting, realizing the highlights of the third part, and naturally further deepening the cheap drama within the drama.
However, as far as the author is concerned, the most impressive thing is Nao, the make-up artist in the play, the wife of director Higaku who is too involved in the play.
Nao used to be an actor, but it is easy to use too much force and go too deep into the play, which often leads to involuntary play. However, in "One Cut of the Dead", her slightly exaggerated behavior is actually very logical. Although "Kratos" is really funny, the spirit of this investment is getting less and less after all. It's easy to see - especially in the domestic film and television circle where fresh meat traffic cutout green screens are prevalent.
If "Don't Stop the Camera" wakes up the audience who once had the dream of being a director, they once held a camera, called three or five friends, and took pictures of the surging youth in the dark and dark, then for the audience. For the wider audience who live a life like a bad movie, through the role of Nao, its revelation lies in whether we have enough courage and courage to stand up in the face of chicken feathers in the theater/life. ? When we are caught by the living zombies, do we have enough composure and skill to get out of the siege with a shout of "bang", and throw the axe to kill the Quartet?
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The original text was published in the WeChat public account of "Iris" 20181213
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